A Riyadh seller dropped his bill on my desk last week. First week of October: 1,200 parcels out, 214 rejected in remote areas, or 17.8%. Delivery cost 16 SAR each, second attempt another 20. Over 8,000 SAR burned in seven days.
Peak season works like this: the first mile is solved with money, the last mile is solved with people. And people are the most expensive link in the chain in Saudi and the UAE right now.
For half a year I have been pushing one thing: move part of your volume from door-to-door to pickup points. The math is not complicated. Same batch, same week, delivery fee drops from 16 SAR to 7 to 9 SAR, successful delivery climbs from 82% to 94%, rejections fall under 5%.
But do not move everything. My rule is three filters: items under 150 SAR, buyers shipping to apartments or offices, and customers with one prior rejection on record. White goods or anything above 20 kg at a pickup counter is asking for trouble.
Another trap is COD. Many Saudi pickup points only take card or prepaid, and locations handling pure cash cover under 40% of the network. If COD is your main model, lock down settlement terms with the last-mile provider first. Cash stuck at a counter hurts more than cash stuck at customs.
My usual order of operations: add a pickup option at checkout and never pre-check it, buyers hate that. Watch conversion for two weeks. Then negotiate a dedicated pickup rate, usually 15% to 25% below standard delivery. Only after that do you expand locations.
October is the last window to test. By White Friday in November, the last-mile networks are drowning in their own volume. Try to negotiate then and nobody picks up the phone. How much of your volume are you willing to shift?