Logistics
The last mile is done by another company
Whoever rings the doorbell does not work for you, and the customer thinks they do. Their way of recording things becomes yours.
The order is yours, the brand is yours and the complaint will come to you. **Whoever rings the doorbell is not.** Between your decision to ship and the customer's door there are one or more other companies, each with their own way of working, their own app and their own view of what deserves a photo. And when the customer says it never arrived, all you can show is whatever that courier chose to record.
Who sees what in a subcontracted delivery
| Who | What they see | What they can prove |
|---|---|---|
| The customer | Your brand | That they paid |
| You | A status in a system | Whatever is passed to you |
| The partner | The whole delivery | **Whatever they chose to record** |
| **The courier** | **The door** | **Whatever they were asked to record** |
Important
**What can be proved about a delivery is decided in the contract with the partner, not in the complaint.** It is the only real lever in this position. If at contracting nobody defined what counts as acceptable proof —what is captured, when, and how it reaches you— then at complaint time you will be asking a favour, and that favour will arrive late, incomplete, or not at all.
What to settle before the first round
- 1
What is captured on each delivery
And what happens when nobody is in: that is the case that generates complaints.
- 2
How that reaches your system
If it lives only in the partner's app, it is not yours.
- 3
How long it is retained
Complaints do not arrive the same day.
- 4
And what happens if the partner subcontracts
It usually does. Decide in advance whether it is allowed and on what terms.
Watch out
What sinks this position is not the lost delivery: **it is the delivery that did happen and cannot be shown**. The customer complains in good faith, the courier remembers leaving it, and there is nothing to show but a «delivered» status in a system the customer does not regard as proof of anything. You end up refunding and looking bad at once, the worst of both worlds, and it happens for want of two fields defined when the agreement was signed.
Worth knowing
What constitutes valid proof of delivery, what liability you retain over a partner's actions and what may be required of them **depends on the contract and the applicable rules, and is settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the operational part: how to ensure the evidence reaches your archive rather than staying in someone else's.
›Can I require photos on every delivery?
You can agree it at contracting. Afterwards it is a request, not a condition.
›Is the «delivered» status in their system enough?
To operate, yes; against a complaining customer, almost never.
›What if the partner changes app?
Which is why the evidence must end up in your archive, not only theirs.
A real case
The situation
A customer complains about a delivery and there is nothing to show.
What you do
- Keeps the evidence of each delivery in your own archive
What you get
You answer with proof rather than a status.
The situation
The evidence lives only in the partner's app.
What you do
- Collects and stores what third parties provide
What you get
Proof stops depending on someone else's system.
The situation
The partner subcontracts and an unknown courier turns up.
What you do
- Records which companies are authorised on each route
What you get
The delivery chain is known.
The situation
The complaint arrives months after the delivery.
What you do
- Keeps evidence beyond the closing of the order
What you get
The answer does not depend on a third party's retention.
The situation
Each partner sends evidence in a different format.
What you do
- Requests specific documents to a single destination
What you get
What is received is comparable across partners.
The situation
Nobody knows which partner is current on their documentation.
What you do
- Shows each partner's status
What you get
You contract knowingly rather than reviewing afterwards.
This article answers
- proof of delivery from a subcontracted courier
- customer says the parcel never arrived
- controlling what my last mile does
- claims about deliveries made by someone else