> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # On-Time Delivery Rate, Interlink Express > On-Time Delivery Rate for Interlink Express stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Shipping & Courier](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Share of Interlink Express consignments delivered on or before the contracted service-day promise. Interlink Express is the DPD-group premium-tier UK courier, sister-brand to DPD UK, with the same predicted-delivery-window infrastructure and a slightly more B2B-leaning service portfolio (Pre10:30, Pre12, Next-Day, 2-Day, Saturday). The card scores every delivered consignment 0 or 1 against its own service-tier promise. | | | | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(shipments WHERE actual_delivery_datetime <= promised_delivery_datetime AND status = 'DELIVERED') / COUNT(shipments WHERE status IN ('DELIVERED','FAILED'))` over rolling 30 days. Each consignment judged against its tier's promise. | | **Delivery success criterion** | Driver POD scan or signature-on-glass captured at the doorstep, returned via Interlink's tracking webhook. Carded "Sorry we missed you" without subsequent same-day delivery is not on-time. | | **On-time threshold** | Service-tier-specific. Pre10:30 = before 10:30, Pre12 = before 12:00, Next-Day = end-of-day next working day, 2-Day = end-of-day day-2, Saturday = end-of-day Saturday (uplift purchased). Interlink also offers a "predicted 1-hour delivery window" SLA on premium tiers, inherited from the DPD-group platform. | | **Returns / RTO** | RTOs excluded (tracked on `int_returned_to_sender`). Failed-and-redelivered consignments score against the *first* successful POD; an Express-tier consignment delivering on day 2 of a Pre10:30 promise is late. | | **Service level scope** | All services pooled. The dedicated `interlink_pre10_30_sla` and `interlink_pre12_sla` cards split out the contracted premium tiers; this card is the all-services aggregate. | | **Money-back-on-late** | Interlink offers carriage-charge refund on Pre10:30 / Pre12 service failures where Interlink was at fault. Filing window is typically 14 days from failed POD (tighter than Parcelforce's 30 days). The card surfaces candidates; pair with `int_open_claims`. | | **B2B vs B2C** | Pooled. Interlink's portfolio leans B2B-heavy (Pre10:30 and Pre12 are corporate-IT and B2B reseller staples); B2C uses Next-Day. The same five-minute slip is critical for a B2B audience and immaterial for a Saturday consumer; the rate treats them identically. | | **DPD-group relationship** | Interlink is the DPD UK premium tier brand (per DPD group), separate from DPD's standard service. Some merchants run a single account; the card tracks consignments under the connected Interlink credentials only. DPD-account consignments live on the dedicated DPD connector. | | **Currency** | N/A (rate metric) | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (rolling 30 days, period-over-period) | | **Alert trigger** | `<95%` warns, `<90%` critical. Interlink's published Pre10:30 SLA is \~98%; Next-Day SLA is \~96 to 97%. A premium-paid merchant should expect 95%+ aggregate. | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Interlink Express data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A UK B2B-and-DTC pharmaceuticals merchant: medical-supply DTC consumers and a corporate B2B channel selling to clinics, pharmacies, and care-homes that need stock pre-shift. Interlink Pre10:30 is the B2B contract carrier; Next-Day is the DTC consumer service. Reading taken at 09:00 GMT on 02 Apr 26 for the trailing 30 days (02 Mar 26 to 01 Apr 26). | Service | Consignments | Delivered on or before promise | OTD% | | ------------------------ | ------------ | ------------------------------ | --------- | | Pre10:30 (B2B clinics) | 1,140 | 1,117 | 98.0% | | Pre12 (B2B mixed) | 380 | 372 | 97.9% | | Next-Day (DTC consumer) | 2,860 | 2,743 | 95.9% | | 2-Day (bulk DTC) | 220 | 213 | 96.8% | | Saturday-uplift Next-Day | 95 | 92 | 96.8% | | **Total (this card)** | **4,695** | **4,537** | **96.6%** | The card reads **96.6%**, comfortably above the 95% warn threshold. Five things to notice: 1. **The Pre10:30 cohort is exactly on Interlink's published 98% SLA.** B2B clinics are receiving consignments before 10:30am as contracted. Twenty-three misses across 30 days is the recoverable carriage-refund cohort; pair with `int_open_claims` and file within Interlink's 14-day filing window. 2. **Next-Day at 95.9% is the cohort dragging the headline.** DTC consumer Next-Day misses are the customer-experience problem; 117 missed Next-Day consignments translate into 117+ customer-service contacts at minimum. Compare against the matching DPD-group Next-Day SLA (\~97%) to see if Interlink is underperforming its sister-brand on the same network. 3. **B2B contract penalty exposure is real.** Each missed Pre10:30 to a clinic may have a contractual penalty per the merchant-clinic supply agreement (typical penalty £25 to £100 per missed delivery on care-home accounts where staff cannot stock medication on time). Twenty-three misses × £50 average penalty = £1,150 of B2B-customer financial exposure on top of the £200 carriage refund opportunity. 4. **Compare against the 14-day filing window discipline.** Interlink's filing window is 14 days from failed POD, half Parcelforce's 30 days. Most ops teams accustomed to Parcelforce's window file too late on Interlink and lose carriage refund eligibility. Cadence-discipline matters more on Interlink. 5. **Saturday-uplift cohort runs at 96.8%, comparable to standard Next-Day.** Saturday-uplift converts some Friday-cohort consignments to weekend delivery successfully; consider whether the £4 to £6 uplift is justifying the recovery relative to dropping the consignment to standard Next-Day for Monday delivery. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together On-time delivery is the customer-facing outcome metric. Pair it with these to diagnose root cause: | Card | Why pair it with On-Time Delivery Rate | What the combination tells you | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Pre-10:30 Service Promise](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/pre-10-30-service-promise) | The most-stringent Interlink contracted tier. B2B exposure concentrates here. | Pre10:30 SLA dip = corporate-customer contract-penalty risk. The aggregate may still look fine. | | [Pre-12 Service Promise](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/pre-12-service-promise) | Mid-tier B2B promise; also contractual on many corporate accounts. | Pre12 dips correlate with Pre10:30 dips (same network, looser deadline). | | [Late Shipments](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/late-shipments) | The absolute-count companion to OTD%. | Counts trigger CS-team capacity decisions; rates trigger account-team conversations. | | [Open Claims](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/open-claims) | Each carrier-fault miss is a service-failure-refund candidate. Interlink's 14-day filing window is tight. | Filing rate vs miss rate = recovery efficiency. | | [Avg Shipping Cost](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/avg-shipping-cost) | The spend-to-service ratio. Interlink's premium tier is more expensive than DPD-standard; the OTD lift should justify it. | Cost up + OTD flat = renegotiate. | | [Interlink OTD by Sales Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/interlink-otd-by-sales-channel) | Cross-platform split. Identifies which sales surface is suffering most. | One-channel concentration = single-cohort fix. | | [OTD by Route](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/interlink-express/otd-by-route) | Splits by Interlink depot-and-route network. | One-route drops are an account-team conversation. | | Cross-connector: [`shopify.fulfillment_lead_time`](/nerve-centre/shopify/fulfillment_lead_time) | Upstream causation. Late Shopify fulfilment misses Interlink's same-day collection cutoff. | A creep in Shopify lead time predicts Interlink OTD dip 2 to 4 days later. | | Cross-connector: [`bigcommerce.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/unfulfilled-orders) | Same as Shopify upstream. | Same caveat. | | Cross-connector: [`apc.apc_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/apc/on-time-delivery-rate) | Peer UK premium overnight. Direct competitor. | Comparable cohort sizes, useful for shop-around. | | Cross-connector: [`parcelforce.par_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/parcelforce/on-time-delivery-rate) | Peer UK premium. Royal Mail-group competitor to Interlink (DPD-group). | Different networks, different SLA definitions. Calibrate before benchmarking. | | Cross-connector: [`dpd.dpd_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/dpd/on-time-delivery-rate) | Sister-brand standard tier. Same DPD-group network, looser SLA. | If DPD standard runs higher than Interlink premium, the merchant may be paying for a tier that does not justify itself. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Interlink Express's own dashboard:** [Interlink Express MyDPD Business](https://www.interlinkexpress.com/) → **Reports → Service Performance**. Filter by *All services / All depots / Last 30 days*. The closest like-for-like view is the **On-Time Delivery KPI tile**. Interlink shares the DPD-group portal infrastructure; many merchants find their Interlink data inside MyDPD Business under an Interlink-tagged account. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Interlink's portal:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ---------------------------------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time zone** | Boundary | UK local time on both sides. DST-transition Sundays cause minor noise. | | **Predicted-window vs end-of-day** | Either | Interlink/DPD portals sometimes default to "delivered within predicted 1-hour window" SLA, which is structurally easier than "delivered by end of working day". The card uses the contracted service-tier promise (Pre10:30, Pre12, end-of-Next-Day) for cleanliness. | | **Refund-eligible vs all-late** | Ours lower | Interlink's account-team often quote a service-failure rate that excludes customer-fault, address-fault. The card's denominator is all delivered consignments and the numerator counts on-time-against-promise. | | **In-transit consignments** | Ours rolling | Consignments without final POD excluded from numerator and denominator until scan lands. Portal may include in-transit. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | [`shopify.fulfillment_lead_time`](/nerve-centre/shopify/fulfillment_lead_time) | Upstream. Late fulfilment misses collection cutoff. | App-install events, manual overrides. | | [`dpd.dpd_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/dpd/on-time-delivery-rate) | Sister-brand. Same network, looser SLA. | Different consignments, different service tiers. | | [`parcelforce.par_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/parcelforce/on-time-delivery-rate) | Peer UK premium. | Different network. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple UK premium shippers) UK premium-overnight courier services are independent operations on independent networks; cross-links are documentation only. * DPD UK (sister-brand, same DPD-group network) * APC Overnight (peer) * Parcelforce Worldwide (Royal Mail group, peer premium tier) * DHL Express (international-grade)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is Interlink's filing window 14 days, not 30 like Parcelforce?** Interlink (and DPD-group generally) operates on a tighter ops cadence with faster claim-resolution as the trade-off. The 14-day filing discipline forces merchants to file within two weekly review cycles; miss that and the carriage refund is forfeited. Most ops teams transitioning from Parcelforce under-file Interlink because the Parcelforce 30-day muscle memory is wrong. **Pre10:30 SLA is 98% but our number is 96%; is this the merchant or the carrier?** Most likely a depot-and-route issue. Pre10:30 requires Interlink's first-light depot capacity; if your local depot is straining, Pre10:30 takes the hit. Pair with `int_route_otd` to identify a single underperforming depot. Account-team conversation. If the depot looks healthy, look at merchant-side dispatch cutoff: are you handing consignments to Interlink before their pre-dispatch cutoff? **B2B clinics expect Pre10:30 for medication; what is the contract-penalty exposure?** Care-home and clinic supply contracts typically include penalties of £25 to £100 per missed delivery where staff cannot stock medication on shift. A 2% Pre10:30 miss rate on 1,000 monthly consignments is 20 misses × £50 average penalty = £1,000 of B2B-customer financial exposure on top of the £200 of carriage-refund opportunity. Track Pre10:30 separately and report the penalty exposure to finance monthly. **Predicted-window SLA vs end-of-day SLA: which does Interlink contract us against?** Both, depending on the service tier. Pre10:30 / Pre12 are time-definite (cutoff-time-on-promised-day); Next-Day is end-of-day next working day. The DPD-group "predicted 1-hour window" is a customer-perception layer, not a contractual SLA, on most accounts. Check your Interlink contract to confirm which definition the carrier promises you specifically. **Why does Interlink show the parcel as "delivered on time" but the customer says it was late?** End-of-day vs customer-expectation. Next-Day's promise is "by end of working day"; a 19:30 delivery is on-time by Interlink's contract and late by customer expectation. Pair with checkout copy: communicate "by end of next working day" not "tomorrow morning" to align customer mental model with the contract. **Saturday delivery on Interlink: how does it work?** Saturday delivery is a paid-for upgrade on Next-Day. Interlink's Saturday network is more limited than weekday (smaller crew, fewer routes), so OTD on Saturday-uplifted consignments tends to run slightly below weekday Next-Day. Pair with `int_avg_shipping_cost` to ensure the £4 to £6 Saturday uplift converts cost-effectively. **DPD-group brand: are Interlink and DPD UK the same carrier?** Same parent group (DPD), shared network infrastructure, separate brand and rate-card-tier. Interlink Express positions as the premium tier (Pre10:30, Pre12) while DPD UK is the standard / mid-tier. Some merchants run a single account that bills under DPD with Interlink-flagged premium consignments; others run separate accounts. The card tracks consignments under the connected Interlink credentials only. **Compared to Parcelforce, which is the better UK premium carrier?** Different jobs. Parcelforce's network is larger and more rural-coverage; Interlink's predicted-window infrastructure (inherited from DPD-group) gives slightly tighter customer experience on consumer DTC. For B2B Pre10:30, both perform comparably; for consumer 1-hour-window communication, Interlink/DPD is generally tighter. Many multi-carrier merchants run Parcelforce for rural and Interlink for urban DTC. **During Q4 peak, Interlink OTD typically dips 3 to 6 points; is that normal?** Yes for the full DPD-group network. Q4 saturation hits all premium carriers; Interlink's larger automation footprint (sortation centres) holds up slightly better than smaller-network competitors but not by much. Read Q4 numbers in seasonal context. Adjust customer-comms ("Order by 18 Dec for delivery by 23 Dec") and reset weekly-review expectations. **How do we negotiate our Interlink rate card?** Bring this card, `interlink_pre10_30_sla` (Pre10:30 SLA performance), `int_avg_shipping_cost`, and `int_open_claims` to the account-team review. Volume above \~£3K monthly with documented sub-95% aggregate or sub-98% Pre10:30 over 60+ days has the strongest negotiation position. Expect 5 to 12% rate-card improvement in exchange for service-recovery commitments or a longer-term volume contract. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *On-Time Delivery Rate* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Interlink Express and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.