On-time performance (OTP) is a metric that tracks how many of your trips arrive and depart on time. When you’re negotiating contracts with a broker or other large organization, they’re going to ask about your on-time performance, and if yours is not satisfactory, you’re likely going to lose the bid or contract renewal.
Even for small contracts and private-pays, passengers want to be picked up on time, and they want to get to their appointment on time. If you want repeat business from your customers, you need to be focusing on your OTP.
If you want repeat business from your customers, you need to be focusing on your OTP.
It’s not just about being late. Being too early can be a negative too. We typically find that most contracts allow drivers to arrive at a good margin early, but have a very tight or no margin for being late.
Generally, your contracts will specify how early or late you can be to a pick-up or drop off location. Sometimes you will have different thresholds for a pick up vs a drop-off. For example, being up to five minutes late may be allowable for a pick-up, but not a drop-off.
If your contracts don’t already have OTP thresholds setup, we recommend you adopt an internal policy for them instead. When your contract is up for renewal, it will help to be able to show how often you’ve arrived and departed on time. We recommend a base of up to 15 minutes early and 5 minutes late. Anything outside of this should be considered not on-time.
Ultimately, ensuring a good OTP metric is what your dispatchers should be driving for every day. This is what will make your customers happy, bring repeat business, and grow your company in the long-term.
