In a recent webinar, one of DispatchTrack’s customers (Bryce Shively of IDI Distributors) described how a “personal vendetta against paperwork” drove him to digitize his proof of delivery. It’s easy to see why—paper proof of delivery slips are unreliable: they take up space, they jam up the printer, and they’re prone to getting lost. He estimated that he saved thousands of slips of paper every month by updating to electronic proof of delivery.
His story isn’t unique. Across the world of last mile logistics, proof of delivery has been an area where businesses that digitize stand to simplify their lives and reduce costs almost immediately in a host of different ways.
In this post, we’ll go into some of the top reasons to ditch paper proof of delivery slips, as well as the best practices for capturing proof of delivery in order to maximize its value within the context of your larger logistics operations.
5 Reasons to Ditch Paper Proof of Delivery Slips
Paper proof of delivery slips were the norm in logistics for many years—and with good reason. Simply put, there were no better options available. Supply chains were mostly administered with paper, spreadsheets, and whiteboards, and capturing a signature when you delivered an order was at least some level of documentation.
To be sure, there are plenty of supply chains in 2025 that are run in the same way. But with all the advances in digital technology, even in just the past few years, you’re essentially leaving money on the table by running things with manual processes—or even with legacy solutions that can’t offer you the capabilities you need to stick to best practices.
Let’s drill down into some of the specific reasons why it’s time to ditch the paper proof of delivery slips:
- Digital proof of delivery ensures real, strategic visibility: Instead of hunting through filing cabinets to find a clear record of what was delivered when, you have that information at your fingertips as soon as it’s uploaded by drivers. That means you can access it easily and answer any questions about a given delivery in a matter of seconds.
- Digital proof of delivery doesn’t go missing: Paper proof of delivery slips are prone to disappear—which can result in disputes about payments or damages dragging on without resolution. That’s simply not an issue when you digitize. Proof of delivery is automatically uploaded to your centralized system and associated with the correct order and stored for as long as you need it.
- Digital proof of delivery is more precise and accurate: The phrase isn’t “a signature’s worth a thousand words.” With modern proof of delivery software, you can capture photos (and even short videos) along with time stamps and geostamps. The result is that any ambiguity about what was delivered, where and when it was delivered, and what condition it was delivered in is immediately cleared up.
- Digital proof of delivery is faster: Your drivers and technicians want to get in and out of job sites as quickly as possible so they can keep their schedules on track. The ability to snap a quick picture and grab a quick signature from the customer on the device they already have (using the driver mobile app that comes with your last mile software) means they can get in and out quickly without having to worry about keeping track of a piece of paper.
- Digital proof of delivery is more cost effective: The cumulative effect of reduced manual paperwork, improved delivery documentation, and more robust and intuitive proof of delivery capture is, quite simply, lower costs at every stage of the process. You print out and store fewer slips of paper, your drivers spend less time managing paperwork, and your team spends less time and effort hunting down the data they need. It’s a win-win-win.
4 Best Practices for Capturing Smarter Proof of Delivery
Okay, but how do you actually get all of the benefits that we’ve listed above? After all, not every proof of delivery software solution is created equal—and the last thing you want is to digitize your process (or upgrade away from your legacy solution) only to realize that you’re not set up to get the most out of your delivery documentation.
Here are a few key best practices to implement to make sure you’re getting the most out of your proof of delivery:
- Make pictures mandatory: It should be the work of an instant in whatever software you’re using to specify that drivers have to capture pictures before they can mark a job as finished. This way, you can increase compliance and ensure consistent documentation for all deliveries.
- Store proof of delivery locally in areas with poor service: The closest thing to a vanished paper proof of delivery slip that exists in the digital world is your data vanishing because it was captured in an area with no cell service. Make sure you have a driver mobile app that can store that data locally until it’s able to send it back to the office-based team.
- Automatically incorporate proof of delivery into email receipts: You’ve got proof that the order was delivered as promised (and that there was no damage to the delivery site or the items in the order). If you take one extra step and share it with the customer, you can speed up the process of getting paid for the delivery and make their record-keeping that much easier.
- Leverage customized compliance workflows for more complex jobs: If your team is doing an installation at a busy construction site or as part of a customer’s home renovation, they might have more to document than a simple over-the-threshold delivery. By prompting them to work through a set of steps and confirm that each one was done correctly (potentially with the pictures to prove it), you can help ensure compliance even for installations and other more complicated job types.
- Timestamp and geo-stamp your proof of delivery: Simply put, this enables you to create a “breadcrumb trail” of when and where each and every delivery on a run was completed. This goes a long way towards ensuring that your delivery documentation is comprehensive and accurate.
How Proof of Delivery Impacts Logistics
One thing we haven’t gotten into in this paean to proof of delivery is the power of pictures of the delivery to help stave off false liability claims.
Anyone who’s dealt with delivery customers knows that claims that your team either damaged the delivery site, didn’t clean up properly after an installation, or didn’t deliver the entire order aren’t uncommon. Usually (or at least a large percentage of the time), these complaints are spurious—but without the right documentation it can be hard to prove. When this happens, it’s your word against the customer’s and there’s not much that you can do.
With robust proof of delivery, that equation flips on its head. Disputes get resolved more quickly and amicably, and you and your drivers get paid faster. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: the better your proof of delivery, the more complete your audit trail is over the course of the entire last mile logistics journey,
In this way, digital proof of delivery is one of the key building blocks of smarter logistics management. The key to perfecting it? Find a delivery management solution that supports your key best practices.