Per-delivery pricing or a flat monthly plan? What delivery software really costs
Delivery software prices look simple on a pricing page and surprisingly different on an invoice. The model matters more than the headline number: the plan that is cheapest at 500 deliveries a month is rarely the cheapest at 5,000.
The common pricing models
- Per task or per delivery. You pay a small amount for each job. Cheap to start and it scales with you, but every extra delivery costs more, and many tools count a pickup and a drop-off as two tasks.
- Per driver. A monthly fee for each driver account. Predictable if your team is stable, expensive if you use many part-time or seasonal drivers.
- Flat tiers with an allowance. One monthly price for up to a set number of deliveries, with a fixed price for going over. Predictable, and the cost per delivery falls as you grow into the plan.
- Hybrids. A base fee plus per-task charges, or tiers that also limit drivers. Read these carefully.
Worked examples
To compare like with like, here is a per-task price of $0.10 (an illustration; the tools we looked at charge roughly $0.08 to $0.25 a task) against Coodrop's own plans: Starter at $149 a month for 3,000 deliveries, Pro at $349 for 10,000, and $30 for each extra 1,000. Coodrop counts only drop-offs; the per-task column shows what happens when pickups count too.
| Drop-offs a month | Per task, drop-offs only | Per task, with a pickup each | Flat plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $100 | $200 | $149 (Starter) |
| 3,000 | $300 | $600 | $149 (Starter) |
| 5,000 | $500 | $1,000 | $209 (Starter + 2,000) |
| 12,000 | $1,200 | $2,400 | $409 (Pro + 2,000) |
Two honest conclusions:
- At low volume, per-task can be cheaper. Below about 1,500 drop-offs a month at $0.10 a task (about 750 if pickups are counted too), paying per task costs less than a $149 plan.
- Past that, the gap grows quickly. Per-task costs rise with every delivery; a flat plan stays put until you reach its allowance. If you are growing, the model you choose today decides your software bill a year from now.
You can try your own numbers with the calculator on our homepage.
The costs that aren't on the pricing page
- Messages. SMS notifications to customers are often charged per message, on top of the plan.
- Seats. Extra fees for dispatchers, drivers or managers beyond a small number.
- Overage. What happens when you go over your plan: a reasonable add-on, a much higher per-task rate, or an automatic upgrade to the next tier.
- Unused allowance. Whether deliveries you paid for but didn't use simply expire at the end of the month.
- Add-ons. Route optimization, integrations, branding or API access sold separately.
- Commitment. Annual contracts, setup fees and notice periods.
Questions to ask before you sign up
- What exactly counts as a task or a delivery? Do pickups count? Do cancelled or failed jobs?
- What does one more delivery cost once I pass my plan's limit?
- Do unused deliveries carry over, or expire each month?
- Are drivers and dispatchers included, or charged per person?
- Who pays for customer messages, and how much?
- Is there a free trial on my real deliveries, and can I get my money back if it doesn't work out?
- Can I cancel any time, or am I tied to a contract?
Estimating your own volume
Take your last three months of deliveries and use the busiest one, not the average. Count drop-offs and pickups separately, because pricing models treat them differently. Then add the growth you are planning for, and compare the options at that number as well as today's.
How Coodrop prices it
We chose flat plans because we think software shouldn't take a cut of your growth. Only drop-offs count, so a pickup-and-deliver order counts once. Extra deliveries come in packs of 1,000 for $30 that stay valid for 12 months instead of expiring at the end of the month. Drivers and dispatchers are unlimited on every plan. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and any payment can be refunded in full within 14 days, for any reason.
In short: per-task pricing is a fair deal at low volume. If you do more than a couple of thousand deliveries a month, or plan to, compare the models at your real numbers before the invoices compare them for you.