Leadde Logo

New Courier Onboarding: Delivery Workflow & Safety

A comprehensive training guide covering pre-route preparation, app-guided delivery execution, address verification, safety rules, and end-of-shift procedures.
LBy Leadde Updated August 27, 2026

What a Courier Has to Get Right Before the Van Moves

A delivery day is decided before the first drop. The courier checks the vehicle, confirms the manifest against what is physically loaded, sets the route in the app, and identifies which parcels need a signature or an age check. A load that is one parcel short at eight in the morning becomes a failed delivery at three in the afternoon.

Almost every metric a depot manages traces back to that half hour. Missing parcels, wrong-address returns, and late-running routes are usually decided at the loading bay rather than on the road, and a new courier who was shown the round but not the checks will repeat the same failure for weeks before anyone notices. Excluded on purpose is the security detail of the operation: depot access codes, high-value parcel handling, and the criteria that mark an address as unsafe belong in a briefing to named staff, not in a video that circulates.

The sequence runs across ten scenes: two on vehicle and load checks before departure, one on reading the manifest against the app, two on the delivery itself and what a successful drop requires, one on address verification, two on the safety rules that apply on foot and at the roadside, one on what to do when nobody answers, and one on end-of-shift returns.

How to Get a New Courier Through Day One Without a Buddy Van

Most last-mile operators onboard by pairing a new courier with an experienced one for a day. It works, it does not scale, and it transfers whatever habits the experienced courier happens to have. A video has to carry the parts that must be identical across every driver, and leave the rest to the road.

Put the vehicle check before the parcel count

Put the vehicle check before the parcel count

New couriers reverse this because parcels feel like the job. A vehicle fault found at the bay costs twenty minutes; the same fault found at the third drop costs the route.

Make address verification a rule, not a judgement

Number, street, and one more confirming detail before the parcel leaves the hand. Stated as a fixed check it survives a rushed afternoon; stated as "be careful with addresses" it does not.

Name the three moments that create a failed delivery

Loading, the doorstep decision, and the return scan. Naming them as the only three places a delivery can be lost gives a new courier somewhere to concentrate.

Cover the disagreement between app and parcel

When the label and the app do not match, couriers improvise. One scene showing which one wins, and who to call, prevents a category of returns that is otherwise blamed on carelessness.

Everything here is already in the driver handbook

Upload the driver handbook, the depot loading procedure, or the route app quick-reference card — 200 MB maximum, as PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPTX, or TXT. Scenes come back open to edits, the upload left alone.

Setting It Up for Your Depot

Replace the app scenes with the system your drivers use

Replace the app scenes with the system your drivers use

Route apps differ, and a courier watching an unfamiliar interface learns nothing transferable. Swap in screenshots of your own app for the manifest, navigation, and proof-of-delivery scenes so the video matches the phone in their hand.

Set your own cut-offs and depot rules on screen

Set your own cut-offs and depot rules on screen

Loading windows, return deadlines, and the age-check threshold are all local. Put your figures in rather than generic ones, because a courier who finds one number wrong will discount the rest of the video.

Issue it in the languages your drivers actually speak

Issue it in the languages your drivers actually speak

Last-mile driver bases are frequently multilingual, and safety content delivered only in the majority language reaches the fewest new starters. The same ten scenes regenerate across 88 languages and 175 dialects, so every version carries the identical rules.

Courier Onboarding FAQ

Vehicle condition and fuel, the load counted against the manifest, the route loaded in the app, and any parcel needing a signature or an age check identified in advance. The count is the one most often skipped and the one that decides whether the afternoon runs.

Verify against the label first, then the customer instruction, then call the depot before attempting a nearby door. The failure mode is a courier deciding for themselves which house looks right, which produces a delivery that is marked complete and later disputed.

Keep it out. Access codes, keyholder details, and high-value handling belong in a briefing to named staff rather than in a video that will be forwarded between drivers. Leadde exports an HD MP4 or a hosted link with password protection, but distribution control after that is yours.

Follow the recorded instruction if one exists, then the neighbour rule, then return to depot. The safety point worth its own scene is the one couriers get wrong under time pressure: never leave a parcel somewhere it is visible from the street.

Get Every New Courier to the Same Starting Line

Run the driver handbook the depot already issues through it, then tighten the scenes before the next intake starts.

avatar

Start With This Template. Finish With a Video Ready to Share.

Add your onboarding guide or help-center pages and generate an editable draft in minutes.