How to run driver performance reviews at an Amazon DSP

Most DSP owners know when a driver is underperforming. What they often don't have is a structured moment to say so. Performance reviews — a separate, documented conversation outside the morning briefing — are one of the most avoided conversations in DSP management, and one of the most effective when done well.

This guide covers when to run them, what to bring, and how to make the conversation useful rather than uncomfortable.

A performance review is not a Cortex readout

The Monday Cortex numbers tell you what happened. A performance review is a conversation about why it happened and what changes. The distinction matters because drivers who are shown a spreadsheet and told to improve rarely improve; drivers who feel heard and leave with a specific commitment usually do.

That means the review has two parts: the data (non-negotiable, factual, from Cortex) and the conversation (how the driver explains it, what's getting in the way, what they commit to). You need both.

When to hold a review

A regular cadence prevents reviews from feeling like a punishment. Most DSPs find a monthly one-to-one with every driver — even the strong performers — is enough to catch problems early and gives the driver a channel to raise issues back to you.

On top of the regular cadence, trigger an off-cycle review when:

• A driver's DCR, POD, or Contact Compliance drops below your station threshold for two consecutive weeks
• A driver receives a second DNR claim in a rolling 30-day period
• An attendance pattern emerges — late starts, short-notice callouts, or recurring Monday absences
• A safety event registers on Mentor that the morning briefing didn't catch

Don't wait for a third week of bad data. The longer the pattern, the harder the conversation.

What to prepare before the meeting

Bring numbers, not impressions. Before every review, pull the driver's Cortex metrics for the last two to four weeks: DCR, POD, Contact Compliance, DNRs, and their Mentor safety score. Add attendance records — late starts, absences — and anything raised in previous reviews.

Keep notes from the last conversation. A driver who committed to improving their POD in March and is now at 97% wants to know you noticed. A driver who made the same commitment and is still at 81% needs to understand that the pattern is documented.

Running the meeting

Set fifteen to twenty minutes aside somewhere private. The van park is not a performance review venue.

Open with what's going well — even a struggling driver has something positive to anchor the conversation. Then present the data plainly: "Your POD was 79% last week and 81% the week before. The standard is 95%." Don't frame it as an opinion; the number is the number.

Ask before explaining. "What do you think is driving that?" will tell you more than any hypothesis you arrive with. A driver who says "I'm rushing the afternoon wave because I always get the heavy round" is giving you a solvable operational problem. A driver who says "I didn't realise I had to take a photo every time" is telling you the induction failed.

Close with one or two specific commitments — not "do better" but "POD above 93% for the next two weeks, and we'll review it on the 28th." Write it down before the meeting ends.

What to document and why

Keep a brief written record of every performance review: the date, the metrics presented, what the driver said, the commitments made, and both signatures if the meeting is formal. This protects you in two directions.

It protects against disputes. If a driver later claims they were never told about a recurring problem, your notes are the evidence. Amazon operational audits can also ask for proof of driver management — a review trail is a professional answer.

It also protects the driver. A documented commitment that is then met is a record in their favour. Most drivers take the conversation more seriously when they know it's written down, and most of them respond to that by following through.

When a review becomes something more formal

A performance review is an informal conversation. When a driver has had two or three reviews covering the same concern — with documented commitments they haven't kept — the conversation moves to a formal written warning under your disciplinary process.

At that point, involve your HR adviser or employment law support before the meeting, not after. A formal process run correctly protects both parties; one run incorrectly creates an unfair dismissal risk regardless of the driver's conduct.

Most drivers never reach this stage. The informal review, done consistently and early, usually resolves the problem long before a formal process is warranted.

The data side of performance reviews

DSPOps connects to Amazon Cortex and surfaces scorecard metrics broken down per driver — DCR, POD, Contact Compliance, DNRs and CDF — so you arrive at a review with accurate, up-to-date numbers rather than a spreadsheet rebuilt at 7am. Drivers can also see their own metrics in the driver portal, which means the strong performers already know where they stand before you say a word, and the ones who need a conversation are less likely to dispute the data.

If you'd like to see what driver-level performance tracking looks like in practice, you can book a 20-minute demo — we'll walk through your DSP's actual numbers live during the call.