The gap between "arrived" and "delivered"

Even when navigation says you have arrived, the driver is often just starting the real work. Navigation often drops them somewhere near a building, not the final delivery location. They have to search for the actual door, and that search often takes much longer than anyone realizes.

This pattern plays out at unfamiliar addresses across the last mile every single day. The cumulative impact on an operation is massive.

Here is what we discovered at the third address in the Narmin Challenge: Botersloothof 17, Rotterdam.

What navigation systems miss

The word arrived should mean you are at the door where the delivery takes place. With standard navigation tools, it rarely does.

We ran an experiment with two experienced couriers, Max and Sander. Same starting location. Same navigation tools. Neither knew this part of Rotterdam.

Max took 2 minutes and 4 seconds to complete the delivery. Sander took 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

A significant improvement over the 7 to 12 minutes they spent at Overblaak 40, but still not optimized. Navigation dropped them on a different street with no walking route to the actual door.

What 2:04 and 2:15 minutes look like in reality

Sander checks his phone. He's not looking at the address. He's looking for anything that might help him figure out where to go.

"First thing I'm doing is I check on Google Maps to see what stores there are. I see Suitable, which is right there, and then I see the bakery, which is right there."- Sander

He's using nearby businesses to orient himself because navigation hasn't told him which way to walk. He starts moving in what he thinks is the right direction.

He spots the street sign. Botersloothof. Except it's barely readable.

"The street sign is not that clear. There's a lot of stickers over it." - Sander

He eventually finds the address. But after completing the delivery, he's clear about what could have gone wrong.

"Without navigation on my phone, I would have had issues because the street on its own is not that clear. Furthermore, it looks like it's part of the apartment building, and I could have doubted if that would have been where I had to go up someplace. Luckily, this time it worked, but this could have gone wrong."- Sander

Max has the same experience. He checks the map, uses his gut feeling about which direction to try, and finds the address.

"Once again, I didn't really have a way to walk, so if it wasn't for my instinct, maybe I would've walked that way, that way, that way. Nobody knows." - Max

His intuition worked this time. But depending on guesses isn't a reliable system.

Both drivers completed this delivery in just over two minutes. Both considered it easier than the previous addresses. Both still had to figure things out on their own because navigation only got them close to the door.

What this means at scale

The real problem is not a single delivery. It is the pattern. If we conservatively say that 10% of stops involve these kinds of inefficiencies, the math changes everything.

• Capacity: Operations plan routes for 50 stops when drivers could handle 55 or 60 with accurate navigation. The gap is hidden in these accumulated search minutes.
• Driver experience: This friction compounds. Even addresses that feel easy require mental effort that shouldn't be necessary.
• Customer satisfaction: Better navigation means more reliable delivery windows and fewer failed attempts.
• Operational performance: When 10% of stops no longer waste even 1 to 2 extra minutes, the entire system performs differently.

What drivers already know

After the delivery, we asked Max and Sander what would've helped.

Max pointed to the drop-off point: "There is a parking lot over there where I could have been dropped."

Sander identified the navigation gap: "I would have had issues because the street on its own is not that clear. Luckily, this time it worked, but this could have gone wrong."

Both drivers are pointing to the same issue: standard navigation provides incomplete information and expects drivers to fill in the gaps. At this address, both drivers filled those gaps successfully. But success based on instinct alone isn't the same as having reliable information.

Drivers already know what works. They figure out the optimal approach every time they encounter a new address. The question is whether operations are capturing that knowledge.

44 seconds vs 2:04 minutes

Narmin's Address Intelligence Platform captures delivery knowledge down to the last meter.

For Botersloothof 17, that means:

• Dropping drivers on the correct street from the start.
• Parking at a location that's actually available.
• Providing a clear route to the entrance.

The platform captures what the first driver figured out, so every driver after benefits from it. With Address Intelligence, the "Arrived" pin moves from somewhere on a busy shopping street to the handle of the door.

Not 2:04 minutes, but just 44 seconds.