Parcel deliveries covering the last mile posted their best on-time performance in August since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly three-and-a-half-years ago, according to a recent report published by IT provider project44.

The monthly report, the most recent of which was released last week, found that 85.1% of last-mile deliveries hit their service commitments in August. That compares to 78.3% in the first quarter of 2023 and 83.8% in August 2022.

Last-mile on-time performance reached as high as 88.3% in March 2020, the time when the pandemic hit U.S. shores. Within three months, as online orders and residential deliveries spiked to unprecedented levels, performance levels plunged to 72.8%. They would fall as low as 72.1% during the 2020 peak season, a period when holiday traffic combined with pandemic-related behavior to send parcel volumes soaring. Levels would begin a near-three-year rise from that trough but never got above April 2022’s level of 83.9% until now.

The project44 report also found that shippers are utilizing more carrier partners to manage last-mile deliveries. In October 2020, the typical shipper used 4.2 carriers in last-mile delivery. By August 2023, that number had climbed to 6.1 carriers on average.

According to project44, the last-mile market is currently in its best shape since before the pandemic. This bodes well for peak-season performance, the company said. “The capacity required to accommodate peak volume is readily available and shippers have diligently diversified their carrier portfolios, ensuring ample options for delivering packages to customers’ doorsteps, the company said.

Last mile is defined as the distance between a shipment’s inventory location and its point of consumption. It is most commonly associated with parcel deliveries between relatively short distances and to consumers’ locations. The reality, however, is last-mile delivery can encompass dozens if not hundreds of miles, isn’t exclusive to parcel and often involves business-to-business moves.