A new survey of 150 retail and logistics executives at companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue finds a stark disconnect between strategic conviction and operational performance in last-mile delivery.
The 2026 Last-Mile Performance Outlook, a report from Bringg in partnership with Industry Dive, reveals that while nearly all executives view last-mile delivery as a strategic priority, fewer than half report outperforming on the metrics they identify as most important. And their investments, particularly in AI, reveal why there’s a gap between strategy and outcomes that move the needle across customer loyalty and revenue.
The last mile is a strategic priority to executives
Among surveyed executives, 93% agreed that last-mile delivery is one of the most strategic components of their business. Investment plans reflect that priority:
- 94% expect to increase last-mile spending in the next 12 to 18 months
- 45% plan to increase investments 10% or more
Three-quarters of respondents said last-mile performance is extremely or very impactful on customer loyalty, reinforcing the link between delivery execution and revenue retention.
The debate over whether last-mile matters is settled. The question now is whether investment lands where performance actually breaks down.
Outcomes don’t match strategy
Despite the strategic emphasis, overachievement rates on primary KPIs remain uneven. The survey found that 63% of companies exceed their first-attempt delivery targets, a metric largely within direct operational control.
However, performance drops on metrics requiring cross-functional coordination. More than half of companies fail to meet their own targets:
- 64% miss on cost-per-delivery
- 52% miss on customer satisfaction
- 51% miss on ETA accuracy
Cost-per-delivery, the metric most directly tied to margin, showed the lowest overachievement rate of any primary KPI. But 34% of respondents cited operational costs as their top last-mile challenge and ranked it first in both frequency and increased severity.
“They’re confident in the data they can see,” said Bringg Field CTO Ryan Leigh. “The risk is that they’re not measuring the operational friction underneath it: exception handling, carrier logic, manual workarounds. Those are the areas where margin actually erodes.”
The performance gap is not an effort problem. Companies perform well where a single team owns the outcome. They struggle where success depends on cross-team coordination across routing, carriers, exceptions, and billing.
AI investment is high but misallocated
The report also examined AI adoption across last-mile workflows. Routing and visibility tools show the highest adoption rate at 72% and 74% respectively. Investment intent follows the same pattern. Most respondents plan to increase AI spending on routing (53%) and visibility (52%).
Conversely, adoption drops sharply in back-office functions.
- 28% adoption in exception handling AI
- 26% adoption in carrier management AI
- 25% adoption in billing reconciliation AI
Far fewer enterprise executives plan increases in exception handling (18%) or carrier management (13%).
AI is concentrated in workflows that are already optimized, not in the manual-intensive areas where margin leaks. So it’s no surprise that only 9% of executives expect AI to have a truly transformational impact in the next 12 to 18 months. That figure reflects where investment is actually going, rather than outright pessimism, and the true influence of last-mile AI may be in the back office, not the route map.
Challenges vary by fleet model
The research also found that top challenges vary by fleet model.
- 50% of companies using third-party fleets cited "where is my order" inquiries as their top challenge.
- 34% of hybrid fleet operators pointed to routing inefficiency
- 37% of owned-fleet operators flagged late deliveries
Eighty-two percent of surveyed companies operate hybrid or fully third-party fleets, with only 18% relying exclusively on owned assets.
Each fleet model creates a different control point and a different failure mode. Third-party fleets trade control for flexibility but pay for it in visibility gaps. Hybrid fleets gain optionality but add coordination complexity. The right AI and automation investment strategy depends on knowing which problem the fleet model creates.
Winners will close the alignment gap
The report concludes that the central challenge that enterprise delivery operations face is not awareness or investment levels but alignment between strategic priority and operational capability.
There’s a near-universal notion that the last-mile is a strategic differentiator and revenue lever. But the companies capitalizing on that idea align investment, measurement, and technology where performance actually breaks down (like exception handling, billing reconciliation, and carrier coordination), not where it's easiest to measure.
Read the full 2026 Last-Mile Performance Outlook for more
