What is the delivery cost per order?
Delivery cost per order is what the fleet spends in a month divided by the orders that reached customers in that month. The cost side holds driver pay, vehicles, fuel or charging, maintenance, insurance and overhead, plus the cost of re-attempting orders that failed the first time.
This calculator works it out for a last-mile fleet of motorbikes, cars or vans. It also shows the cost per kilometer, orders per hour and the split by cost item, then tests an improvement scenario and finds how many orders per day cover your costs at a given delivery fee.
Why calculate cost per delivered order, not just cost per vehicle?
- Pricing with merchants and platforms: fees are agreed per order, so you need your cost in the same unit to know your margin.
- Comparing vehicle types: a van costs more per month than a motorbike, but may deliver more orders per shift. Cost per order puts both in one figure.
- Productivity: most of the cost is fixed per month, so every extra order a driver delivers lowers the share each order carries.
- The price of failed deliveries: a second attempt uses time and distance with no extra revenue. It appears here as its own line.
What inputs do you need?
| Input | Where to find it | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Orders delivered and daily distance | Order management system, trip reports from your tracking system | Use a full month's average, not a single day. |
| Shift length | Rosters, attendance records | Count from leaving to returning, including loading time. |
| Driver cost | Payroll, Driver Cost Calculator | Enter the full cost, not basic salary alone. |
| Vehicle cost and insurance | Lease contracts, asset register, insurance policies | For owned vehicles: purchase price minus expected resale value, divided by months in service. |
| Consumption and maintenance per km | Fuel cards, charging bills, work orders | Divide a year of spend by the distance driven in that year. |
| Failure rate | Order statuses in your delivery system | Count orders that needed a second attempt, not orders cancelled for good. |
How is delivery cost per order calculated?
Monthly fleet cost
Failed-delivery cost
Each order that fails the first time is delivered again at a cost equal to the re-attempt share of the average order cost. With a 5% failure rate and a 70% share, the base cost rises by 3.5%.
Cost per order, per km and productivity
Scenario and break-even
In the scenario, the number of drivers and the fixed costs stay as they are. For the break-even, distance grows with the number of orders, so the distance per order stays constant.
Worked example: 20 motorbike riders
The default values are examples in US dollars; replace them with your fleet's figures. 20 drivers, 26 working days, a 10-hour shift, 35 orders and 120 km per driver per day.
- Monthly distance: 20 × 120 × 26 = 62,400 km. Fuel: 62,400 × 3 ÷ 100 = 1,872 L × 0.58 = 1,085.76. Maintenance: 62,400 × 0.021 = 1,310.40.
- Drivers: 20 × 1,200 = 24,000. Vehicles: 20 × (160 + 27) = 3,740. Overhead: 4,000.
- Base cost: 34,136.16. Failed deliveries: 34,136.16 × 5% × 70% = 1,194.77. Monthly cost: USD 35,330.93.
- Orders per month: 20 × 35 × 26 = 18,200, so the cost per order is USD 1.94, the cost per km USD 0.57, and riders deliver 3.5 orders per hour. Drivers make up 68% of the cost.
- Scenario: if orders rise 10% to 38.5 a day and failures fall 30% to 3.5% over the same distance, the cost per order drops to USD 1.75, a saving of USD 0.19 per order and USD 3,892 per month.
- With a delivery fee of USD 2.40 per order, the margin is USD 0.46 per order and USD 8,349 per month, and break-even sits at 27.9 orders per driver per day.
How do you read the results?
- Cost per delivered order is the figure you compare with your delivery fee or with a third-party courier's quote.
- The split by item shows where the money goes. If drivers and vehicles dominate, the strongest lever is orders per driver. If energy and maintenance are large, look at distance per order.
- Orders per hour is the productivity measure to track daily. Raising it at the same cost lowers the cost per order directly.
- Break-even tells you how many orders per day cover your costs at the current fee. If it is above what drivers actually deliver, the fee or the cost needs a second look.
How can you lower the delivery cost per order?
- Raise orders per driver: batch orders by zone and plan routes before dispatch. Estimate the effect with the Route Optimization Savings Calculator.
- Cut failed deliveries: send customers an arrival time and confirm the address and location before the driver leaves.
- Match the vehicle to the area: compare motorbike, car and van with your own numbers here, and check vehicle count with the Fleet Size Calculator.
- Watch fuel per km: long idling and longer roads push consumption up. Track it with the Fleet Fuel Cost Calculator.
Assumptions and limits
Results are estimates based on the values entered, and every default is an example, not a market price or an official figure. The calculator assumes one vehicle per driver, the same cost for every driver, and that the distance and hours entered cover the whole working day. Re-attempt cost is taken as a share of the average order cost. Returns, compensation, platform commissions, VAT, fines and packaging are not included. Fees and permits for delivery activity differ between authorities, so check your authority's current requirement.