The global Transport industry has had a rough time in the past few years. The pandemic and other hiccups resulted in supply chain disruptions, fierce competition, a huge change in consumer demand, and confusing new rules and restrictions.
But, time and again, software and mobile apps have come to the rescue by effectively solving the biggest challenges in the transportation industry. With the use of technology and Transport software development, the supply chain and related businesses have come a long way.
Transport mobile applications introduced high transparency between freight forwarders and other stakeholders to make supply chain processes reliable. That’s the reason why the number of companies switching to Transport software development has increased.
Yes, that’s right, According to Fortune Business Insights Report The global transportation and logistics services market size was USD 1,149.92 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow from USD 1,211.06 billion in 2022 to USD 1,804.49 billion by 2029, The market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.11% during the forecast period and will be occupied by several players majorly from the APAC region.
However, despite the need and huge market potential, there are just a few on-demand logistic mobile apps in the market as compared to apps in other domains like Food or Grocery Delivery. Several business owners in the logistics and transportation industry are afraid of investing in technology and are still suffering from challenges.
That means if you are planning to develop an on-demand logistics mobile app like Uber Freight, you have a great opportunity to launch a successful startup in the market without dealing with fierce competition. This blog lists the roadmap and details about how you can do that. So, read on.
Why Develop a Logistics Mobile Application – Reasons and Benefits
Whether you are a logistics business planning to develop a mobile app to manage your own fleet or you want to develop an On-Demand Mobile App, there are several benefits of having the right software in place. It helps you deal with challenges associated with managing a logistics business and provides a good revenue stream.
- High Demand and Revenue Potential
The growth of the global on-demand logistics market is propelling, due to the expansion of the eCommerce industry globally, and the increase in demand for the fast delivery of packages. In addition, the trucking market is crucial to the U.S.A.’s economy, because every convenience and necessity relies on this industry in one way or the other.
- Efficient Fleet Management
Managing a logistics business without any software or app is troublesome. By building your own fleet management application, you will be able to monitor all fleet-related data in one place to make data-driven and informed decisions.
This will let you maintain all your vehicles on time and avoid many problems like technical issues or any type of problem with the engine, brakes, vehicle inspection, etc. This app/software will also keep track of all drivers, their trucks, routes, location, type of cargo, availability, payload capacity, and other information, resulting in a more controlled and profitable business.
- No Paperwork Formalities
A logistics tracking application results in business automation which reduces the paperwork required, drastically. It helps you go paperless for everything – from tracking delivery to sending e-bills, getting paid, and accounting.
Therefore, you waste less money, and save time, and your employees get access to the data faster. Automation also helps them focus on other important decisions.
Where can we use logistics services?
Logistics application is a convenient tool designed to optimize transportation-related operations and storage of goods and streamline and automate earlier manually completed tasks. Besides, logistics apps bring more transparency into the shipment process, minimizing mistrust among customers and misunderstandings between stakeholders.
Primarily associated with logistics and transportation businesses, a wide range of companies may consider the decision to build a logistics app relevant.
Here are the most notable examples of business domains that will benefit from logistics app development:
- Manufacturing. Manufacturing companies have a chance to enhance their productivity through on-demand logistics app development and adoption. A convenient digital transportation solution may assist in streamlining the supply chain, enable real-time inventory management, minimize stockouts and overstocks, and optimize production schedules along with good transportation.
- Transportation and Freight. For sure, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about logistics is transportation and freight niche. With the help of a logistics app, transportation companies can enhance their planning and optimization of fuel and shipment timelines, and process shipment data faster, reducing manual errors.
- Agriculture. As with the food industry, the primary goal in the agriculture sector is to seamlessly deliver fresh products to clients and extract profit. With the logistics app, farms can minimize waste through automated stock management, reduce time to market, and ensure freshness even for perishable goods.
- Retail and E-commerce. Logistics apps may be used here to enable inventory management for e-commerce warehouses, provide comprehensive order tracking and delivery management for online retailers, and set up route optimization for last-mile delivery
- Healthcare. Transportation of medical supplies and medications on time is crucial. Logistics app development may assist healthcare organizations in tracking and managing medical equipment movement and pharmaceutical supply chain management and enable temperature-sensitive logistics options for transporting particular medication.
- Food industry. To deliver fresh foodstuffs all over the world, the adoption of logistics applications is pivotal. This allows food companies to deal with perishable goods delivery and get the most optimal routing for food distribution. Food delivery app development is essential for ensuring timely and efficient delivery of fresh produce and other perishables, maintaining quality and customer satisfaction.
What Are the Core Features of a Logistics App?
The features you decide for your app have the most important impact on the time taken and cost incurred in developing it. Also, since the entire logistics process is observed from three different ends – admin, dispatcher, and user, the features would be according to these three panels.
Features to be integrated into the driver/dispatcher panel
Login/Registration
The drivers need to sign up for their accounts on the app through their email or social media platforms.
Managing Requests
With this feature, drivers can accept or reject the dispatch requests as per their convenience, preferences, and requirements.
Live Dashboard
A live dashboard helps them get a 360-degree overview of their processes.
Profile Management
By managing profiles, drivers can enter and update information crucial for admins.
Navigation and Live GPS tracking
This is one of the crucial features for drivers as it helps them suggest the best route to deliver their shipments on time.
Freights/Shipment Details
Drivers need complete information regarding freight, such as the weight of products, distance to be covered, fuel consumption, etc. to prepare a delivery plan beforehand. Besides this, they also need shipping details like the names of customers, their addresses, contact details, etc. to coordinate with them for deliveries.
Push Notifications
This feature helps them get timely updates regarding shipment status. An option of “marking delivery” can be integrated that allows drivers to share the update with customers and admin when a product is delivered.
Features to be integrated into the user panel
User Registration
Like drivers, this feature helps users create a new account on the app and access other features related to logistics delivery.
Selection of Vehicles
Users must have complete information about the vehicles available to deliver their parcels. It helps them choose a vehicle according to their requirements, like vans for small products and container trucks for large goods.
Booking and Managing Orders
Here, users can easily schedule a delivery, reschedule it, and manage their orders.
Payment Gateways
Different payment methods allow customers to choose a way through which they can pay for their shipment delivery. Along with cash and card payments, businesses can integrate several other digital payment solutions, such as e-wallets, QR-code scanning, etc.
Order Tracking
Shipment tracking features help your users track the current status of their orders and when it is estimated to be delivered to them.
Real-time Notifications
With the help of push notifications, users are informed about all the details regarding their orders in real time.
Estimated Fares
The logistics partner must inform users prior regarding their estimated fares for getting a shipment delivered. An in-built fare calculator can be efficient and helpful in this case, calculating an expected fare based on the delivery location and type of product to be delivered.
Feedback Section
A Feedback portal along with a review and ratings section should be provided to the users where they can share their feedback regarding their shipping experience.
In-app Chat Support
Integration of chatbots to resolve basic customer issues can improve the user experience to a large extent. Moreover, the in-app chat support feature can help users quickly connect with the customer support team.
Features to be integrated into the admin panel
Live Dashboard
The live dashboard offers complete information regarding the drivers and customers. On this portal, the admin can check all the pending and completed deliveries along with the customer experience.
Fleet Management
This feature allows the admin to manage fleets comprehensively. Fuel consumption management, delivery status, location tracking, driver’s actions monitoring, etc. are some of the functions that can be managed with this feature.
Payment and Invoice Management
The admin can easily develop and manage invoices for all the orders with this feature. Besides this, they can also analyze transactions and approve payments with a few clicks.
Grievances Redressal
Under this feature, the admin can easily see the queries generated by users, address them, and provide the best solutions to resolve them.
Choosing the Right Logistics App Development Tech Stack
Once you consider and finalize the features you want in your logistics management app, your development team will pick the specific tech stack to implement them. Choosing the right technologies for logistics app development is crucial, especially from the performance and user experience perspective. Moreover, it will also impact the overall development time and cost.
Here is an ideal tech stack you can opt for to develop your logistics management app:
- Frontend Development – Java, Swift, Kotlin, Bootstrap, CSS
- Backend Development – Python, NodeJS, PHP, Angular, JavaScript
- Database Management – MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
- Cloud Computing – AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
- Navigation – Google Maps API
- Registration and Authentication – OneLogin, Auth0
- Payments – PayPal, Amazon Pay, Stripe
- Real-time Analytics – Spark Streaming, Google Cloud Dataflow, Apache Kafka
- Push Notifications – Push.io, Twilio
- DevOps Collaboration – Chef
It’s important to pick a suitable set of technologies for logistics app development that resonates with your project’s requirements. Therefore, it’s better to discuss your app idea with your design and development team beforehand for a smooth experience.
How Much Does It Cost to Create a Logistics Management App?
Analyzing the exact cost of logistics app development is certainly challenging as every app has its own set of features and serves different business functions. However, you can calculate the average cost to create a logistics management app by considering and understanding the key factors.
App Complexity & Functionality
The estimated cost of developing a logistics app largely depends on the type of app you want for your business operations. For instance,
- A simple on-demand logistics app with minimal features will cost around $15000 to $100000.
- The logistics app development cost for a medium complex application with more interactive features will be between $ 100,000 and $180000.
- For a fully-fledged complex app with all the advanced features, the cost can go beyond $180000.
Backend and Frontend Development
The kind of backend and frontend development tools, frameworks, and technologies you choose for developing your logistics app can play a significant role in impacting the overall development cost. For instance, in the case of microservices and monolithic architecture, picking frameworks for the former will cost you more than the latter. However, it will also provide better opportunities for scalability.
Tech Stack
Choosing a tech stack for a logistics app development project is also a key factor that affects the cost of developing the app. For instance, choosing the most popular programming languages, such as Swift or R will cost you more than other least-used options like VBA or Assembly.
Besides this, you also need to consider the app’s complexity before choosing the technologies for logistics app development. Adding more features to your app will make it complex, making you choose more advanced and specific tech stacks to fulfil the requirements. Ultimately, it will raise the overall logistics app development cost.
Choice of Platform
The cost will also depend on the platform you choose to run your application on. Generally speaking, developing a logistics app for the Android platform can be a little more expensive than iOS as the former requires a massive amount of fragmentation.
Development Team Type and Size
There are primarily three ways through which you can get your app developed. The first one is to hire freelance developers for the job. They will cost you less; however, the lack of professional experience might reflect in the quality of development. The other way is outsourcing your app development project to an agency consisting of people having expertise in their domain.
The third and most widely used option is to hand over your project idea to a professional app development company. Although it would be an expensive alternative, the results would be worth the cost.
Conclusion:
logistics mobile applications have revolutionized the logistics industry by bringing transparency, efficiency, and automation to logistics and supply chain processes. The market potential for logistics mobile applications is huge, and those willing to invest in logistics app development can benefit from this growing market.
By following these steps, you can save costs and develop a successful logistics mobile application that meets the demands of carriers, shippers, and logistics business owners. Overall, logistics mobile applications are becoming essential for businesses in the logistics industry, and investing in this technology with the help of reliable Logistics App Development Partners can lead to growth and success.
