If you’ve ever felt like your customer orders vanish into thin air or into a mysterious delivery void once they leave your hands, you’re not alone. For every e-commerce business, the last-mile delivery is often the most unpredictable, opaque, inefficient, and, very frankly, stress-inducing part of the shipping journey.
If you wonder – I just wish there was a way I could know my package was safely on its way to the customer, our answer would be funny you should say that. Why? Because last-mile carrier tracking is just that – a GPS-wielding superhero.
This handy ability lets you truly optimize your delivery experience for your customer. After all, it’s not just about knowing where your package is, but about ensuring a smooth, delay-free, and transparent experience for your customers that also translates to fewer support tickets.
In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about last-mile carrier tracking, from what it is exactly, and why it’s important, to the technological solutions behind the curtain and the sneaky challenges you need to know to navigate carrier tracking effectively. If you’re ready to clear the fog, start scrolling!
What is Last Mile Carrier Tracking?
Last-mile carrier tracking is nothing but gaining complete visibility into your last mile. It is the ability to track and trace the shipping carrier’s location and parcel status from the transportation hub to the designated destination.
93% of customers expect complete visibility while tracking their orders and viewing real-time shipping information, and 47% of consumers will not shop again with a brand that does not provide order tracking visibility. Therefore, the importance of carrier tracking in the last mile is evident.
That’s not all! Last-mile carrier tracking also provides a multitude of benefits for your business and end-users, which brings us to our next section.
Importance of Last Mile Carrier Tracking
Here’s a look at why last-mile carrier tracking is a necessity and not a luxury for modern e-commerce businesses:
Minimizes Delivery Hiccups
By delivery hiccups, we mean issues such as missed deliveries, delivery errors, and the like. You see, by allowing customers to learn where their package is within the delivery journey and informing them when their package will likely reach their porch, last-mile carrier tracking mitigates the risk of missed deliveries due to customer unavailability.
Inform your customers when the package is reaching them, and they’ll plan their schedule accordingly, to ensure they don’t miss delivery and risk porch pirates getting their hands on their order.
Fosters Transparency
Last-mile carrier tracking facilitates real-time order status updates, informing customers about the location, estimated time of arrival (ETA) of their package, delivery issues (if they arise), and the like as soon as they take place.
This kind of instant communication fosters transparency and lays the foundation for a long and positive brand association. After all, customers want to stay in the know, and when you meet this need, you effectively communicate how much you value their business and respect their needs.
Facilitates Regular Accurate Communication with Customers
Apart from enabling your customers to track their orders, you can as well send post-purchase transactional Emails and SMS notifications to keep your customers in the loop of their orders throughout the delivery lifecycle.
This can help in reducing your customers’ anticipation during the most anxious stage of their journey.
Reduces WISMO Enquiries and Support Costs
The average e-commerce business has a WISMO rate, or Where Is My Order enquiries rate, of 10-25%, and mind you, that’s during the non-peak months. During the festive and holiday season, when purchases pick up, this rate skyrockets.
Read more about: What is WISMO and How to Reduce It?
The surprise of this statistic gets put into perspective when we tell you that Forbes reports that your customer likely checks their shipment status 4.6 times. Your customer is eager to know where their package is in the shipping journey.
With last-mile carrier tracking, you effectively meet this need. And when your customer knows the whereabouts of their order, they’re not going to be ringing your customer helplines to get a status update, reducing your WISMO enquiry tickets and support costs effectively.
Drives Customer Satisfaction and Experience
Customers are always anxious about their order. Questions like – Will the package reach here in time? Will the package get delivered while I’m at home? Or, should I cancel my plans to ensure porch pirates don’t get to my package before I do? Plague them as soon as they hit ‘Confirm Order’.
So, when you give them insight into where their eagerly awaited order is, how long it will take to reach them, and the estimated time of delivery, you’re putting these questions to rest and offering them peace of mind. And when your customer doesn’t have to worry and second-guess your commitment to a positive delivery experience, they’re going to keep shopping with you.
Enhances Supply Chain Visibility
What is last-mile carrier tracking if not a step-by-step update on where your package is during the shipping journey and how long it’s taking to reach your customer? This kind of insight allows you invaluable visibility and control over your supply chain.
After all, you’re kept in the know from the second your package leaves the warehouse to the time it reaches the customer safe and sound. Such in-depth and accurate insight helps you identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas of improvement that can go a long way in enhancing your supply chain’s performance.
Helps Resolve Delivery Issues Proactively
Another significant benefit that last-mile tracking brings to the table is affording you the opportunity to address potential delivery issues as they come, and not when they’ve wreaked havoc on your customer experience.
You see, by tracking your package across the shipping journey, you’re better positioned to resolve delivery issues proactively. If the update says – Lost in Transit, you can inform the customer, apologize for the delay, and ship a replacement immediately while you connect with your carrier to understand what went wrong and file a claim for refund within the carrier’s refund window.
Similarly, if your package’s location has not been updated for a while, you can pick this up with your carrier and find out what the holdup is before your customer’s temper runs high.
Drives Efficiency
Last-mile tracking also facilitates driver route monitoring and helps update routes to optimize delivery time, minimizing delivery cost as much as possible. Further, by tracking delivery vehicles in real time, last-mile carrier tracking also aids improved resource utilization, whether it’s assigning delivery agents to routes or calculating how many delivery vehicles are required for seamless operation.
What is the Last Mile Tracking Number
Also known as the delivery confirmation number or the final mile tracking number, a last-mile tracking number is a unique identifier that is assigned to every package or shipment to facilitate its seamless tracking as it moves through the shipping journey from the transportation hubs to the customer’s doorstep.
As discussed previously, ‘last-mile’ in shipping refers to the final journey of the package from the warehouse or distribution center to the customer’s address. The last-mile tracking number allocated to a package is a way to help track the package through this critical part of its journey, with the aim of ensuring it reaches the customer on time and in pristine condition.
Usually, this unique identifier is allocated to a package by the carrier or shipping company and subsequently shared with the e-commerce business and customer to help facilitate tracking. To track the package, e-commerce businesses and customers have to simply visit the carrier’s shipment tracking website page and enter the tracking number.
On the back end, the entering of the tracking number triggers a query, which culminates in the status of the package being displayed on the website—all within a matter of seconds. Common status updates include – ‘In Transit’, ‘Out for Delivery’, and ‘Delivered’.
This swift tracking process helps e-commerce businesses and customers stay updated with the estimated delivery date, driving the chances of smoother delivery (no more customer unavailability).
Benefits of Last Mile Tracking Number
Now that you know what a last-mile tracking number is, let’s take a look at its benefits:
Drives Customer Experience
Your last-mile tracking number gives you and your customers the power of sight (well, visibility), which means no more guessing games, WISMO tickets, and infuriated customers wondering whether they got scammed.
With real-time updates, accurate ETAs, and instant visibility, customers feel informed, empowered, and confident about shopping with your brand. It may look like a small detail, but it goes a long way toward turning delivery transparency into a competitive advantage.
After all, timely and accurate communication during the final leg of the customer’s journey directly impacts satisfaction, minimizes support tickets, and fosters trust that results in repeat purchases and smashed revenue goals.
Enhances Delivery Efficiency
Last-mile tracking numbers are unique identifiers for your package. They’re not cosmetic but instead powerful tools that drive operational efficiency. You see, these allow you to track every package’s movement through the shipping journey in real time, giving your team the ability to proactively address route issues, detect delays, and optimize last-mile logistics.
The simple and straightforward identity card (so to speak) facilitates quicker decision making and efficient delivery, allowing you to meet your customers’ expectations with minimal hiccups.
Facilitates Supply Chain Visibility
Finally, the last-mile tracking number also acts as a crucial link in the supply chain, facilitating detailed insight into the most unpredictable and complex leg of your delivery journey.
It enables real-time tracking and helps in quicker issue resolution thanks to being a unique identity that only one single package holds. This level of transparency aids your team in recognizing delays, submitting service failure refunds in time, and refining delivery strategies, ensuring there remains no blind spot in your delivery experience.
How to Track Last Mile Carrier Tracking
While the way you can track your package using its last-mile carrier tracking number can vary from carrier to carrier, here are the typical steps involved:
Step 1: Source the tracking number
Your shipping carrier will assign your package a tracking number. You can find this on your package’s receipts. Alternatively, request your carrier to share it.
Now that you have your package tracking number, make your way to your carrier’s tracking page. For instance, if your carrier is FedEx, navigate to FedEx’s package tracking page.
Step 3: Enter your tracking number
On your carrier’s tracking page, you will be prompted to enter the package’s tracking number. Once you’ve typed it in, hit enter. The status of your package will be shared on your screen.
In case you have questions regarding your package’s status updates or detect a delay in its movement schedule, be sure to contact your carrier directly.
Challenges in Last Mile Carrier Tracking
We’ve discussed what last-mile carrier tracking is and what it brings to the table. But for you to have a comprehensive understanding of this, it’s also important to learn and understand its shortcomings. In that spirit, here are some common challenges you might face with last-mile carrier tracking and how to address and overcome them swiftly:
1. Unpredictable External Factors that Hamper Delivery
We all wish the critical leg of the shipping journey – the last mile would operate in a bubble. But alas, that’s not the case. The last-mile journey is vulnerable to a number of external factors that are simply beyond your control. These range from weather disruptions and roadblocks to accidents and vehicle breakdowns.
Such external factors can cause delivery delays and impact customer experience. So, what to do?
Well, to mitigate the effect of these unpredictable external factors, e-commerce businesses should integrate route optimization tools that can not only factor in unpredictable factors while planning delivery routes, but can also re-route delivery vehicles in real time based on sudden disruptions.
In addition to this, facilitate proactive communication with customers to inform them of delays and manage expectations. Lastly, you can also consider engaging multiple last-mile carriers to gain flexibility and the option to switch carriers in case required—all while ensuring your customer experience doesn’t get disturbed.
2. Communication and Coordination Between Dispatchers, Drivers, and Customers
Misunderstandings and miscommunication between package dispatchers, last-mile delivery agents, and customers can trip up even the most well-executed tracking systems, leading to confusion, missed deliveries, delays, and well—unhappy customers.
Issues such as ambiguous delivery instructions, a missing house number in the customer’s address, or MIA gate codes can open doors to costly re-deliveries and failed attempts. Further, poor coordination also drives the risk of the package being left at the mercy of the weather or, worse, porch pirates.
To overcome this challenge, consider bridging communication gaps with two-way, real-time messaging platforms that connect all stakeholders at this point in the delivery journey (dispatchers, drivers, agents, and customers). The more in sync they are, the smoother the last-mile delivery experience will be.
3. Significant Operational Costs
Balancing great delivery experiences with cost-efficiency is no easy feat, especially in the last mile, where expenses tend to pile up fast. From investing in the right tracking technology to managing fuel, driver wages, and vehicle upkeep, the costs can quickly become substantial.
Add in expedited shipping or low-density delivery routes, and the margins shrink even further. Rural deliveries, for instance, often cost far more than urban ones due to increased travel time and fewer stops per route.
Implementing a robust last-mile tracking solution can feel like a heavy investment, especially when platforms come with steep setup fees or complex integrations. However, the key lies in choosing the right-fit technology that scales with your operations.
By opting for flexible, data-driven tools that optimize delivery routes and improve carrier accountability, e-commerce businesses can reduce inefficiencies, contain costs, and still deliver the seamless experience today’s customers expect.
4. Siloed Data Across Business Systems
Siloed data is a major roadblock in effective last-mile tracking. When order management, shipping, customer service, and tracking tools aren’t on the same page, vital delivery information gets lost in the back and forth.
This lack of integration leads to delays in identifying issues, inefficient communication with customers, and missed opportunities to optimize performance. For e-commerce businesses, breaking down these silos and connecting systems is essential to gaining real-time visibility, streamlining operations, and delivering a truly seamless post-purchase experience. The answer? Make sure all your business systems talk to each other fluently so that all your teams act on the same accurate and updated information.
Technologies Used in Last Mile Carrier Tracking
‘What makes last-mile carrier tracking possible?’ If that’s a question on your mind, you’re our kinda people. Because at LateShipment.com, we like to get into the details of what makes something work and how to polish it to make it its best version.
Here’s a look at the technologies behind last-mile carrier tracking:
Smart Lockers
As much as $12 billion worth of packages were stolen by porch pirates in 2023. Porch pirates are a very real threat to the e-commerce industry, especially when customers aren’t available for delivery, requiring the delivery agent to place the package on the porch, leaving it susceptible to package thieves and unforgiving weather.
This is where smart lockers shine. Placed at convenient locations and requiring a code or mobile application to open, these lockers offer customers a safe and reliable way to receive delivery without having to shake up their schedule.
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is akin to a digital ledger that records and tracks packages across the shipping journey. It effectively facilitates the monitoring of shipments, setting the stage for enhanced communication between e-commerce businesses, carriers, and customers and reducing tedious and error-prone paperwork.
Not only that, but by offering complete transparency into the package’s movement through the shipping journey, it also prevents fraud and minimizes the risk of security breaches.
GPS Tracking
You’re no stranger to GPS tracking. With applications such as Google Maps and Apple Maps, GPS tracking has become a household term. And its benefits are being reaped in the e-commerce industry as well.
GPS technology facilitates real-time package tracking across the shipping journey and helps carriers monitor their last-mile fleet, calculate accurate delivery dates, and optimize routes.
Short for Radio Frequency Identification, RFID technology leverages tags on packages that are scanned to record their movement through the shipping journey. Typically speaking, when a package reaches a transportation hub, storage facility, or gets loaded onto a delivery truck, it is quickly scanned to offer status updates to e-commerce businesses and customers.
Barcode
Similar to RFIDs, barcodes are a series of thick and thin lines that are unique and allow seamless tracking of packages as it makes its way to your customer’s doorstep. These offer real-time updates on the status and location of your package, facilitating accurate delivery estimates to you and your customers.
Internet of Things (IoT)
This technology is leveraged to track packages with the help of sensors and connected devices. IoT appliances give you insight into the temperature, location, and other details of your package in real time. This way, you know where your package is in the shipping journey and its condition too.
Electronic Logging Devices
Also known as ELDs, these devices monitor the hours of service for commercial drivers. With these devices, carriers can ensure drivers comply with federal regulations and gain real-time insight into the driver’s activity and location.
Cloud-based Solutions
Cloud-based solutions such as LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management software give e-commerce businesses a centralized platform to gain complete visibility into their delivery processes. It facilitates smart incident alerts to inform your team if packages stray from their schedule, facilitates an on-brand tracking page for customers to look up their package’s status conveniently (without disrupting their brand experience), and supports your overall processes with detailed reports and analytics.
Take your first step to supercharging your delivery experience with LateShipment.com by booking a demo.
Conclusion
Nailing last-mile carrier tracking is more than a logistics upgrade—it’s a complete game changer for customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, operational efficiency, and inventory management. Further, as e-commerce continues to gain popularity, the final leg of your delivery process will be a defining moment in your customer journey and holds the power to help you stand out from the competition.
And with the right tool in your tech stack, you can move from a reactive firefighting approach to a proactive problem-solving one, making what used to be delivery uncertainty into a competitive advantage.
That said, tracking numbers and tech alone won’t fix everything. What you need is a smarter, unified approach to delivery management and that’s where LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management software comes in.
Think of it as your backstage pass to every shipment’s journey, offering real-time tracking across all carriers (FedEx, DHL, Australia Post, USPS, and more), automatic smart incident detection, and customer notifications that actually keep your shoppers informed. You’ll even get powerful analytics to help you identify bottlenecks, improve operational efficiency, and help you during carrier contract negotiations.
So, while the last mile might still be the wild west of logistics, with LateShipment.com on your side, you’ll be riding into the sunset with fewer complaints, happier customers, and a whole lot more control. Yeehaw. Or, you know, just… smart logistics. Book a demo today!
