CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

Challenge

As Carvana’s logistics network scaled to support nationwide growth, so did the complexity of its delivery operations. With thousands of deliveries occurring each day, the company needed to move beyond assumptions and gain a clearer picture of how long deliveries actually take, especially for longer-distance or high-density routes. 

For Bethany Burney, lead product manager for fulfillment, the key issue was feasibility: “We weren’t delivering on time as often as we wanted to. Our assumptions about drive time didn’t always reflect reality.” 

Carvana’s legacy time-tracking models didn’t account for variables such as breaks, traffic congestion, customer location complexity, or time spent onsite. As a result, delivery advocates – Carvana’s term for its customer-facing drivers – were often contending with schedules that didn’t necessarily account for the full scope of their day.

For JP Rothman, who oversees fleet maintenance and works closely with safety and compliance teams, this visibility was also key to supporting drivers in the field. “Without visibility into what our drivers face, we couldn’t help them get better.”

Solution

By implementing Motive AI Dashcams and Vehicle Gateways (VGs), Carvana was able to build schedules grounded in reality. By pairing Motive VGs with custom geofencing logic, the team gained precise visibility into when vehicles departed, arrived, and completed customer appointments.

“We paired Motive’s ping data with a geoservice to accurately capture arrival and departure times,” Bethany explained. “As a result, we were able to replace assumptions about delivery times with real-time insights.”

Today, Carvana has geofenced its entire network of market operations sites. Every two minutes, Motive pings location data, enabling the fulfillment team to accurately capture trip duration, appointment time, and stop-to-stop cadence. This granularity not only improved scheduling but also helped uncover subtler issues, such as “brushing” (when a vehicle passes near a delivery point without completing the task) or overlapping routes in dense urban areas. 

With this new level of accuracy, the team was able to take the next step — using Motive data to redesign their scheduling engine. Rather than overestimate what could be accomplished in a shift, the team matched delivery plans to actual drive times, factoring in breaks and eliminating the pressure of delivery windows that were too narrow. 

“We want drivers to get home safely and on time, without pressure,” Bethany said. “And we want customers to get their cars when expected.”

The impact of the redesigned scheduling engine was immediate. “We’ve been able to increase our on-time arrival rate by 10%,” Bethany noted. “And in the rare cases when a delivery does run late, we’ve cut the average minutes-late by about 20%.”

For Bethany, these improvements reinforced a guiding principle within Carvana’s fulfillment strategy.

“We have a tagline in Fulfillment called Feasibility Over Everything, meaning we make a schedule we can stick to. So, we build plans we can keep.”

To further streamline operations, Carvana now separates total delivery time into two distinct buckets: actual drive time and the time drivers spend on-site with customers. This breakdown enables more nuanced planning for complex deliveries, such as those to apartment buildings.

Carvana is also integrating its internal employee app with Motive. If a delivery advocate enters a truck without logging into Motive, the system prompts them to stop and log in, helping to reduce unassigned trips and improve schedule tracking accuracy.

Importantly, this system empowers real-time decision-making. Managers now receive proactive alerts when a delivery is expected to run late, allowing them to contact the customer with options and reduce friction.

“If we know a delivery isn’t going to make its window, we can call well in advance instead of reacting after the fact,” said Bethany. “That lets us ask the customer if they want to wait, reschedule, or make a new plan, which leads to a better experience for everyone.”

Results

Carvana’s use of Motive technology has delivered measurable gains across operations and customer experience:

• 10% increase in on-time delivery performance after redesigning delivery windows
  
• In rare cases where appointments still run late, Carvana has reduced minutes late by 20% 

For Carvana, these results highlight the value of having real-time visibility and control across the fleet. By leveraging industry‑leading AI and automation, Carvana has reduced manual work, simplified tasks, and made its operations safer, more productive, and more profitable.

“We’re a data-driven company,” said JP. “Without Motive, we wouldn’t be able to manage our fleet as effectively.”

“The data was there,” Bethany added. “Motive helped us see it. And use it.”

The testimonials, statements, and opinions presented on this webpage reflect the real-life experiences of individuals and/or companies who have used our products and/or services. Individual results may vary and past performance is not a guarantee of future results. The testimonials presented on this webpage were voluntarily provided and not paid.