SECTION 01
Start with the destinations you actually ship to
Export your recent orders by city and area. A courier that is inexpensive in Karachi may be weak for the towns where your customers live. Ask which destinations it serves directly, which are handed to a partner, and how remote-area charges work. Check pickup availability from your own location as well.
A useful quote groups your common parcels by weight, city and payment type. Keep the quoted service and delivery time beside each lane. If you sell fragile, temperature-sensitive or oversized items, ask whether those parcels are accepted and what happens when they are damaged.
Your top cities, smaller destinations and excluded areas.
Daily cut-off, weekends and missed-pickup handling.
Number of attempts, calls before return and who pays for a reattempt.
SECTION 02
Compare the complete cost of a delivered order
Ask for the outbound charge, weight slabs, COD collection fee, fuel or remote surcharges, return-to-origin charge, insurance or claims process and tax treatment. Then calculate cost per successfully delivered parcel after returns. A cheap first-mile quote can become expensive if many parcels are returned or settlements are difficult to reconcile.
For COD, ask when the courier pays you, what report accompanies a payment and how deductions appear. The cash-settlement cycle affects working capital even when the per-parcel fee looks attractive. Keep both cost and settlement timing on your scorecard.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Compare with your own data
- Courier A
- Lower outward fee; longer COD settlement
- Courier B
- Higher outward fee; fewer returns in your pilot
- Decision metric
- Net cash after all charges per delivered order
This is a decision framework, not a live rate or performance claim about any named courier.
SECTION 03
Use the same scorecard for every courier
Give each candidate a score from one to five using your written quote and pilot results. Weight the areas that matter to your store. A fashion store may value exchange handling; a grocery seller may value speed and coverage; a high-COD store may care most about settlement and failed-delivery communication.
Write the evidence beside each score: quoted clause, named account manager, sample tracking event or pilot order number. Without that evidence the scorecard becomes a preference list rather than a buying tool.
Coverage, pickup reliability, first-attempt delivery and tracking clarity.
Total delivered cost, RTO fees, COD settlement timing and report quality.
Claim turnaround, escalation path and help with exceptions.
Booking method, labels, tracking updates and the work required from your team.
SECTION 04
Run a small pilot before moving all orders
Try a limited number of real parcels across your common cities and one or two difficult routes. Record pickup time, first delivery attempt, delivered or returned status, support response and settlement date. Keep your packaging and confirmation process consistent so you are comparing couriers fairly.
Check the exact integration path in your store. Eekaam currently supports BlueEx booking and tracking inside the courier app. Accounts for PostEx, Leopards, TCS, Trax and M&P can be saved, but booking connectors are still pending; with those couriers you can book outside Eekaam and enter tracking manually. Do not assume a listed courier means live label creation.