Before You Sign: 6 Checks for Your Logistics Partner

A rate card answers one question: what you pay per shipment, on assumptions that hold for maybe six months. It tells you nothing about whether the parcel arrives first time, what happens on the day it does not, or when the COD money reaches your account. Choosing well once is worth far more than switching often, because almost everything valuable in a logistics relationship compounds. Configuration, data history and a team that knows your categories all take months to build and reset to zero on a switch.

Coverage, and What Depth Actually Means

A serviceable pin code count is a headline number. The useful version is specific to you. Export your delivery pin codes from the last twelve months, take the top 200 by order volume, and send that list across. Ask for four columns back: serviceable, standard transit time, COD serviceable, reverse pickup serviceable.

That single sheet answers more than any coverage claim. Reverse pickup serviceability in particular is worth checking separately, because a pin code you can deliver to but cannot collect from changes how you write your returns policy for that region.

Then ask how deeper-reach pin codes are served, and whether transit times to them are published or estimated.

Ask for Evidence, Not Promises

Request the following, for lanes and categories resembling yours, over a 90-day window:

●        First-attempt delivery rate, split prepaid and COD

●        Actual transit time against promised transit time, by zone

●        The share of failed attempts that are resolved and delivered rather than returned

●        Return-to-origin percentage for a category like yours

Ask them to define each metric before they send the number. A partner that measures itself carefully can answer within a day and will tell you what the numbers exclude. That answer is itself part of the evaluation.

What To Ask Your Logistics Partner, Before You Commit:

The Exception Process, in Detail

Most of the cost difference between partners shows up on the orders that do not go smoothly the first time. Ask:

●        Which reason codes are used on a failed attempt, and how many reattempts are made over how many days

●        How the customer is contacted, in which languages, and at what intervals

●        What evidence you receive: call recordings, location proof at the door, written confirmations

●        How a reattempt instruction from you reaches the field, and by when it must be given

●        Reverse pickup booking process, collection turnaround, and whether a doorstep quality check is available

Money: remittance, claims and disputes

Cash timing is a real part of the decision. Ask what the COD remittance cycle is, what conditions must hold for it to run on schedule, and what causes a cycle to be skipped. Ask to see the remittance report format, because you will be reconciling it against your bank statement every week for years.

On claims: what cover exists for loss and damage, what the per-shipment cap is, how it is priced, whether returning shipments are covered, how a claim is raised and what the resolution timeline is. Ask the same for weight and dimension disputes, which are billing questions rather than damage ones. Specifically, ask what the filing window is, what evidence you must supply, and what the escalation route looks like when a claim is rejected automatically.

Systems and the People Behind Them

Two things to test. First, the software: are the API docs public and readable, is there a sandbox, are order status updates pushed to you or must you poll, are your sales channels supported natively, can multiple users have separate logins with different rights, and is the tracking page brandable.

Second, the humans: do you get a named person, what is the escalation path above them, what response time is committed for a stuck consignment, and where do tickets live. Get the escalation matrix in writing during evaluation, not after your first bad week.

Run a Pilot That Actually Tells You Something

1. Set a volume floor, not a time box. Around 1,000 shipments gives you enough to read; four weeks at 20 orders a day does not.

2. Send representative orders. Include COD, deep-reach pin codes, your heaviest SKU and your lightest, and your usual returns rate. A pilot fed only easy orders teaches you nothing.

3. Hold everything else constant: same SKUs, same packaging specification, same manifesting discipline, same cut-off time.

4. Measure five things only: first-attempt rate, actual against promised transit, exception resolution rate, remittance timing, and ticket response time.

5. Deliberately raise one claim and one weight dispute during the pilot. Watching the process run is worth more than any answer you get in a meeting.

6. Close the pilot with the person who will own your account, and agree the service levels and review cadence before volume moves.

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