It seems backwards that the final few miles cost more than the thousand that came before, but the economics are brutal. Long-haul freight moves enormous volume in one direction on one vehicle — extremely efficient per unit. The last mile is the opposite: many small drops, scattered addresses, traffic, parking, failed delivery attempts, and a driver who can only complete so many stops an hour.

In a dense city, the inefficiency compounds. A driver circling for parking, double-parking to run a package up to a fourth-floor walk-up, waiting for a buzzer, dealing with a building that requires a certificate of insurance — every one of those is time, and time is the cost. Add the toll structure in places like Manhattan's congestion zone, where commercial vehicles pay on every entry, and the per-delivery cost climbs further.

Failed deliveries make it worse. A missed delivery means a redelivery attempt, doubling the cost of that drop. This is why last-mile efficiency — accurate addresses, reliable access, first-attempt success — is where delivery operations win or lose money.