Logistics App Development Guide: How to Create an Application for Your Transportation Business

Logistics app development may seem like a tricky task. Moreover, why would you want to create such an application from scratch in the first place, if there are ready-made solutions? After all, what is the right strategy to build such a complex system?

In this logistics app development guide, we will focus on how to develop a transportation management system (TMS) for your business, revealing all the “whys” and “hows” of this process. Your own TMS will provide you with better control, modern accountability tools, and AI-based automation and optimization solutions.

Thus, the guide will be the most useful for Transport / Cargo Shipping Companies. If you want to build your own TMS to either replace a 3rd party service you use now or digitize processes within your company from the ground up — we have all the answers for you, so keep reading!

According to Global Market Insights, the delivery industry will keep rising:

Let’s start by quickly reminding ourselves of the top benefits of creating a logistics mobile app. If you’re familiar with all the advantages of having your own digital logistics system, you can jump right to the part about key features of your future TMS. Enjoy!

👍 Top Benefits of Building a Logistics Mobile App

A mobile-based TMS can improve and simplify a number of activities for both your drivers and managers. Such apps actually can help to manage most logistic processes: warehouse management, transport logistics scheduling, fleet management, supply chain organization, and others.

For instance, it deals with the hassle, paperwork, delays, and other fragmented & time-consuming processes that are now a part of the industry. Modern technologies create brand new possibilities to reduce expenses, increase revenue, and make your business more transparent and controllable. Let’s take a closer look!

📍 Save Time on Vehicle Location Tracking

With a driver mobile app, you can effortlessly track and get the exact location of your vehicles. What’s even cooler — your staff don’t have to do anything, since the data is automatically updated real-time.

It helps in a few ways:

• Your logistics and transportation processes become more transparent. You can check the location of the vehicle at any time. For example, to see how far the driver is is from a drop-off location or update them with the real-time location of their parcels.
• No more wasted resources on communication. Since data is updated automatically, you or your managers don’t have to text or call drivers, distracting them from driving, to get updated on their location. They can also spend the saved time on other, more important tasks.
• Quick help in case of an emergency via the mobile application. Having the exact location of the vehicle will enable you to immediately send any needed help in case of an emergency.

🚛 More Efficient Fleet Management

Data-driven decisions are the right decisions. By creating your own transportation management system, you’ll be able to keep track of all fleet-related data in one place.

That will help you to maintain all the trucks on time in terms of their technical condition, mandatory vehicle inspections and never miss any issues with brakes, engine, etc.

The application will also keep the data of all drivers, their trucks and current routes, type of cargo, location, free/occupied vehicles’ payload capacity and other KPIs that will make your business more controllable.

📃 Kill the Paperwork Formalities

As we have already mentioned, logistics tracking app development leads to business automation which dramatically reduces the volume of paperwork. You can now go paperless with everything from delivery tracking and sending e-bills to accounting and receiving online payments.

Thus, you waste less money, and your employees can access data faster and save time for things that really matter.

🏢 Improve Warehouse Management

However, transport and logistics mobile app development is not only about the delivery process itself. It’s also about warehouse management and streamlining your supply chain processes.

A TMS can help improve the way you manage your vehicle and warehouse inventory and dispatch cargo. Moreover, with AI-based technologies, you’ll be able to optimize existing routes and warehouse space usage so your trucks don’t go half-empty.

🚚 Trucking and Logistics App Development: Driver App

The creation of your own Transportation Management System can be divided into 2 big parts: customized logistics app development for drivers and building an ERP-system (Enterprise Resource Planning) for your managers and administrators.

We’ve already mentioned that one of the top reasons to create a TMS for your transportation business is because it will be perfectly tailored to your needs.

Below are some key features that companies usually want to see in their mobile apps, however, we can add any feature that is not mentioned here but will be useful for you.

Sign Up 🔐

This is a necessary step required to identify your drivers within the system. All the provided information will be available to your managers via an Admin Panel. Also, it may be available to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms. It will allow them to analyze it and prepare the best vehicle and order allocation suggestions for your case specifically.

After identifying the driver within the system, your admins will be able to link specific information to each driver — for example, to assign shipping requests, manage vehicles, and so on.

From the tech perspective, we recommend sticking to the standard “phone number + password” login option. Since you will likely need your drivers’ phone numbers later anyways, this option will let you collect them and make them reusable right from the start.

Driver’s Profile 👤

However, a phone number isn’t all you need from a driver. That’s why you should implement a separate Personal Profile Screen during the logistics tracking app development for driving staff.

Usually, they have to fill in the following information:

• Name.
• Date of birth / Age.
• Driver’s license number, type and date of its expiry.
• Photo.

This info will be available to your administrators and the system for management purposes. Moreover, then you can use this info to easily link a driver to a specific delivery order.

Shipment Details 📦

This Screen has all of the essential info on the current transportation orders. It’s essential for drivers as here, they are able to review newly allocated orders and check all the details they need for shipping.

The Shipping Details Screen is usually organized as a list of current and scheduled orders with pick-up and drop-off locations, and ETA/EDA (estimated time/day of arrival).

For more details, drivers have to tap the specific order and this will either move them to a new, request-specific screen or just open up a hidden list. Except for the ETA/EDA, starting location and endpoint of the route drivers should be able to access:

• Total distance.
• Description of the cargo. For example, its total weight, type, the number of pallets/barrels transported, etc.
• Number of extra stops.
• Description of extra stops. This includes their location and the number of goods that should be delivered or picked up at each stop.
• Recipient’s info. Customer’s name and phone number with a button for a fast call.
• Payment info. For instance, it will say whether the driver has to pick up some money from the customer or everything was already paid in advance.
• Notes. Left by the customer to provide details on the order itself or pick-up location.
• Map button. Allows switching to a Map Screen with a single tap. In this mode, the shipping order will be displayed as a route on your in-app map.

Map Screen & Route Navigation 🗺

This feature is a must-have for your drivers as you create a logistic management app. It usually looks like a standard map where drivers can enter pick-up/drop-off locations and have the app build the best route between them.

At the same time, this info is available to your managers in real-time. Thus, they always know how far from the next point of destination your drivers are.

However, it’s also possible to implement advanced navigation features. Here are a few examples of what these features may be:

The feature is usually implemented by Google Maps integration. This dramatically shortens the learning curve for your drivers as they are well familiar with this technology.

Electronic Proof of Delivery ✅

One of the top advantages of logistics app development is the possibility of implementing a convenient electronic Proof of Delivery feature (sometimes simply ePOD).

From the tech perspective, it’s possible to implement the feature in the following forms:

• Photo capture.
• Signature capture.
• Barcode scanning.

Moreover, your managers will be able to use this info immediately.

How can building a logistics mobile app with an ePOD feature help your business?

First, it can lead to reduced delivery disputes and better visibility of transportation. An ePOD feature can also reduce the amount of paperwork and printing, saving you both money and time.

Finally, it’s much easier to deal with claims for damaged and missing items. Your drivers should get photo evidence of goods’ conditions before departure and be able to track the last location of missing items using barcodes.

Except for that, you can implement checklists and a dashboard to ensure that goods travel under required conditions. For example, that may be temperature monitoring or testing details for FMCG products on a micro-level.

Communication Tools 💬

A set of in-app tools enables much easier and faster communication between your drivers and managers/admins. That’s why it’s also on our list of top features for trucking and logistics app development.

By having an in-app chat, they will no longer need to switch between different messengers and look for work conversation. Now everything they need will be in one place, including sent photos and logistics documents. Moreover, your TMS will be able to extract this data and automatically link it to existing shipping orders.

The same is true for calls. By tapping a button they will be able to call your office. It will let them quickly get in touch with any free logistics manager (or the one assigned to this specific shipping order).

Push Notifications 🔔

Finally, don’t forget about Push Notifications during your trucking and logistics app development. After all, this is one of the key advantages of mobile applications over websites.

There are plenty of ways you can use Push Notifications to inform drivers about:

• newly assigned shipping orders;
• changes in the current or scheduled orders (for example, change of drop-off or pick-up locations);
• new in-app messages from logistics managers or customers.

Push Notifications will keep your staff updated even if the app is turned off. This way, they’ll never miss anything important and get all important updates in real-time.

Push Notifications work automatically. Your office staff won’t spend time on setting and sending them to keep the drivers informed on the latest changes.

It’s also possible to set up your own custom logistics Push Notifications via an Admin Panel. What is it? Let’s take a closer look!

🖥 Admin Panel Features for your TMS

Logistics management app creation for drivers goes hand in hand with the development of a special ERP for your administrative and management staff. Usually, it is a Web Application with a set of features for controlling, accounting, managing, and analyzing the performance of your drivers.

Let’s take a closer look.

Sign Up 🔐

Your logistics managers and admins should sign up first. The standard “mobile number + password” sign up option can be used for this purpose.

However, to prevent someone unwanted to enter your transport logistics application, we also recommend implementing extra security layers.

Dashboard 📊

The dashboard is the Home Screen of your TMS’s Panel. From here, you can access all of the essential information and features.

How exactly the Dashboard looks depends on your own needs and peculiar properties of your business. For example, it may include:

• Current shipment status details: pending, in transit, delivered, etc.
• Fleet status: how many available trucks and drivers you have right now, how many are on maintenance, etc.
• Revenue and Costs over a week/month/90 days/year.
• Average loading and delivery time.
• Recent orders/operations.
• Pending complaints.
• Quick status of current deliveries: order number, its load, how far the truck is from the drop-off location, etc.

Note: These are just some features and blocks that can be added to the Dashboard. Your development team will shape it according to the needs of your particular company.

The information on this screen is usually updated in real-time. That can help your management branch make timely decisions.

Orders Management 📋

Despite the fact that this logistics app development guide is focused on driver management, the Admin Panel capabilities can go far beyond it. The Order Management Feature has two main goals:

• To provide you with a better understanding of your business activity. This part can also be described as analytical.
• To simplify and improve the way you allocate and dispatch orders between drivers. This part can be called the management part.

Thus, on the one hand, you’re always updated on such data as average revenue per order, the number of current shipments and their real-time statuses, new pending orders, customer contact details, descriptions of shipments, etc.

Ongoing shipping orders can also be updated with images, status and payment updates, notes, etc.

However, on the other hand, your admins should be able to allocate new orders to drivers from this screen.

While in many TMS dispatching is done manually, it’s also possible to implement smart auto allocation, or at least suggestion, that is based on Artificial Intelligence. Then, the system can automatically assign new shipping orders to your drivers based on pre-set “rules” like assigning to the nearest driver to the collection point, assigning to a driver that has been free for the longest time, etc.

AI-powered technologies can also help you optimize your shipping order allocation and truck loading. Since all the pending transportation requests are available in the system, it can automatically suggest loading sheets for different orders that should go in the same direction.

Such a logistics system can consider even the most complex scenarios that include LTL, pool distribution, cross-docking, multi-stop, and trailer swaps.

Finally, from here, you can also access the History Screen where you can check information on the already completed shipping orders.

Driver & Freight Tracking 👨‍💻

We’ve already mentioned that GPS tracking is quite an important feature as you create a logistic management app for truck drivers, and if drivers can track their own, as well as cargo location, then your managers should be able to access this information.

The feature can be implemented in the form of a list of current shippings. The list will be automatically updated with information on how far the driver is from the drop-off location and show the route completion in %.

However, you can go further in logistics management app creation and implement full-screen interactive maps. There you’ll see the whole fleet or chosen vehicles in real-time.

Managers will also be able to access POD images and attachments with the possibility to print or email them with just one click.

Fleet Management 🚚

As you build a logistics app, it’s important to not only keep track of incoming and current orders, but to also stay updated on your trucks.

For example, here you can check:

• All your vehicles.
• Their current status - i.e., waiting, on the road, on maintenance, etc.
• Assigned drivers.
• Their tech capabilities like load capacity, average fuel consumption, tire management, and others.

Your managers can also use this screen to quickly react to any technical issues and schedule maintenance. It helps logistics companies get the most out of their fleet and foresee all possible issues.

Driver Management 👨‍🦰

This piece of functionality is somewhat similar to Fleet Management but instead, it is focused on your driving staff.

The Driver Management Screen can be organized as a list of your drivers with key info:

• name;
• phone number;
• license number;
• assigned truck;
• current status, etc.

Except for that, you can also manage your drivers from this screen. For example, reassign vehicles or change their wages. If you implement the in-app chat feature when building a logistics mobile app for drivers, your managers will be able to quickly contact the needed driver from this screen as well.

Revenue & Expense Management 💸

Another reason to develop a logistics management app is that it makes your billing process more transparent and manageable. That will allow your admins to access, approve, and analyze all the bills with ease.

In addition, from here, you can easily reach expense details like toll and repair charges, fuel and wayside expenses and so on. All the drivers’ expenses during deliveries have to be approved by the admins.

Moreover, it’s also possible to implement an AI-driven profitability analysis system. It will provide you with insights on what your revenue will be based on the cost of vehicle operations, distance, average fuel consumption, and other parameters.

The same system can be applied to calculate the profitability of every contract and vehicle, your average bill per delivery, and other financial information that will help you to improve your overall business strategy.

Another reason why this screen requires your close attention during logistics app development is that it’s used to configure your rates. For instance, you can:

• set up mandatory and optional extra charges for shrink wrapping, waiting time, and so on;
• support specific mark-up pricing that considers different parameters;
• exempt specific accessorial charges from mark-up;
• set different rates based on the size and type of goods for delivery.

Thus, you get direct access to multiple rate options. It makes your revenue planning more controlled and predictable.

Push Notifications 🔔

We’ve already mentioned Push Notifications as one of the key advantages of logistics tracking app development for mobile platforms.

Through the Admin Panel, your managers can set up specific rules to send mobile notifications to your drivers. Push notifications can also be sent to your customers if they’re using your branded mobile application to order transportation, for example.

What logistics app development technologies make it possible to build such an app? Here are a few examples.

⚙️ What Technologies Power Logistics App Development?

Transport and logistics mobile app development may seem like a challenge since it involves many features on different levels. However, modern technologies make it not only possible but also quite fast and easy to implement since you don’t have to build it from scratch.

You may share this list of technologies with your app developers. Thus, they'll be able to deliver the mobile application for you in the fastest and the most cost-effective way.

Let’s see.

Location Tracking 📍

Location tracking is one of the key logistics app development technologies. It helps in several cases:

• Users can see the location of your trucks and the estimated time of arrival.
• You can send help or guide the driver to the nearest police station, service center, or hospital in case of emergency.

How does it work from the tech perspective?

Location tracking usually relies on 2 types of signals: satellite and cellular.

Cellular tracking works best in cities, where cellular network coverage is better. It makes this option not very suitable for logistics companies with long rides. Thus, the data may be temporarily unavailable and transmitted later, when the network is restored.

That’s why satellite tracking is much more often can be found on lists of logistics app development technologies. Such data can be collected and sent either by a GPS tracker or even a driver’s modern smartphone. Yet, your development company shouldn't reinvent the wheel here and can use available SDKs.

If you're interested in learning more details on how to build software for location tracking, we recommend checking the following article:

Except for the location, other info can be collected and transmitted via the satellite connection: fuel level, tire pressure, battery status, etc.

Map & Route Navigation 🗺

When describing features, we mentioned that drivers should be able to access some traffic info as traffic jams, car accidents, and so on. This info should be updated in real-time on the in-app map. What makes it possible?

The most popular way to implement the in-app map and live traffic data is by using Google Maps services.

To provide an even better experience to their users, Google has been consistently buying startups and companies with noticeable achievements in this field:

• In 2004 it bought a company named Zipdash. That’s how the Google Traffic service — red, yellow, and green lines on roads to mark its traffic conditions — appeared.
• In 2013 another company, Waze, was acquired. It significantly improved the way Google collects information on car accidents, roadworks, constructions, and road closures.

By integrating Google Maps services into your transport and logistics mobile app development you’ll be able to access this information for free.

Electronic Proof of Delivery 📸

One of the reasons to build a logistics app is because you can track your cargo automatically. It means no more wasted time on filling papers and no more forgetting or losing it along the way.

The main technology used for this purpose is a properly created QR code. Every code is unique and identifies each individual asset. By scanning this code via the mobile app, drivers can get info on the asset, mark its location, and change its status — accepted, delivered, etc.

However, QR codes aren’t the only way to manage inventory and cargo. Which technologies also power delivery & logistics app development? Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and near-field communication (NFC) tags.

RFID tags consist of an antenna and a memory chip. To access the data you’ll need a special reader.

That's how RFID tags work in the logistics industry:

The RFID tags may also contain their own power source. In this case, they’re called active and can broadcast with a range of up to 100 meters. Otherwise, if they don’t have their own power sources, they can cover the range of 25 meters.

NFC tags are quite different. You’ve probably already used it — this is the technology behind Google Pay and Apple Pay.

So the bad news is that it works only at very close range — about 10 centimeters. However, while RFID works only one way (it sends the info from the tag to the reader), NFC technology can work both ways. It means you can not only read the info from the tag but also update the tag with new or changed information.

Another advantage of NFC tags is that they work instantly. Unlike with QR codes, you don’t have to open a camera or a specific app — just put your smartphone near the tag and it will automatically read the command like open the app or change delivery status.

If you're not sure what option meets your business needs best — ask for advice from your mobile app development team.

💸 How Much Does it Cost to Create a Logistic Management App?

Logistics app development is a complex process that requires the help of professional mobile app developers. We asked our Dev Team to make a rough estimate of costs needed to build a logistics app — the driver’s application and the Admin Panel. Here’s what they’ve come up with:

Approximate costs to create the Admin Panel for logistics business are as follows:

Yet, these are rough estimates that may not exactly match your project. The cost to develop a logistics app greatly depends on many factors like the set of features, required technologies, an hourly rate of your logistic app development company, etc.

In this article, we used an average hourly rate for developers from Eastern Europe. That’s $45/hour. Yet, if you plan to look for a logistic app development company among agencies from Western Europe or North America, they are likely to charge up to $200/hour for the same work.

If needed, we can provide more detailed costs of logistic app development services. Just reach out to us with details of your project using the button at the end of the article!

💡 Takeaways

As you could see, logistics app development can significantly improve the efficiency of your business. Mobile applications can simplify the work, make it more transparent, automated and, thus, less expensive.

To develop a logistics mobile application, you'll likely need to hire experienced app developers for that purpose. So while looking for a potential partner, try to look for a mobile app development team that has the necessary expertise.

The whole development process consists of 3 steps:

Any question left on logistics app development? Or you want to get an accurate estimate of possible costs? Get in touch and we’ll help you plan, estimate, and build your logistics software!