The Menace of Fake Delivery Attempts And How To Tackle Them

While late deliveries are never welcome, ‘fake delivery attempts’ are a bigger menace currently plaguing the eCommerce sector. A fake delivery attempt is when a customer is waiting at their delivery location to receive the package, but instead of getting their order, they get the message “Order unable to deliver. Customer was not available”.

Nearly 12-15% of unsuccessful deliveries happen to be fraudulent delivery attempts which leads to increased RTOs (Return to Origin) and decreased brand trust. Fake attempts are a headache for any business, causing brand dissonance among unhappy customers.

Have your customers ever complained about the same? In most such cases, the dissatisfied customer leaves negative feedback about your brand rather than the logistics provider in charge of your deliveries.

What Causes Fake Delivery Attempts?

Unplanned Route Assignment In Last Mile

If a logistics provider fails to do proper route planning and order assignment, a last mile delivery partner might get overburdened with a lot of orders. But at the end of the day, he is able to deliver only a few orders. To avoid any kind of penalisation, the delivery boy ends up falsely marking the rest as Unable To Deliver or UTD.

Wrong Delivery Address or Pin code

Every delivery executive gets incentivized for the number of deliveries they do on a daily basis. He follows a specific route to deliver the maximum number of packages. In case some of the orders fall out of the planned route due to a wrong address or pin code, oftentimes the delivery person fakes a delivery attempt.

A fake attempt also happens sometimes if the recipient fails to respond to the delivery executive’s call due to any engagement.

Space Optimization

Any logistics hub wants to ship out maximum number of parcels in a business day to optimize the space available for incoming orders. At times, orders are falsely marked as UTD to return them to origin and make space for new incoming parcels.

How To Reduce Fake Delivery Attempts

An eCommerce seller can be aware of a fake delivery attempt with their order if and only if the customer chooses to raise a complaint. For both the seller and logistics company, it is difficult to verify whether a delivery person actually attempted the delivery before marking it UTD.

Higher the number of packages, higher are the chances of fake delivery attempts. This menace is incurring losses to many logistics companies but most of them don’t know how to tackle it.

For day to day escalation, most of the companies refer only to Non Delivery Reports (NDR). Some try to use Automated IVR calls to get feedback directly from end customers. However, Blowhorn has devised an innovative way to combat the problem through technology and operational improvements. The method has successfully brought down fake delivery attempts by over 25%.

Once an order is marked UTD, we find out whether it is genuine or not by checking the delivery person’s location with geo-fencing.
We also connect with the customers requesting their feedback or response on the undelivered order. Our internal tech stack assesses whether they were contacted by the delivery agent or not.
Using AI-powered route optimization algorithms also helped in tackling fake delivery attempts. It ensured that the delivery agent can deliver all the allocated orders within the stipulated time, eliminating the need for marking fake attempts in first place.
For every fake delivery attempt, strict action is taken immediately against the delivery person. At the same time, the customer is given the option to reschedule the delivery or return the order.

Conclusion

The actions taken by Blowhorn to prevent fake attempts proved to be immensely beneficial for brands with high daily order volumes. Similar measures must be enacted by logistics companies to ensure their client businesses are not impacted due to this recurring menace.