Logistics Apps | Logistics App Development

Transportation & Logistics App Development Consulting

If you’re looking for an answer to the question of what it takes to build an app for logistics management, you’ve come to the right place. According to Convoy’s estimation, the average fleet only uses about 70% of its capacity, meaning that it drives 33% of its miles empty. However, this statistic would be different if more companies used software applications in their freight operations.

Building an app for logistics management requires careful planning and execution. You’ll need to consider the needs of your company and your customers, and then find a way to integrate those needs into a workable solution. The good news is that there are plenty of resources available to help you get started. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry – help is on the way.

If you want to design and develop a logistics app, this article is for you. We’ll go over all the basics of logistics app design and development, including types of logistics apps, key features, common technologies used for implementation, main challenges of logistics MVP development, and more. Plus, we’ll show you the easiest way to build a logistics app for your transportation business.

There are many types of transportation and logistics apps because there are many things that fall under the logistics domain, such as transportation, inventory, warehousing, and truck management. Each one has its own specific needs. That’s why it’s important to decide on the type of app you want before getting into the details of custom logistics mobile app development. To make it easier for you, we’ve listed the main types of transportation and logistics apps below.

Fleet Management Apps

Your entire business will be placed on hold if you can’t move your assets from point A to point B without your fleet.

A fleet management solution helps you take care of your vehicles by collecting, storing, and managing all information about your trucks. This application is vital for keeping your trucks running smoothly and efficiently. The transportation management app gathers data about service costs, sends maintenance notifications, generates reports, and more. As a result, you can make informed decisions about your fleet that will save you time and money.

On-Demand Logistics Apps

If your trucks aren’t always completely loaded, an on-demand logistics app might be a great way to generate extra cash. These programmers are comparable to Glovo in the corporate realm. Here is how they function:

The request is made by the shipper.
The message is sent to the nearest driver who has excess room in their vehicle, who then accepts the request and picks up the freight.
The shipper follows the progress of the cargo and receives updates regarding its location.
The system invoices the shipper after the freight is delivered.

Real-Time Tracking Apps

Stay up-to-date on your shipments, vehicles, and drivers at all times with this helpful app. It tracks the whereabouts of trucks in real-time and sends users updates on deliveries, locations, and routes – both domestically and internationally.

My Fleet Tracker {target=”blank”} is one such real-time tracking app. It allows drivers to share their location, current status (such as _en route to customer), and details about the current destination. At the same time, admins have a complete overview of all drivers and can get in touch with each of them via instant messaging. On top of that, the system navigates a driver to their next destination and operates in an offline mode in areas with no internet connection – which is crucial for times when you might be in a rural area with limited or no service.

Warehouse and Inventory Management Apps

A warehouse management app is a tool that helps warehouse owners ensure that all of their shipments will arrive at their destinations on time by providing real-time updates. These apps are similar to real-time tracking solutions but differ in that they focus specifically on warehouse owners while real-time tracking tools have a wider audience.

Warehouse management apps that come equipped with barcode scanning technologies make it easy to track and manage the status of hundreds of deliveries. The best ones even integrate with internal databases so that updates can be made in real-time, which minimizes the need for manual input and reduces the possibility of human error.

Common Errors that should Avoid

Common Errors that Avoid if Want to Create a Successful Mobile Application for Logistics and Transportation.

There is no doubting the tremendous value a logistics application can add to a company. However, the improper strategy for its development could reduce it to nothing more than budget waste. Every type of software must abide by this regulation. Here are some common errors you should avoid if you want to create a successful mobile application for logistics and transportation.

Poor Quality

Well, that’s quite clear. However, it never hurts to point out how crucial the app’s quality was to its success. An app that works poorly and is full of bugs will impede rather than streamline your processes.

Additionally, if it is vulnerable to hacks and data leaks, this could result in legal action and exorbitant settlements. For instance, a single privacy flaw in the Uber app once led to the e-hailing behemoth being sued for $45 million. A man entered his Uber account using his wife’s phone, and even after logging out, the phone continued to get notifications. As a result, the wife discovered that he visited his mistress using Uber.

Security shouldn’t be an afterthought in any case, given that logistics apps frequently have access to the company’s sensitive information, including the drivers’ banking information.

No Marketing

Your task when building an app for internal use is to create a high-quality solution that is tailored to your needs and makes your workflow more efficient. However, this doesn’t apply to when you’re building an app for business-to-customer (B2C) use. When creating an app for external users, it’s not enough to just build a perfect app – you should also advertise it properly.

For example, Everpix — a solution for organizing photos — was a very promising project. However, its initiator Pierre-Olivier Latour only managed to gather about $1.8 million in funding and involved top engineers. They built a great product but it never took off because there was no marketing campaign for the product. So, if you’re looking to develop and launch a logistics app with an on-demand shipment module, make sure you also have a marketing campaign ready to go!

Not Taking Users into Consideration

Basing app development strategies on assumptions can often lead to disastrous consequences, as Hailo found out the hard way. Hailo is an Uber-like e-hailing project for yellow cab users that was very successful in London. However, when the company tried to expand to New York, they failed miserably. The reason for this is that yellow cab drivers in New York don’t take their smartphones with them to work, unlike their London counterparts. This meant that they couldn’t access Hailo’s app.

If Hailo had done more research into the habits of yellow cab drivers in New York before launch, they would have realized that their app wouldn’t be accessible to a large portion of their target audience. This would have allowed them to change their strategy and tailor their app specifically for the New York market. As it stands, their expansion into New York was a complete flop.

The key takeaway here is that even if you’re only researching and developing a solution for users within your own company, it’s important to do your homework. Take a closer look at who your target audience is and study their needs and habits. For example, if you’re targeting drivers as your user base, find out what kind of devices they use while driving and whether or not they’re comfortable using technology while behind the wheel. If they’re not used to using devices while driving, how can you make your solution easy for them to learn and use?

Too Many Features

Some app developers make the mistake of thinking that solutions with lots of features draw customers. Indeed, if you can merge everything into one solution, why develop separate apps for, for example, warehouse, fleet management, and vehicle tracking?

It’s not a good idea.

A project is more likely to fail when users are confused by too many features – just like how a cluttered UI can be confusing. For example, ICQ was the most popular communication tool in the early 2000s but by 2001, it had 100 million users. Its providers continued adding new features every year but eventually, ICQ became so bloated with functionalities that they had to release a simplified version of the app.

Back to logistics, if you want a feature-rich solution, that’s perfectly understandable. But, it’s only a good idea if you’re aware of your company’s needs. The best way to learn about those needs is through research so that you can build a minimum viable product (MVP). An MVP is an app with only the most essential features, and it’s a great way to get started without going overboard with features that may not even be used.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Architecture Matters in Logistics App Development?

Architecture, in layman’s terms, can be thought of as a “4D model” of an app. This means that it typically includes the components of the app, the connections between them, the way these components interact with each other, and the environment in which they operate. It can also describe the app’s design and how it will change and develop over time.
Just as a schematic is needed before building a physical structure, app architecture must be in place before coding can begin. However, in the era of Scrum teams and frequent releases, companies are often tempted to skip this step and rush implementation to meet deadlines. While this does help with deadlines in the short term, it’s often detrimental in the long run. More often than not, apps without architecture don’t have a future. This is especially true for logistics apps.

How to make a logistics app MVP: main challenges to overcome?

Creating an MVP for a transportation or logistics app can be complex and challenging, even if you only want a basic solution. Below are some of the main problems you may encounter when developing an MVP for this type of app:
1) Knowing What You Need. ANY project’s Foundation is this.
2) Depending on those requirements, choose the appropriate app category and feature set.
3) Keep in mind that you’re developing an MVP, therefore make a WORKING solution with the bare minimum of USEFUL features.
4) This minimum’s definition is never easy.
5) Selecting the appropriate technology stack.
6) You could find it challenging to select the best solutions given the diversity of technology.
7) Creating appropriate architecture.
8) This will enable your app’s functionality, stability, adaptability, and scalability.
9) Making a user interface that is clear. It’s possible that your staff members aren’t accustomed to using technology at work. The digitization of your procedures can be made much simpler by a simple user interface, which also ensures that an app won’t divert attention away from the road from drivers.
10) Updates. If there is even the slightest hiccup in your solution, it will hurt your process. You should implement timely improvements to ensure that. But how frequently ought you make them? And what specifically needs to be improved?
11) GPS Info: Applications for logistics heavily rely on GPS information. There is nothing improper about that. Prior to deciding to expand your operations into China. Geographic data are subject to a number of limitations in the nation, which could impede development.
12) Sensible information: Your logistics software will probably use private information. Your team should have great cybersecurity experience to avert any potential security incidents.
If you don’t have the right talent in-house to overcome all these hurdles, you can always make additional hires. But what if you’re not sure what kind of expertise you need since you’re unsure about the feature set? In this case, you can outsource the process of finding the required experts, organizing them into a team, and then taking care of your project to a software development vendor. For example, you can use our logistics app development services.

Reasons

Reasons for Architecture Matters in Logistics App Development

Performance

A good solution architect understands that there are many factors that can affect an app’s performance and designs the app accordingly. They take into account the devices the app will be used on, the operating system, internet speed, usage patterns, possible integrations, and more. Without considering these factors, it’s likely that the app will not be able to handle a sudden influx of users which could lead to it crashing.

Scalability and Flexibility

Poorly designed solutions are very inflexible and difficult to change. They are like a Jenga tower, with many dependencies between the different parts. If you change one element, you need to change all the other parts that it depends on. If you skip something, your app can break in unexpected ways. The toughest part is that your developers might not be aware of all the dependencies. This is particularly true when multiple teams work on a single application. New sophisticated features? updated markets? Initially, take care of all the dependencies. It makes sense that the Uber developers had to create a new architecture for their ridesharing app from scratch when they realized the old design was slowing them down and making it difficult for them to scale and add new features.

Saved Time and Costs

You did read that correctly. Though initially saving money on app development by creating an app without architecture, this decision could end up costing you a lot of money. Why? To begin with, apps that aren’t well designed are more likely to crash and cause unexpected outages. Secondly, because it’s hard to test a chaotic structure, these apps tend to be full of bugs and security vulnerabilities. Finally, remember to consider dependencies every time you want to make a change, no matter how small. Making even a small change can take a long time, and often makes further growth impossible. As a result, you may find yourself needing to build a new solution from scratch. In the meantime, good design will not only spare you from never-ending “battles” with dependencies, cyberattacks, and bugs, but it will also enable you to reuse code to create similar functions. This speeds up and reduces the cost of development.

Logistics App Features: Begin with the Essentials

As we briefly touched on before, the logistics software solutions market is saturated with different app types that each have a unique set of features and functions. Once you settle on which type of app is right for your business, your next step should be to identify the most essential features that need to be included. It’s crucial not to get carried away at this stage and try to include too much since your first release should be focused on testing the waters.

Let’s look at an illustration.

Imagine you are going to create straightforward software to assist you in efficiently and dependably delivering your goods from point A to point B. Typically, such solutions have two versions: one for dispatchers and one for drivers.

Transform your Business with a Custom Logistics App

Developing a warehousing, fleet management or on-demand logistics application can be a difficult task if you’re not prepared for the challenges that come with it. There are many factors you need to take into account before launching a working solution, such as your business needs, the desired set of features, the tech stack and UI considerations. If you want your app to be successful, you need to make sure you have a clear understanding of what your app entails and what challenges you may face during the development process.

The Dispatcher Module

The following features should be included in the dispatcher module:

Dashboard: to see all processes from all angles.
Trucks may be tracked using live GPS tracking to determine their precise location.
Route management: to point drivers in the direction of alternate routes when the destination changes.
Stay informed about the progress of your shipments using push alerts.

Later on, you can add the vehicle management feature to monitor fuel use and the M2M (machine-to-machine) communication engine to monitor each vehicle’s condition.

The Driver’s Module

The following are some of the driver’s features:

Registration and authentication are required to both sign up for and log into a system.
Order management — access to information regarding the freight and its location.
Route optimization is the process of determining the fastest and safest route while taking into consideration all traffic data.
Chat and chatbots can be used to communicate with dispatchers.
Bills must be approved in order to be paid for shipments.

Having these features will enable you to create a minimum viable product (MVP) for your company’s internal logistics processes. However, if you want to incorporate an on-demand element for your customers (shippers), you’ll need to build a dedicated module for them.

Choosing A Logistics App Development Tech Stack

After the project’s stakeholders negotiate and approve the list of core features, the development team will select the technologies that will best bring those features to life. A well-crafted stack of technologies is key to developing a high-quality application – and will also have a big impact on the amount of time and money needed to complete the project.

Your team will also be responsible for selecting technologies for the app’s frontend and backend. For example, when it comes to developing an app’s backend, they might use Node JS, Python, or PHP. Or, if your goal is to quickly test the waters with an MVP, you can consider skipping backend development entirely by using a BaaS (Backend-as-a-Service) solution – which is exactly what its name suggests: a ready-made backend. This will help you immensely. And what’s more, you shouldn’t look any further – enjoy the benefits of “frontend-focused” developments with our BaaS partner.

The following technologies might be used by your development team to create a logistics app with the capabilities mentioned above

Auth0 and One Login support registration and authentication.

Payments are accepted through PayPal, Stripe, WePay, and Amazon Pay.

Database administration: MySQL and MongoDB.

AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud all use cloud computing.

Using Google Maps API or another map API for navigation.

Our logistics/delivery app development experience

At Creative Web Mall India, we specialize in logistics and transportation app development. This means that we not only have the technical expertise necessary to build high-quality business solutions, but we also have a deep understanding of the transportation and logistics market. This allows us to quickly identify your company’s needs and begin implementation immediately. Here are some of our most recent projects in logistics:

Creation of a Tracking Software for Logistics

The customer was looking for professionals who could design truck management apps. They asked us to develop a system for logistics brokers that would enable them to precisely track the number of hours that drivers put in at work. Within three months, the solution was completed, and the client received funding for additional development.

Enhancing a Web Platform for Shipping

A supplier of transportation services approached us with an unfinished product. After doing a thorough audit, which exposed numerous flaws left over from the previous vendor, we rectified the issues and completed the work. Within two months, the solution was put into use.