Food delivery: riders call from the app—and customers think it’s spam
Riders need to reach customers when the gate code is wrong or the address is unclear. But the call often shows as an unknown or spam number, so customers don’t answer and orders go cold.
The problem
A regional delivery platform connects riders to customers through in-app calling. The customer’s phone does not show a familiar shop name or saved contact—it shows a random mobile or masked CLI. On Truecaller, many of those lines are already tagged Spam because thousands of riders shared the same pool over time.
Riders lose time. Food sits outside the gate. Customers tap “rider didn’t call me” while the rider is literally ringing. Support tickets spike every weekend.
Why this hurts more than a bad review
Every unanswered call is a late order, a refund, or a customer who switches apps. Delivery businesses live on thin margins. They cannot afford riders standing in the sun while customers ignore “spam” calls.
What they did
The logistics team sampled numbers from their rider-calling pool and ran bulk Truecaller checks plus live CNAM tests across major Indian carriers. They mapped which number ranges were clean, which were burned, and which routes needed to be retired. SMS tests confirmed that “your rider is nearby” messages still landed when OTP routes changed.
What changed
- Rider-to-customer connect rates went up after retiring the worst number blocks.
- Support could show evidence when disputing “spam call” complaints—not just rider logs.
- New cities got a short number-health review before launch instead of learning the hard way on day one.
Industry: food & last-mile delivery · Use case: rider–customer calls · Team: logistics ops and support