Have you ever faced a situation when, your driver’s truck is broken at the midway point to a warehouse, or your freight brokers spend too much time checking the load board and some of your truckers drive empty? It sounds like a burden for all logistics business owners. Such situations happen because the logistics business is very segmented and consists of several departments, warehouses fleet, and delivery management. Also, the absence of visibility across logistics departments results in profit loss due to empty miles research, on average fleets drive 20% of empty miles or so-called deadhead trips, that reduce logistics businesses’ income. To make your logistics company work properly without losing income, you need to manage warehouses, track driver locations, ensure maximum truckloads while offering ultimate transparency across all departments, and for all this, you need logistics apps.
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A proper logistics app development has to be in place to keep track of everything 24/7. Logistics and transportation apps can make tasks perfect and smooth. The Logistics app solution makes the work across all departments visible and predictable.
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As the logistics industry has several departments, logistics apps also vary by purpose, end-users, and the feature list. You need to decide which app’s type you are going to build and select one among the following.
On-Demand Logistics Apps
Vehicles do not always drive fully loaded, and if your drivers have extra space in their trucks, they can take some extra freight for the delivery. If you desire to increase the income of your logistics company, consider shipping on-demand mobile app development. This type of delivery logistics apps connects company-owned vehicle drivers and shippers who need their cargo to be delivered. Thus, these logistics apps consist of a carrier app, a shipper app, and an admin panel.
Features
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GPS or map box tracker to determine the driver’s location, suggest the nearest shipping requests, and show driving directions.
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Offers section, where the driver can view app shipping request nearby.
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Order page with details about the shipment origin, destination, size, weight, etc.
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A job with a history of completed orders, new shipping orders, and their status
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Digitized documentation, where the driver takes a picture of the POD, bill of lading, and inputs the name of a representative.
Fleet Management
For an excessive fleet, you need to track the information about each vehicle and maintain them in time. A fleet management app helps you to record, manage, and store all the information about your trucks. With such logistics and transportation apps, you can track vehicle maintenance history, fuel consumption trends, service costs, and other essential metrics to give you deep insights into your total cost of ownership. Fleet management logistics apps involve a driver’s app where the user updates information on the vehicle and an admin web-based app where you can assign the user’s role, track statistics of your fleet, scheduled maintenance reminders, and so on.
Fleet management software helps drivers to update information, track their fleet, and access fleet data anytime, anywhere. The app’s most essential features are
Features
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Real-time inspections submission (DVIR) and issues reports
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Barcode scanning for streamlined data updates
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Digital gallery with images, docs, and comments
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Integrated GPS for vehicle tracking
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Submission of work orders
Warehouse Management
If a logistics business owns a warehouse, you need to ensure that all shipments will be delivered to the right origin within the stipulated time. At the same time tracking, managing, and updating the status of hundreds of deliveries in real-time is almost impossible. To digitize the management of your warehouse, consider barcode scanning app development. Such applications are empowered with third-party APIs to recognize various barcodes and integrate with your warehouse database to update information in real-time. Barcode scanning apps eliminate expenses on barcode scanners, reduce human errors, and increase your warehouse employee efficiency thanks to bulk barcode scanning.
Features
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Barcode scanner to read barcodes using a mobile device’s camera, and update the warehouse database within minutes.
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Integration with resource management software (ERP) so warehouse and logistics businesses can track freight being shipped in and out.
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Shipment tracking for finding a particular freight by the shipper, consignee, or PO and its status.
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Current position to find out about shipping geolocation, speed, navigation status, time of departure, arrival, and ETA at the final destination.
Tracking and Monitoring
Tracking management apps comprises of shipment tracking of all domestic as well as international freight. It maintains visibility on your physical assets at all times. Its features include assets directories with customizable fields, photo tagging, audit trail modules, interactive maps, and reporting tools, etc. It allows the admin to track the activities and trace the tasks assigned of jobs to the driver as the picker and dropper in the system for the workers. After the driver collects and drops the assigned parcel to its destination, the pick-up, and the drop-in location is captured via RFID scanning. The end goal of the solution is to provide accurate parcel delivery details. With this app, you can effortlessly manage your shipment, vehicles, and drivers. With automated email/notifications and full mobile support, your logistical operations are guaranteed to be smooth.
Features
- Unified dashboard
All critical information in one place, the dashboard display job creation, completed pending, on-going, cancel jobs and earnings, allowing you to view vital statistics at a glance.
- Track your shipments
This feature allows you to receive real-time updates on the location and status of your shipment.
- Analyze operational data
Review your fleet’s fuel efficiency, inventory turnover, workforce efficiency, customer satisfaction rate.
- Optimize your delivery channels
Save time by automating tasks, such as route assignment and delivery confirmation emails. Allows a driver to update their statuses in real-time.
Key Features Of a Customized Logistics App
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Dashboard to view all the process in one place
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Admin panel to manage, monitor, and control the logistics operation.
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Management and tracking of fleet
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Push notification to update the status of orders to the customers
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Log reports viewing the status of the parcel delivery.
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Invoicing to make and access invoices
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In-app chat for drivers, managers, and customers to communicate
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Real-time tracking to search the exact location of the fleet
The transportation and logistics app has mainly three versions, admin, driver, and customer panel. All of them have different features
Essential Features For Admin Panel
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GPS System to perform various tasks ranging from navigation to tracking, monitoring, and managing fleet. The managers can track the drivers and coordinate with them, that leads to timely and safe delivery
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The dashboard allows the admin to see the status of all the orders. Manage, monitor, and control end to end delivery process. Stay connected with customers to resolve their queries quickly.
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Push notification to send real-time updates on order status, send the information regarding driver allotment, invoice, and order completion.
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Vehicle management facilitates the fleet manager to track the vehicles and keep the check on fuel consumption. The transporter manage the fleet effectively with this feature
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Machine to machine communication enables the admin to monitor the vehicle’s health from a remote place. It keeps the fleet managers aware of the vehicle condition and maintenance requirements.
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Analytics and Multilanguage support
Essential Features For Customers
- Registration
Simple and easy signup or registration process to get the valuable data of customers like email addresses, names, and contact details.
- Alerts
Customers get real-time alerts about order booking, invoice, tracking, and delivery of parcel when the vehicle left the warehouse and reaches the destination.
- Payment Gateway
Customers can pay online, simply, safely, and securely with the help of a payment gateway.
- Track Order
Customers can track their orders in real-time to find the exact location of the consignment and they can predict the time of delivery.
- Rating and Feedback
Customer reviews or feedback after receiving the goods. Their feedback and suggestions are used to improve customer services.
- Social Media
Integration of social media in-app chat.
Drivers Features
- Registration
Driver signs up or registration through email or social media account.
- Order Management
The driver can have details about the pick-up and destination with this feature.
- Route Tracking
Map box or GPS technology allows the driver to search for the exact and shortest route of parcel delivery.
- In-app Chat
It enables the drivers to remain in touch with the admin as and when necessary.
- Bills Approval
Receipt of payments and bills approval an additional feature of the driver-side app.
Our estimation and development of logistics apps with customized features for different clients, the cost largely depends upon the number of features and complexities involved in the app. We consider our following services for the payment, design, backend development, web development, iOS and Android app development, project management, quality assurance, support, and maintenance, etc.
A total cost for a simple logistics and transportation app development may land to $ 25K-40K and can go as high as $ 1 lakhs to $1.5 lakhs.
In a nutshell, the logistics app can improve performance across all departments, from the warehouse to vehicle maintenance. If you have an idea and want to consider mobile app development, then we are always here at your disposal, get in touch with us.
