Are you a logistics operator? Are you tired of situations when your driver calls midway to tell you that the truck has broken down or the customer repeatedly calls to ask about the consignment’s whereabouts? Many other such situations are also faced by logistics operators all over the world. A logistics app might prove to be a great helping hand to you.
The global logistics market is expected to reach a size of $12.25 trillion by the year 2025. The exponential growth of the e-commerce industry is one of the most important factors driving the growth of the logistics industry. Better internet penetration and a rising middle class in the developing nations are the other factors fuelling the growth of the logistics sector.
As an efficient mobile app development company, we can say that a mobile app can give you much better visibility for your logistics business. It can ensure that your trucks always go with optimum truckloads, track your drivers’ location, update you if the driver is driving rash, and assure you that the maintenance of your trucks is done timely. All these activities will eventually contribute to making your business hassle-free.
Top Benefits of logistic mobile app for your transportation business
A mobile app can help you improve your logistics business significantly. Let us have a look at the various benefits of having a logistics application for your business.
🔹 A better image in the market
By building a dedicated mobile app for your transportation or logistic business, you will improve the presence of your company in the market. Today’s customers like technology-enabled solutions and services, and having an app will put a loud and clear message that your company is tech-savvy.
🔹 Improved Customer Service
An app allows your customers to track their shipments easily and helps you to complete every order delivery on-time; hence, it improves your brand image in the market. By providing an efficient parcel tracking mechanism, you can enhance the customer experience. This is just one of the aspects there are many other benefits too, of having a customized logistic app developed based on your business requirements.
🔹 Stay worry-free in fleet management.
Fleet management can prove to be a headache, especially if you have a large fleet. A mobile app can provide you with real-time updates on your fleet’s status, allowing you to manage your fleet efficiently.
A simple tap on the mobile app will reveal the driver’s location, estimated time to deliver the goods, and other important details. If something pops up immediately, you could even instruct the driver on the app to act accordingly. On-demand app optimization techniques can also help you customize the logistic application as per your need
🔹 Less Paperwork
Having mobile applications for businesses save a lot of paper contributing to saving Mother Nature.
Different Types of mobile apps for Logistics Company
Different Types of mobile apps for Logistics Company
There are different types of mobile apps that your app development partner can build depending on the logistics and transportation business processes and requirements.
🔹 Fleet Management App
In the fleet management app, the data related to the entire fleet is stored in the app. The app helps in co-coordinating the vast fleet of a logistics company scattered across various geographies.
Using the app, the logistics manager can know the exact status of any vehicle in the fleet in real-time. The fleet management app boosts productivity by enabling the management to make decisions quickly.
🔹 Logistics on-demand app
The on-demand app model has come to the limelight after the success of Uber. A logistics on-demand app will allow the customers to book their freight carrier directly from the app. An on-demand app saves time for the customer and the freight carrier, and it also helps in minimizing errors.
🔹 Warehouse Management Apps
The warehouse mobile apps store data related to the products stored in the warehouse of a logistics company before they are loaded on the vehicles. Wrong delivery is a headache that no logistics company wants. It spoils the reputation of the company, makes customers angry, management frustrated, and contributes negatively to the bottom-line of the company; a well-designed logistics warehouse app can save you all this trouble and make the process smooth.
➯ Related –Revamp your Logistics Management system by integrating IoT and GPS technology
Logistic App Development quote gif
How much does On-demand Logistics App Development Costs?
The cost of building a mobile app depends on the type and number of features that you want to add to your app. The more complex features you add in the app will require more developing hours, which will lead to a consequent rise in the cost associated with the development of the app.
Another critical factor affecting the cost of a mobile app is the mobile app development company’s location. For instance, if you are getting your app developed from the USA, you will have to shell out 3-4 times more than the development cost in India.
It would help if you also considered other charges like app maintenance, updating, marketing, and the cost of testing the app. Nevertheless, you should also follow some tips to avoid hidden app development costs.
Some famous companies having their own logistics app
➯ UPS Supply Chain Solutions
➯ B. Hunt Transport Services
➯ DHL Supply Chain
➯ FedEx
➯ USPS (united states postal service)
Must-have Features in an On-demand logistic mobile app **different screen of Logistic App with basic features
For better clarity, we can divide the list of features in two, the basic features and the advanced features based on the business’s requirements.
Logistic business Basic Features to include for different user types
When you build a logistics app, you will need to include features for three types of users
The end-users, the drivers, and the logistics managers or the admins managing the logistics operations. Hence you will need the following basic features for the three kinds of users.
Customer Panel
➮ Sign up/sign in
➮ Choosing the type of vehicle
➮ Notifications for status of cargo
➮ Rating the drivers
➮ Getting quoation
➮ Live shipment tracking
Driver Panel
➮ Freight details
➮ Navigation
➮ Emergency notification to admins
Admin Panel
➮ Dashboard for overviewing and managing the complete logistic application
➮ Manage freight
➮ Manage drivers
➮ Manage customer requests
➮ Billing and invoice generation
➮ Monitor vehicle health and fuel consumption
➮ Send push notification to the concerned user types
Advanced features for a logistics app
screen with a little advanced features
Apart from the basic features, you should consider including a few advanced features in your logistics app development so that you gain a competitive advantage over your peers.
🔹 Pre-Plan Routes for Drivers
Going through a proper route can mean the difference between profitability and loss for a logistics company. By not choosing an optimum way, a vehicle can waste time and fuel, adding up to the expenses.
In the driver app, you could include a feature that would help the drivers with route management. It would assist the drivers to save time as they, in advance, know which route to take to avoid traffic quagmire.
🔹 Journey Reports
Think about a feature that will automatically send the driver’s log module to you. Won’t it help in easing the hassles of your logistics manager and that of the driver?
Journey reports is a feature that can help reduce the hassles on both sides, and also it can help in making the communication better. This feature will send you the trips or journeys taken by the drivers and all the details like start and end-time.
🔹 Vehicle maintenance updates and fuel consumption
The logistics business owners should have systems to monitor the health of their vehicles. Logistics app can do the job by keeping a watch on your vehicles’ maintenance schedule. The app will let you know about the vehicles’ fuel consumption patterns so that you can optimize the vehicle and its route for better fuel efficiency.
🔹 In-App Chat
Real-time in-app chat should be included in your app as it would allow the drivers to communicate with the head office whenever they want. As the chat history will be saved in the app, the communication will be much smoother as the stakeholders can refer to previously given instructions and also documents posted in the past. Also, you can employ the services of a chatbot to solve some common issues. A chatbot will make the chat interaction speedier and more efficient.
An in-app chat feature will ensure that your drivers are always connected with the fleet managers.
🔹 Multilingual Support
If you have a logistics company that operates internationally or in a multilingual country like India, then you should consider multilingual support to your logistics app development. It is because it becomes difficult for your fleet managers to coordinate with different drivers who do not communicate in the same language.
You should include the local language of the driver in the driver app. This way, you will considerably shorten the app’s learning curve, helping the drivers get on board quickly.
🔹 Find Nearby Gas Station or Mechanic Help
Another strong recommendation to add a feature in your driver’s app is to suggest the nearest gas station. For a driver, a nightmare is a sudden breakdown of a vehicle. This is because the drivers lose valuable time in finding the mechanic or gas station, delaying deliveries which, in turn, will affect your services and may tarnish your company’s hard-earned reputation
🔹 Driver’s Safety
The driver’s safety is of paramount importance in the logistics business. To ensure that your drivers are following safe driving practices, you can include some driver safety features like monitoring the speed, use of brakes, etc. If a driver is not driving safely, the app will make the phone beep loudly, making the drivers aware of their negligence.
🔹 Offline Support
Drivers often have to travel to areas where there is little internet connectivity. You should include offline support for some functions in the logistics app so that the drivers can input and retrieve some critical data. For example, a delivery location can be saved by the app so that even in the absence of the internet, the driver can view the app’s downloaded map.
Technology stack for a Logistics mobile app
The technology stack selection plays an important role in ensuring the success of an app. While selecting the technology stack, one should have a look at the prevalent technologies, their relevance with the project, and the capabilities of the development team.
The following is a suggested technology stack for a logistics app.
◾️ Payment: The logistics app can make life easy for customers by allowing them to pay through various modes like credit/debit cards, wallets, net banking, and so on. Stripe, PayPal andE-wallet can helo in integrating various payment modes in the logistics app.
◾️ Real-time analytics: Data analytics can help the logistics app users in removing the bottlenecks in the process and in-turn in improving their bottom line. IBM, Spark, Cisco, and Hadoop can help in installing robust rea-time analytics systems in a logistics app.
◾️ Database: HBase, Mail Chimp Integration, and MongoDB are the database management systems that will aid in managing the humongous amount of data generated in a logistics operation.
◾️ Notification: io, Twilio assist in leveraging the power of push notifications in the logistics app.
◾️ Cloud technology: Cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud will help in integrating the cloud with a logistics app.
Team required to build a Customized Logistics App
app development team
Mobile app development is a team process and one cannot expect to get a great end result without smooth coordination between all the different team members. One should take enough care while team selection and check the credentials of all the team members thoroughly before assigning the project to the team.
You will require the assistance of the following team members to build a logistics mobile app.
➮ Project managers
➮ Developers
➮ UI/UX designers
➮ Testers
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