What is Last Mile?
The last mile is a shipping term used to denote the distance from a warehouse to a product’s destination address. While the last mile underlines distance, last-mile delivery highlights the final phase of a shipping cycle. This delivery phase is considered the costliest phase in a shipping cycle, as individual courier transport is required.
Significance of Last Mile in E-Commerce Shipping and Delivery
Last-mile allows a company to accurately calculate the price of the costliest phase of a shipping cycle while ensuring better last-mile logistics management.
- Pricing: The final mile allows a shipping company to quote the shipping price. Certain factors like distance from the warehouse to the given address and fuel price play a considerable role. As last-mile delivery is the costliest phase, accuracy in pricing becomes extremely important.
- Enhanced last-mile logistics management resulting in cost reduction: A company can deduce the delivery zones from the final mile. It opens up a space for cost reduction, as couriers designated in a particular zone usually deliver multiple products at once.
How Last Mile Works
Last-mile delivery is commonly completed using a two-step process, which includes processing and delivery.
- Processing: After receiving a product, the delivery pin codes are used to deduce the shipping zones and are stocked strategically per the delivery date.
- Disbursal and delivery: On the day of delivery, the product is handed over to a courier who is supposed to deliver several products in the identified delivery zone. It is followed by the final delivery, where the customer receives the product.
Use Case with Last Mile
For example, a warehouse located in Phuket received a pair of jeans on 21st December. The final delivery date was on 23rd December. Based on the dates, the product was stocked and later dispatched on the 23rd of the same month with a courier who was supposed to deliver products in the vicinity of the destination address.