We’ve been talking about the driver shortage for years now—but according to a recent CNN article, there is some debate in academic circles “over whether there [is] a driver shortage, or simply a retention issue.” Whatever the exact nature of the problem is, its manifestation is the same: delivery organization and stretched, and it often feels like there’s not enough drivers to meet demand.
Hiring and retaining drivers is a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to meeting demand keeping your operations running efficiently. But another key puzzle piece (the one that we’ll be focusing on here) is figuring out how to get the most out of the drivers you currently have.
Of course, driver retention and driver empowerment shouldn’t be an either-or proposition. In point of fact, the more effectively you’re able to give your drivers the right tools for the job, the more likely they’ll be to stick around and keep doing a job where they feel supported and have been set up for success. At the same time, each of the best practices that we’ll go over in this post can directly impact efficiency and customer service.
So, without any further ado, here’s seven ways to help your drivers provide better customer service at a lower cost:
1. Leverage the Right AI Tools
Okay, it’s 2026, which means that any article about logistics technology has to cover AI. There’s been plenty of prognostication about how AI will make its way impact felt among last mile delivery drivers, up to and including making them obsolete by way of autonomous delivery vehicles.
At this point, AI can’t install a washing machine or get a pallet of lumber from the back of the truck to the customer’s staging area at the job site. But AI is giving delivery drivers the tools they need to do their jobs more effectively.
How? By providing contextual intelligence for every stop on their routes. This can take the form of a voice note letting the driver know what’s being delivered, any special instructions, where to find parking, how to access the delivery site, and more. It’s like “having a local expert in the cab.”
When drivers are prepared for whatever challenges will crop up at any given stop, they’re able to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively—improving the overall delivery experience that the customer receives while decreasing the total time it takes to get the job done.
For more about this, read our CEO Satish Natarajan’s take on why “AI for Delivery Drivers Isn’t What You Think.”
2. Give Them Compliance Support
The right driver AI capabilities can help drivers get prepared before the upcoming stop—but what happens once they’re on site? Here, too, effective delivery organizations ensure that drivers have the tools they need to get the job done right.
This can and should take the form of compliance forms and workflows that are built out at the level of individual SKUs. If the driver or service technician has to perform an installation, the mobile app can prompt them to document the most important installation steps to prove that it was done correctly. If there are unexpected access issues that will result in extra delivery charges, drivers can document that as well.
All of this puts drivers in a position to meet the customer’s expectations—and document their success—across the board. The key is to seamlessly work compliance into existing workflows so it’s easy for your teams to navigate once they’re on-site.
3. Make Photographic Proof of Delivery Mandatory
A picture’s worth a thousand words—and it could also be worth a thousand dollars in some cases. Proof of delivery is so much more powerful when it comes with a photo attached, and in many cases having photographic proof of delivery can help you and your drivers get paid more quickly and consistently.
This should be second nature for drivers using whatever mobile they’re equipped with. Really sophisticated apps can even detect when a picture is too blurry to be usable and prompt the driver to take another.
4. Plan Better Delivery Routes
Last mile delivery drivers often get blamed when orders don’t show up on time, but in our experience chronically late deliveries are a symptom of inefficient route optimization. More specifically, when your routing doesn’t provide realistic ETAs for the stops on your routes, your drivers are doomed to failure.
Luckily, this is a problem you can solve by upgrading your route optimization capabilities. Here, AI can be a powerful tool—the right solution can turn operational data from previous deliveries into much more accurate ETAs. This involves accounting for differences in service time between different delivery types, differences in driver and vehicle speed, historical traffic and weather patterns, and more. It’s more than a human planner could realistically grapple with for complex routes, but when you let a software solution optimize the process you can ensure realistic ETAs that keep your drivers running on time.
5. Connect Drivers, Customers, and Dispatchers from End to End
Having a realistic route plan is critical, but anyone who has anything to do with last mile logistics knows that the best laid plans often go awry. That’s why your team needs to be fully connected across the board when the literal rubber meets the road.
Here’s what the should look like:
- Dispatchers can instantly push notifications and updates to drivers if there are changes to a route (without interrupting the driver’s workflow).
- Drivers can instant message with dispatchers and customer support if an issue crops up during the delivery process—all via the mobile app.
- With the push of a button, drivers can trigger notifications to customers when a particular customer’s stop is next.
- Customers can communicate directly with customer support via text if they have any questions (this is something that can also increasingly be handled by AI agents embedded in your customer engagement workflows).
- Message and chat histories are all centralized so that a complete record of each customer interaction is available when needed.
All of this puts you in a position to be agile and effective when it comes to helping your drivers navigate challenges. Not only does this help maintain efficiency, it also helps drivers feel supported—which boosts retention in the long run.
6. Manage By Exception Across Your Logistics Operations
When you’ve really achieved the level of connectivity we’re talking about—and you’ve given your drivers ETAs that they can actually meet—you can truly begin to manage by exception. Instead of flying blind and reactively putting out fires as they crop up, you can take a proactive approach to spotting and managing any potential disruptions.
This goes a long way towards further enhancing your drivers’ effectiveness. Instead of coming back to the distribution center at the end of the day and giving a rundown of what went wrong, they can go through their entire route knowing the rest of the team is working behind the scenes to smooth out the entire delivery run.
7. Streamline Loading and Scanning as Much as Possible
Okay, this last best practice for empowering your delivery driver isn’t the most inspiring of all of them—but it is crucial. Whatever mobile app you leverage to help your drivers, make sure it’s able to streamlining loading and scanning to save your drivers time and effort across the board.
This isn’t just a time saver. It can also represent a real competitive edge in some use cases. For instance, you might get priority status if you’re able to load in and out more quickly at a large hardware store or similar. It puts you in a position to stay competitive even on the little things.
Conclusion: The Power of Last Mile Delivery Drivers
It’s too easy to blame drivers when something goes—especially given how crucial they are to keeping customers happy. When you equip drivers with the right tools, technology, and support from end to end, you can put them in a position to consistently delight your customers. And you can save a huge amount of money doing it.
Just remember that driver management and driver mobile apps don’t happen in a vacuum. The most effective driver mobile apps are the ones that are connected to larger last mile logistics platforms that can grapple with the complexities of the entire logistics journey.