The last mile is the part of delivery your customers see. A late or damaged parcel costs your brand, not the carrier. Before you sign, here are the questions that make the difference, and what a good answer should contain.
1. What capacity do you have, and how fast can you add more?
Ask for the number of vehicles, the number of rounds per day and how long it takes to add some. Ask how the last year-end peak went, too. A carrier that copes with Black Friday will tell you with figures.
2. What are your figures over several months?
A success rate over a single day means nothing. Ask for an average over three to six months: successful deliveries, first-attempt success, punctuality, lost or damaged parcels.
3. How do you check your drivers?
The quality of a round depends on the driver. A good answer describes concrete monitoring: driving, compliance with delivery procedures, and what happens when a driver does not follow them.
4. What happens when there is an incident?
Accident, breakdown, damaged parcel: ask who completes the delivery and how the claim is handled. Ask for the name of the insurer or broker.
5. Can you work with our tools?
Large shippers have their own apps and scanners. A serious carrier adapts to them, and reports back on every round.
6. Which areas do you really cover?
“All of Belgium” is not enough. Ask which bases the rounds leave from, which postcodes are covered every day, and what happens for a new area.
7. How do you handle city centres?
Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp have low-emission zones, and some centres are reserved for pedestrians. Ask which vehicles deliver those zones: compliant vans, cargo bikes, adapted hours.
8. Who will my contact be?
When a round goes off track at 11 a.m., you want someone on the phone. Ask who answers, at what times, and how many layers sit between you and the person who decides.
Our answers at Limo Trends
- Capacity: 125 vans and 20 cargo bikes, more than 5,000 parcels delivered a day.
- Figures: 99.8% of deliveries succeed on the first attempt.
- Drivers: driving monitored every day, procedures checked and one file per driver. See the details.
- Incidents: another driver completes the delivery and our broker handles the claim.
- Areas: four bases, Gembloux, Brussels, Ghent and Charleroi, and new areas opened on request. See our areas.
- City centres: central Brussels and the European Quarter by cargo bike.
- Contact: the same team from quote to round, with no layers of hierarchy.
