Why door hanger delivery proof matters
Door hanger distribution is a trust business. Your client — an HVAC company, a real estate agent, a restaurant — pays you to reach specific neighborhoods. They trust that the hangers were delivered. But without proof, that trust erodes the first time a client drives through a target neighborhood and doesn't see their hanger on doors. One dispute can cost you a client. Two disputes can cost you your reputation.
- Clients increasingly demand proof of delivery — not just an invoice, but per-door evidence
- Contractors may overreport deliveries by 20-40% when there's no verification system
- Disputes about coverage are your word against the contractor's — GPS and photo evidence ends them
- Insurance and compliance requirements increasingly require documented proof of field activity
The old way: paper logs and trust
Most distribution companies still use one of three methods to track deliveries: paper logs that the contractor fills out, a phone call check-in at the start and end of the route, or a GPS ping at the neighborhood level. All three have the same problem: they don't prove the hanger was placed at a specific door.
Paper logs
The contractor writes down the streets they covered and the number of hangers delivered. This is the honor system. A contractor who claims 2,000 deliveries might have delivered 1,200. You have no way to verify, and the paper log is useless when a client disputes coverage.
Phone call check-ins
The contractor calls in at the start and end of the route. This proves they were in the neighborhood, but not that they delivered to specific doors. A contractor could check in, sit in their car for two hours, and check out — and you'd have no idea.
Neighborhood-level GPS pings
Some tools track the contractor's phone location at the neighborhood level. This is better than a phone call, but it still doesn't prove the hanger was placed at a specific door. The contractor could be driving through the neighborhood without stopping.
The new way: GPS + photo proof per door
The only way to prove a door hanger was delivered is to record evidence at each individual door. That means three things: a GPS coordinate tied to the address, a timestamp, and a photo. When you have all three, you can produce a proof-of-delivery report that no client can dispute.
GPS coordinates per door
When the contractor places a hanger, the app records their GPS position. If they're standing too far from the address on file, the drop is flagged. This proves the contractor was at the door, not just in the neighborhood.
Photo evidence
A photo of the hanger on the door (or the door itself) provides visual proof. This is the single most powerful piece of evidence — no client can argue with a photo of their hanger on a specific door with a timestamp.
Timestamps
Every drop records the exact time. This lets you prove that the contractor worked a full day, didn't batch all the drops in 30 minutes, and was at the door during the hours they claimed.
How to implement GPS + photo proof with FlyerBuddy
FlyerBuddy is built specifically for this workflow. Here's how a distribution company sets it up:
Step 1: Draw the delivery zone
Search for the target neighborhood and draw a boundary on the map. FlyerBuddy reads every building inside from OpenStreetMap and creates a target pin for each door. You and the client are looking at the same map — no ambiguity about what 'the neighborhood' means.
Step 2: Assign the crew
Hand the zone to a distribution worker. They open the app and see only their assigned streets, with every door as a pin. Completed doors dim out. Two crews never deliver the same street by accident.
Step 3: Record each delivery
At each door the worker taps 'delivered,' snaps a photo, and moves on. The app records the GPS position and the time. If the worker is standing too far from the address, the drop is flagged. Works offline — syncs when reconnected.
Step 4: Export the proof-of-delivery report
Export a CSV with every delivery: address, GPS coordinates, timestamp, photo reference, and worker name. Hand it to the client. The report is self-contained — they don't need a FlyerBuddy account to read it. Pay contractors based on verified drops, not claimed counts.
What a proof-of-delivery report looks like
A proper proof-of-delivery report includes: the total number of doors targeted, the total number delivered, the coverage percentage, and a per-door record with address, GPS coordinates, timestamp, photo reference, and worker name. It should also include a coverage map showing which streets were completed and which weren't. This is the document that ends disputes — hand it to the client at the end of the contract and never hear 'I don't think my neighborhood was covered' again.