Quick Summary
- First-attempt delivery failure rates often sit between 8% and 20%, and address errors alone account for around 45% of those failed deliveries.
- Each failed delivery costs close to $18 on average once you include extra miles, driver time, and customer support.
- What3Words gives every 3m x 3m square a unique three-word address, and SmartRoutes uses that precise location data in route planning and the driver app.
- Combining traditional addresses with What3Words in SmartRoutes reduces misrouted stops, cuts time spent looking for entrances, and improves first-attempt delivery success.
SmartRoutes clients deliver to tens of thousands of people every day, and they see the same pattern repeat: the address looks fine in the system, but the driver still cannot find the exact handover point. Maybe the front door is around the corner, the loading bay is on a different street, or the rural property simply does not exist on the map.
Across the industry, first‑attempt delivery failure rates still sit between 8% and 20%, and address errors alone account for around 45% of those failed deliveries. Each failed delivery costs almost $18 on average once you factor in extra miles, driver time, and customer support. Fixing the accuracy of the delivery location is one of the most direct ways to protect margins and improve customer experience.
What3Words gives last mile operators a precise way to capture and use delivery locations, and SmartRoutes brings those locations into your routing, driver app, and customer notifications.
What is What3Words?
What3Words has divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and given each square a unique combination of three words. A warehouse entrance, an apartment block side door, or a rural gate can each have their own three word address that points to a specific spot, not just a broad street or postcode.
You can use what3words in a few simple ways: enter latitude and longitude to receive the three word address, type a traditional address to find the nearest grid square, or open the what3words app and see the code for your current location. This level of precision is especially useful when the “official” address does not match where the driver actually needs to stop.
Using what3words addresses for city deliveries has been shown to reduce last‑mile delivery times by up to 42% by sending drivers straight to the correct doorway or loading point, rather than to a vague street‑level pin. With confirmed, accurate location information, more first‑time deliveries succeed, and drivers spend less time searching or calling customers.
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How delivery fails with traditional addresses
Traditional addresses were not designed for precise last‑mile operations. They often describe a building or property, not the exact point where the driver needs to stop, scan, and hand over the parcel.
Common issues delivery teams face include:
- The door or loading bay is on a different street than the postal address.
- Large campuses, apartment complexes, or business parks share one address but have many entrances.
- Rural properties lack clear addressing and do not appear accurately in navigation tools.
- Addresses are incomplete, formatted inconsistently, or cannot be geocoded reliably.
From SmartRoutes’ work with address datasets, accuracy for urban addresses can be higher than 90%, but in rural or developing regions that accuracy drops sharply, making it far more likely that a driver is sent to the wrong place. When an address cannot be translated into a usable map point, drivers fall back on local knowledge, phone calls, and guesswork, which is inefficient and frustrating.
Industry‑wide data shows that address errors are responsible for around 45% of failed deliveries. Each failure triggers re‑attempts, extra miles, and customer support interactions that together cost an average of $17.78 per package. At scale, even a 5% failure rate can translate into hundreds of thousands in annual losses for growing eCommerce and retail businesses.
A blended approach: addresses plus What3Words
The most reliable approach is not to replace traditional addresses but to enrich them with precise location data. SmartRoutes takes this blended approach by allowing you to use What3Words alongside standard address fields in your delivery data.
SmartRoutes is integrated with What3Words so that dispatchers can:
- Import delivery lists that include three word addresses as a separate field.
- Use what3words when creating or editing stops in the web platform.
- Store both the postal address and the 3m x 3m what3words location for each customer.
Behind the scenes, SmartRoutes converts the What3Words reference into accurate GPS coordinates and uses those coordinates when building and optimizing routes. The driver app then directs drivers to that precise location rather than to a generic street‑level pin.
Customers using What3Words with SmartRoutes report higher delivery success rates and shorter turnaround times at each stop because drivers no longer need to circle blocks or call customers repeatedly to clarify directions. This effect compounds across a full route, freeing up time for more stops or earlier route completion.
Impact on first‑attempt delivery performance
When you improve address quality and location accuracy, you directly affect first‑attempt delivery success. With baseline first‑attempt failure rates between 8% and 20% in many networks, even small reductions in address‑related failures can produce substantial savings.
By combining what3words with SmartRoutes you can:
- Reduce misrouted and “not at this address” failures driven by poor geocoding.
- Cut the time drivers spend looking for entrances in dense urban environments.
- Improve ETAs and time‑window performance by making stop times more predictable.
- Lower the number of support contacts related to “driver cannot find my address” or “delivery failed, address insufficient”.
Given that address errors account for 45% of failed deliveries, even a partial reduction in that category translates into fewer re‑attempts, lower fuel usage, and less strain on customer support teams. The result is a more reliable last‑mile operation and a better experience for end customers.
The future of last mile delivery with better locations
If you rely heavily on driver knowledge or spend too much time handling failed deliveries, it is likely that address quality and location accuracy are part of the problem. SmartRoutes with what3words helps you fix that at the source by capturing better locations and using them throughout planning, routing, and delivery.
Start a free SmartRoutes trial today to see how what3words fits into your existing delivery workflows and how much you can save by reducing address‑related failed deliveries.
FAQ
1. How does What3Words improve first-attempt delivery rates?
What3Words gives every 3m x 3m square a unique three-word address, which means drivers can navigate directly to a front door, loading bay, or gate instead of just a building address. This precision has been shown to reduce last-mile delivery times by up to 42% in city environments and helps cut failed first attempts caused by unclear or incomplete addresses.
2. Do I need to replace traditional addresses with What3Words?
No, SmartRoutes is designed for a blended approach where What3Words is used together with traditional address data. You keep standard address fields for systems that rely on them, while the three-word address provides the precise location data that improves navigation, ETAs, and first-attempt delivery success.
3. What impact can this have on failed delivery costs?
Industry data shows that first-attempt delivery failure rates often sit between 8% and 20%, with address errors responsible for around 45% of failed deliveries and an average cost of about $17.78 per failure. Reducing address-related failures with What3Words and SmartRoutes can therefore remove a significant share of repeat delivery attempts, fuel usage, and customer support contacts from your operation.
4. Which businesses benefit most from using What3Words with SmartRoutes?
Any business running multi-stop routes can benefit, including eCommerce and retail fleets, furniture and appliance delivery teams, pharmacies, field service operators, and third-party logistics providers. The integration is especially valuable for complex sites like campuses and apartment blocks, and for rural areas where traditional address data is often inaccurate or incomplete.
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