NDR — Non-Delivery Report. Every logistics manager in India knows the acronym, and most of them dread it. A first-attempt delivery failure costs ₹80–120 in reverse logistics and rescheduling. At 15–25% NDR rates typical across Indian e-commerce, the losses compound fast.
The standard fix — calling the customer manually before the re-attempt — is theoretically simple but practically unscalable. A delivery hub processing 2,000 shipments per day can't make 400 NDR calls manually. The calls either don't happen, or they happen too late, or they're made by exhausted staff who give up after two rings.
How Voice AI Handles NDR
Agni integrates with your OMS or logistics platform (Shiprocket, Delhivery, Blue Dart, custom) and triggers automatically when a delivery attempt is marked failed. Within 60 seconds:
- AI calls the customer: "Namaste [Name], this is [Brand] calling — our delivery partner was unable to deliver your [Product] today. Can I help you reschedule?"
- Address confirmation: "Could you confirm your delivery address — is it still [Address on file]?"
- Availability check: "What time works best for delivery tomorrow — morning, afternoon, or evening?"
- Special instructions: "Any special instructions for the delivery team — gate code, building name, or a neighbour to deliver to?"
The call outcome — confirmed address, preferred time slot, special instructions, or cancellation request — is posted back to the OMS via webhook within 3 seconds of the call ending. The delivery management system updates the shipment record automatically, no human touch required.
The Language Reality of Indian Logistics
A shipment from Mumbai to Coimbatore lands with a Tamil-speaking recipient. One from Delhi to Hyderabad reaches a Telugu speaker. One from Bengaluru to Rajkot goes to a Gujarati household. Your NDR calling system has to handle all of these — in the customer's language, not yours.
Agni's Thunder Emotion model covers 30+ Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam, and Punjabi. The agent detects the customer's language preference in the first 3 seconds and completes the call in that language. Address confirmations, time slot selections, and cancellation requests are all captured accurately regardless of language.
NDR Economics at Scale
For a D2C brand shipping 10,000 orders per month with a 20% NDR rate:
- Failed deliveries: 2,000/month
- Current NDR cost: 2,000 × ₹100 = ₹2,00,000/month
- Agni call cost (2,000 calls × 2 min × ₹8.75/min): ₹35,000/month
- With 40% NDR reduction: 800 fewer failed deliveries = ₹80,000 saved
- Net saving: ₹80,000 − ₹35,000 = ₹45,000/month
The ROI is positive from month one, and the calculation improves as volume scales.
Integration with Major Logistics Platforms
- Shiprocket: NDR webhook → Agni call → outcome posted back to Shiprocket
- Delhivery API: Status update polling or webhook triggers
- Blue Dart: API integration for enterprise accounts
- Custom OMS: REST API + webhook for any platform
The Agni logistics NDR configuration is pre-built and can be deployed in under a week. Book a demo to see it running on your shipment data.
