> ## 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, NetDispatch > On-Time Delivery Rate for NetDispatch 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 parcels booked through Net Dispatch (the UK multi-carrier shipping management platform aggregating Royal Mail, DPD, Hermes Evri, Yodel, ParcelForce, DHL, FedEx UK, and regional carriers) delivered on or before the carrier's published service-promise date. UK ecommerce is multi-carrier by default; Net Dispatch consolidates the rate-shopping, label generation, and tracking across them with a single integration. | | | | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | `COUNT(Net Dispatch shipments WHERE delivery_date <= promised_date) / COUNT(delivered shipments)` over the trailing 30 days. Net Dispatch reads each underlying carrier's commit and delivery scan via its unified API. | | **Delivery success criterion** | Net Dispatch normalises carrier-specific delivery scans into a unified `Delivered` status. Royal Mail, DPD, Hermes/Evri, Yodel, ParcelForce, DHL, FedEx UK each post their own scan-event taxonomy; Net Dispatch maps them to common delivery confirmation. | | **On-time threshold** | `delivery_date` ≤ `promised_date` from the carrier's UK service standard. Royal Mail Tracked 24 commits next-business-day; Tracked 48 in 2 days; DPD Next Day commits next-business-day-by-12:00; Evri 3-5 day commits in window. Each shipment scored against its booked carrier-and-service. | | **Returns / RTO** | Excluded. Tracked separately. | | **Service level scope** | All Net Dispatch-booked services pooled by default. To split by carrier, use [Shipments by Service](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/shipments-by-service). | | **UK-specific reliability profile** | Carrier reliability varies more in UK than US. Royal Mail Tracked 24 typically 95-98% on-time; DPD Next Day 96-99% (the strongest UK on-time); Evri 88-93% (cheapest, weakest on-time); Yodel 86-92%. Net Dispatch's rate-shopping balances cost and reliability; merchants paying for Evri/Yodel get cost saving but accept the OTD trade. | | **Brexit international lanes** | UK→EU and UK→Rest-of-World shipments now require customs declarations; on-time rates on these lanes are 5-15 ppt lower than pre-Brexit baseline. Net Dispatch handles the customs-declaration workflow within the booking flow. | | **Holiday surge** | UK Christmas peak (mid-November to 24 Dec) typically degrades on-time by 6-12 ppt across all carriers. Royal Mail's pre-Christmas industrial action periods (CWU disputes 2022-2024) added another 5-10 ppt drop in affected windows. | | **Time window** | `30D vsP` (rolling 30 days, period-over-period comparison) | | **Alert trigger** | `<95% (warn) / <90% (critical)`, sentiment thresholds at good=95, warn=90 | | **Sentiment key** | gauge with thresholds good=95, warn=90 | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your NetDispatch 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 DTC homeware merchant routing all parcels through Net Dispatch, primary fulfilment in Leicester (East Midlands). Reading taken at 09:00 GMT on 12 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days vs the prior 30 days. | Underlying Carrier | Shipments | On-Time | Notes | | -------------------------------- | ---------- | --------- | -------------------------------------- | | Royal Mail Tracked 48 | 5,820 | 96.4% | Cheapest national tier, 2-day commit | | Royal Mail Tracked 24 | 2,180 | 97.1% | Next-day, premium UK tier | | DPD Next Day | 1,420 | 98.5% | Strongest UK reliability, 12:00 commit | | Evri 3-5 Day | 3,940 | 89.2% | Cheap, slow, drags the headline | | Yodel Standard | 880 | 87.4% | Cheap regional, also drags | | FedEx UK Express (international) | 220 | 94.5% | UK→EU and beyond | | **All carriers (this card)** | **14,460** | **94.0%** | aggregate vs 92.8% prior (+1.2 ppt) | The card reads **94.0%** with sentiment amber (between warn=90 and good=95), trending up. Five things to notice: 1. **Evri and Yodel are the structural drag.** Together 4,820 shipments at \~88% on-time pull the aggregate down by \~3 ppt. The cost saving (Evri at £1.95/parcel vs DPD at £4.50) is real but the customer-experience cost is real too. Decision: how much CS workload and refund leakage justifies the £2.55 saving per parcel. 2. **DPD at 98.5% justifies its premium.** £4.50/parcel for next-business-day-by-12:00 commit is the strongest UK proposition; merchants moving high-value or time-sensitive volume to DPD see fewer customer complaints and fewer "where is my parcel" emails. 3. **Royal Mail Tracked 24 vs DPD Next Day.** Same commit window (next-business-day), DPD slightly more reliable, Royal Mail typically £1-2 cheaper. The merchant uses both with rate-rules; for B2C high-value, DPD; for B2C standard, Royal Mail. 4. **The 866 missed shipments aren't all "carrier's fault".** UK address-quality issues (missing flat numbers in flat blocks, postcode-typo errors), recipient-not-home in dense urban areas, weekend backlog, weather (UK winter storms named since 2015) all contribute. Actionable subset is roughly 50-70%. 5. **Brexit international lane (FedEx UK) at 94.5% is good given the customs friction.** Pre-Brexit, UK→EU lanes ran 96-98%; the 1.5-3 ppt drop is the customs friction cost. Mitigation: Net Dispatch's customs-declaration workflow plus IOSS registration where applicable. Note: this card pairs with [NetDispatch OTD by Sales Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/netdispatch-otd-by-sales-channel) (channel split) and [Dispatch-to-Collection Lag](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/dispatch-to-collection-lag) (a UK-specific upstream metric: how long between Net Dispatch booking and the carrier's pickup scan). ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with On-Time Delivery Rate | What the combination tells you | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | [Avg Shipping Cost](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/avg-shipping-cost) | Cost-quality trade. | UK shippers face the cost-vs-reliability trade most acutely (Evri £1.95 at 88% OTD vs DPD £4.50 at 98%). Both cards together quantify the trade. | | [NetDispatch OTD by Sales Channel](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/netdispatch-otd-by-sales-channel) | Channel split. | UK marketplaces (Amazon UK, eBay UK, OnBuy) have different SLAs; channel-by-channel breakdown surfaces marketplace-specific OTD problems. | | [Dispatch-to-Collection Lag](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/dispatch-to-collection-lag) | Upstream timing. | UK-specific: how long between merchant booking and carrier pickup. Long lag eats into the carrier's commit window. | | [Late Shipments](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/late-shipments) | Absolute count. | CS workload metric. | | [Shipments by Service](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/shipments-by-service) | Carrier-mix split. | Identifies which carrier is dragging headline. | | [Exception Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/net-dispatch/exception-rate) | Lead indicator. | Cross-carrier exceptions catch upstream issues. | | Cross-connector: [`royal_mail.rm_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/royal_mail/rm_otd_rate) | Direct-Royal-Mail subset comparison. | When merchant has direct Royal Mail Account integration alongside Net Dispatch. | | Cross-connector: [`dpd.dpd_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/dpd/on-time-delivery-rate) | Direct-DPD subset. | Same. | | Cross-connector: [`shopify.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders) | Upstream cause. | Backlog predicts on-time-rate dip 1-3 days later. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Net Dispatch's own dashboard:** [Net Dispatch Dashboard](https://www.netdispatch.com/) → **Reports → Performance → On-Time Delivery**, filter by *All Carriers, Last 30 Days*. Net Dispatch surfaces a similar aggregate plus per-carrier breakdown. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Net Dispatch's portal:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Carrier scoping** | Either | Portal allows per-carrier drill-down; card aggregates by default. | | **Polling lag** | Ours lower for "today" | Net Dispatch polls underlying carriers every 30-60 minutes; today's reading may slightly lag. | | **Service-disruption flagging** | Either | When carriers (notably Royal Mail during industrial action) flag suspended service, Net Dispatch may exclude flagged shipments from on-time reports; card includes everything. | | **Time zone** | Boundary days | UTC vs UK local time on dashboard. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`royal_mail.rm_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/royal_mail/rm_otd_rate) | Net Dispatch-routed Royal Mail subset of this card. | Direct-Royal-Mail numbers may include shipments not booked through Net Dispatch. | | [`dpd.dpd_otd_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/dpd/on-time-delivery-rate) | Same for DPD. | Same. | | [`shopify.unfulfilled_orders`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/unfulfilled-orders) | Upstream order source. | Order-to-label lag affects starting clock. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Net Dispatch vs direct-to-carrier UK, which is better?** For UK DTC merchants under £5M/year shipping spend, Net Dispatch usually wins on cost (5-12% saving from pooled rates) and on operational simplicity (one integration vs 4-6 carrier integrations). Direct contracts make sense above £5M/year where merchants can negotiate stronger per-carrier deals. **Why does Evri/Hermes have such weak on-time?** Evri (formerly Hermes UK) operates a self-employed-courier model with heavy use of remote-worker hubs. The cost saving comes from labour structure; the trade-off is reliability variance especially in holiday periods and rural areas. Most UK DTC merchants accept the trade for non-urgent low-value parcels. **Royal Mail Tracked 24 vs DPD Next Day, which should I use?** Both commit next-business-day. DPD typically 1-2 ppt better on-time, \~£1-2 more per parcel. For B2C parcels under £50 retail, Royal Mail Tracked 24 is usually fine. For B2C above £50 or any time-sensitive item, DPD's stronger reliability justifies the premium. **My OTD dropped during a Royal Mail strike. Is this Net Dispatch's fault?** No. Royal Mail industrial action (CWU strikes 2022-2024) suspended service on declared days. Net Dispatch's rate-shopping rules can be configured to auto-route Royal Mail volume to other carriers during declared strikes, but this requires merchant pre-configuration. During an active strike, expect 5-15 ppt drop in Royal Mail subset on-time. **Brexit changes for UK→EU shipments?** Pre-Brexit, intra-EU was a free-customs zone. Post-1 Jan 2021, UK→EU shipments require commercial invoices, EORI numbers, HS codes. Net Dispatch handles the customs-declaration workflow within the booking flow. Lane on-time rates for UK→EU dropped 5-10 ppt initially and have stabilised at \~94-96% as merchants adapted. **Why does Yodel run lower OTD than Royal Mail?** Yodel operates a similar self-employed-courier model to Evri, with weaker route density in some regions (especially Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). For mainland England-only shippers, Yodel competitive; for full-UK, Royal Mail has stronger coverage. **Should I shift my Christmas peak volume away from Evri?** Often yes. Evri's on-time degrades 8-15 ppt in November-December (peak strain on the courier network). Configure Net Dispatch rate-rules to upgrade Evri volume to Royal Mail Tracked 48 in late November through Christmas; cost climb \~£0.80/parcel, on-time recovery \~5-8 ppt. **Why is my UK→US lane on-time poor?** UK→US international (typically routed via FedEx UK or DHL Express) faces customs friction at US Customs (CBP). Pre-clearance via DDP shipping (duty paid at checkout) reduces hold rates. Use FedEx International Priority for higher reliability than International Economy. **Card swings day-to-day. Why?** Volume fluctuates with merchant order patterns and UK weather. The 30D rolling smooths most noise. The alert at \<90% trips on persistent issues, not on a single bad-weather day. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *On-Time Delivery Rate* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across NetDispatch and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. 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