Transportation App Development - How to Develop App Like Uber For Delivery Trucks

Ever since Uber become a worldwide success, nearly every transportation business wants to follow Uber’s footsteps.

And if you think about it, the ‘Uberization’ concept has brought a revolutionary change to the entire system of relations between customers and businesses offering transportation services.

In fact, because of the immense perks that the on demand apps has to offer, more and more trucking and logistics businesses are building an app like Uber for delivery trucks.

In this blog, we will address inquiries that we’ve received from transportation businesses who are considering to build their own app like Uber for delivery trucks.

Let’s start with the most common question…

Why Does The Delivery Trucking Industry Need On-Demand Apps?

If we look at the data, trucks move about 71% of goods in the US. But the local delivery trucks businesses are still unprofitable.

Reason? – It’s mainly because the truckers usually drive back empty, which is almost as costly as the fully-loaded trucks.

According to the American Transporation Research Institute report, 20% of miles are driven empty.

So, for trucking businesses to become profitable, they need to improve the utilization of their trucks, which can be easily accomplished with an on demand app.

Another problem with the traditional trucking business system is freight brokers.

Freight brokers basically work as a liaison between carriers and delivery trucks companies. But the problem with freight brokers is that they take 20% commission.

In addition, the whole process of matching a carrier with shippers, finding drivers, and arranging transportation take about two or three hours, which is not quite efficient.

This is the part where on demand app like Uber for delivery trucks come into the picture.

Just like Uber connects taxi drivers with passengers, your own transportation app can connect truckers with shippers, eliminating the need for freight brokers.

Simply put, through transportation app development, you can establish a direct connection between truckers and those who need their goods to be delivered at some place.

In addition, the app can also prevent trucks from returning empty by improving the visibility of a company’s entire supply chain.

That being said, let’s find out how to build an app like Uber for delivery trucks of your own.

Step-By-Step Process to Build an On Demand App for Delivery Trucks

The Uber for delivery trucks app is not a new concept in the market. There are already a few startups like uShip, Uber Freight, Cargomatic, etc present in the market. But compared to the taxi industry, the competition is quite low.

So, needless to say, that if you work with the right professionals, you have an opportunity to become successful as Uber in the logistics industry.

Here are the steps that you should follow to build your on demand transportation app for delivery trucks.

Step 1 – Decide The Type of App You Want to Build

For building an app for delivery trucks, you have two options:

• You’re running your own delivery trucking business and wants to simplify your day-to-day operations.
• You aim to create a marketplace like Uber where you connect shippers with truckers.

Step 2 – Find & Hire Mobile App Developers

Once you decide the type of app you want to develop, you need to find reliable mobile app developers who can build your mobile app. At this point, you’ve two options:

• You can either hire mobile app developers in-house.
• Or you can outsource your mobile app project to a mobile app development company.

Now, hiring mobile app developers in-house is basically not a sensible decision for several reasons. For starters, you’ve to go through the hassle of inviting candidates, conducting interviews, and creating infrastructure for them to work.

Therefore, it’s more convenient for people like you to outsource the entire mobile app project. Doing so will not only relieve you from all the hassle, but it also allows you to focus more on growing your business once the app is ready.

Step 3 – Validating Your Idea

Once you’ve found a reliable mobile app development partner, it’s time to validate your app idea.

Now, remember that idea validation is extremely important. And if not done properly, then there are higher chances of your app failing, resulting in wasted time, money, and resources.

However, if you’ve found the right partner to build your mobile app, they can easily validate your idea by performing in-depth market research and tweaking idea to fit in the market.

Step 4 – Deciding MVP Features

MVP is basically called minimum viable product where an app is developing with only core features to test an idea in the real market and gather feedback from early adopters.

For your transportation app, you need to build two separate apps for shippers and truckers. In addition to those apps, you’ll also need to develop a web admin panel to monitor all business operations.

Let’s start with shipper app features.

Shippers App Features:

• Registration & Login

This is a traditional but must-have feature for your transportation app. In addition to a regular registration form, we recommend adding an option to register or login via email and social networks. Doing so will make the registration process quick and delightful to your users.

• List the Type of Vehicles

In a transportation app, it is important to let shippers choose the type of vehicles available that will deliver their goods based on its size and weight.

• Vehicle Booking

In Uber, passengers generally book a cab when they are ready to leave. But in logistics, that’s not the case. So, it is recommended to let shippers book vehicles in advance to avoid a situation where a suitable vehicle is unavailable.

• Reminders

It’s normal to forget things. But, what’s not normal is making a carrier wait because you’ve forgotten the day and time of your shipment.

Making this mistake not only disrupts the schedule of both parties but it will also cost you more as many truckers charge shippers for wait time. So, the reminder feature is kind of necessary to include.

• Real-Time Tracking

Real-time tracking feature can add a lot of value to your transportation app as it will reassure shippers by allowing them to track where their shipment is at any given moment.

This feature can be easily integrating by accessing the driver’s location via their smartphone’s GPS.

• In-App Payment

Shippers should be able to pay for the shipment delivery right from your app. But, to add this feature, you’ll have to choose and integrate a payment gateway. Uber, for example, uses Braintree.

• Reviews & Ratings

You should let shippers rate and write reviews for carriers they recently worked with. This will help other shippers to avoid working with the wrong people.

Truckers App Features

• Registration & Login

The registration process will differ based on whether you’ve your own fleet or partner with local fleet carriers. If you’ve your own fleet, you can skip the registration process and directly add details of your drivers and types of vehicles.

If you’re partnering with individual carriers, then you can offer registration via email or social networks in addition to the traditional registration process.

• Shipping Details

Before accepting a shipment order, you or the partnered carriers should be able to view all details about the shipment type, weight, pick-up & drop-off locations, day and time for pick-up and drop-off.

• Bid on Available Jobs

In addition to accepting or rejecting shipment offers, the individual carriers should also be able to see the list of available jobs on a separate screen with all details and apply for the job.

• Route Optimization

Though the route optimization is not strictly a must-have feature but it will make your partnered carriers happy when delivering shipments. So, if your budget allows, consider including a feature that will adjust the routes according to traffic situations, road repairs, or accidents to enhance your services.

• Proof of Delivery

Most shippers ask for proof of delivery to truckers. Therefore, including this feature becomes a necessity. In your transportation app, you can do this by either uploading a picture or a digital signature of the person who received the delivery.

Web Admin Panel Features

An Admin Panel is extremely important for transportation app to monitor and manage daily operations. And it needs to have the following features.

• Dashboard

This is where you’ll see all the orders – new, pending, and completed, – along with details like shipper name, carrier name, and date & time.

• Driver Monitoring

You must also include the feature to track drivers in real-time along with details like where they stop, for how long, and check if they’ve any pending orders for the day.

• Billing Management

The billing management feature can help you easily organize, check, and approve all invoices that are generated from the truckers app.

• Vehicle Monitoring

Vehicle monitoring, in addition to driver monitoring, is much needed because it will allow you to keep a check on each vehicle’s condition, speed, location, stops, and fuel consumption to better optimize all your vehicles.

So, with that we’ve now outlined every necessary feature for your transportation app. These features are enough to launch your own Uber Freight like app startup.

Conclusion

If you follow the above steps, you can easily build a solution for your transportation business or launch a new Uber Freight like app startup. But remember, the transportation industry is rapidly evolving, so it’s best to make the most of the opportunity while it’s available.

With the help of the right mobile app development company, you can easily develop an app like Uber for delivery trucks.