Last-Mile Delivery

Why the last mile decides everything in COD

In prepaid e-commerce the last mile is a service problem: a late parcel annoys a customer who has already paid. In cash on delivery it is a revenue problem. Nothing has been paid. If the courier cannot find the address, or the buyer does not answer, the order produces a return instead of cash.

This is why sellers who compare fulfilment partners on shipping price alone get the decision wrong. A courier that costs less per parcel but fails more often is more expensive per delivered order.

What makes it hard in Libya, Iraq and Lebanon

• Addresses are descriptive, not numeric. Much of the region is navigated by landmark, district and phone call rather than street and number.
• The courier carries cash. Handling, securing and reconciling money on the route is part of the job, not an afterthought.
• One attempt is rarely enough. Buyers work, travel and move. A partner that returns a parcel after a single failed attempt converts recoverable orders into losses.
• Distance from the capital changes everything. A delivery inside Tripoli and one in the far south are not the same operation.

Why we run our own couriers

MDM Express delivers with its own fleet rather than handing parcels to a third party. That is not a slogan — it is what makes the numbers controllable. We decide how many attempts a parcel gets, how the courier is briefed, how the cash is handled, and how fast a failed delivery is retried.

When the last mile is outsourced, the seller's delivery rate is set by someone with no relationship to the seller. When it is in-house, it is a number we own.