If you’d like to know how to develop an Uber-like app for a logistics business, catch a ride with us as we explore the world of on-demand transport and delivery services.
Recently, we described the process of developing an app for on-demand grocery delivery services. You can read more about how we implemented the essential as well as custom features in our case study of an online delivery app, James, for Denmark. In this article, however, we’ll dive into the less crowded category of logistics mobile apps. So, let's explore logistics app development in more detail.
Highlights:
- Using idea validation and market research ensures the logistics app meets user needs and market demands.
- MVPs for logistics apps prioritize essential features, while MLPs provide unique and additional value.
- Creating scalable and secure architecture ensures the app's reliability. Managing future growth and user base expansion.
Why does the trucking industry need mobile apps?
In an increasingly digital world, logistics has remained one of the most paperwork-intensive and fragmented industries. At Mind Studios, we've witnessed the benefits of implementing mobile solutions for logistics, as demonstrated by the James delivery app. In that project, we addressed traditional issues like schedule and resource constraints using modern innovations such as real-time data integration, route optimization, and vehicle tracking. These features, combined with automatic alerts and digital paperwork, reduced costs while improving the quality of service provided to businesses.
The same applies to mobile apps in the industry because the app streamlines the process instead of the daily barrage of phone calls, faxes, and paperwork. Apps can improve shipment coordination efficiency and drive growth for companies in the logistics industry by raising awareness of automation, visibility, and better communication.
Not sure where to start? The experts at Mind Studios can help you navigate the unique quirks and features your logistics mobile app will need to ensure success.
How do apps like Uber Freight solve issues in the transportation and logistics sector?
Today, everybody knows what Uber is. It’s a service that connects drivers to people in need of a ride. Its simplicity made Uber a revolutionary and global industry leader. And that simplicity is exactly what Uber Freight has brought to the logistics market.
With Uber Freight, the traditional carrier–intermediary–shipper chain is broken. Carriers and shippers connect directly, reducing errors, cutting costs and speeding up the process. Deals that took days to make are now made in a few taps on a smartphone. But the logistics industry still faces some major challenges:
- How to manage complex route planning?
Manual route planning leads to delays and inefficiency. At Mind Studios, we build apps with real time data integration to calculate the optimal route. - How to track shipments?
Visibility is key, but old systems leave gaps. We recommend live GPS tracking for both carriers and clients. - How to reduce paperwork?
Paper-based processes slow everything down. We recommend digitizing documents, which will speed up approvals and reduce errors. - How to communicate better?
Miscommunication causes delays. Our apps send automated notifications to all parties in real time.
A solution like this is complex and can seem daunting to implement, but it shouldn’t be. Get in touch with us today for a free consultation, and let’s get your logistics business up to speed.
Let’s explore tech
solutions
Get our expertise
How to create a mobile app like Uber for trucking
The Uber Freight app isn’t the only one of its kind, though it’s certainly one of the most advertised and, hence, well-known logistics apps on the market. There were logistics apps before it, and new apps have been built since its launch. Yours can be one of them. If you work with a professional team that pays attention to detail, your app has the potential to be just as successful as Uber Freight.
We recently helped an Austrian print media delivery company embrace digital transformation: calculating delivery distances accurately has been a challenge for their logistics. After analyzing their needs, we developed a system that:
- Integrates with Google Maps via Distance Matrix API to calculate the most efficient delivery routes.
- Allows couriers to track their journeys and report issues such as traffic or roadblocks to adjust delivery fees.
- Provides different features for couriers, area managers, and admins, including reports and a calendar for scheduling shifts.
We completed the project in just 3 months, adapting to mid-project changes without exceeding the budget, ultimately improving delivery accuracy and cost transparency for the company.
This is just one example of how a logistics company can benefit from digital transformation, and here are the steps you should follow to achieve similar results.
Step 1. Decide what kind of logistics app you want to develop
There are two main scenarios:
- You have your own logistics business with a fleet of trucks, and you want an app to expand your business and simplify operations.
- You aim to only offer a marketplace where carriers can accept orders from shippers.
Uber Freight, like Uber Taxi, is just a marketplace. Uber doesn’t offer carrier services; they offer carriers the opportunity to quickly and effortlessly find customers in the vicinity.
Mind Studios tip: Before you start a project, we recommend that you define your business goals. Is your goal to create an in-house logistics application, or do you prefer an online platform? For example, determining the key selling points and target market early on saves time when selecting the final set of features.
Step 2. Find a development company for your logistics and transportation mobile app
While it’s possible to hire an in-house team of developers to make an Uber for delivery trucks for you, it’s hardly a sensible decision for many reasons. It’s way more convenient for most businesses to outsource their app development. A wide range of logistics app development companies and freelance developers worldwide offer top-notch services in this field.
If you’re new to mobile app development and don’t know how to choose a development team in the sea of options, we have a guide that can help you ask the right questions and find the best company: How to Find the Best Mobile App Development Company.
Mind Studios tip: When hiring, take the time to research and identify the best potential development teams. Look for people with experience building logistics apps and read client feedback or success stories. To get the right solution for your business needs, you need a partner who understands your business challenges, not just the technical ones. Communication and trust are at least as important as coherent content competence and productive workflow.
Step 3. Validate your idea
Once you’ve found custom logistics app developers that fit your requirements, they can help you validate your app idea. Validation is an important step in app development, as it includes in-depth market research that will show you how you might tweak your idea and where your app fits in the market. Starting logistics app development without idea validation comes with a higher risk that your app will flop, resulting in lost time, effort, and investment.
Mind Studios tip: Idea validation isn’t just about instinct decisions. How can you ask your development team to conduct market research, assess competition, and test early builds? Using data taken from idea validation to guide decisions saves time and money by avoiding poor decisions.
Not sure where to start? Book a free consultation with Mind Studios’ business analytics experts today, and we’ll help you turn your idea into a market-ready solution with confidence.
Step 4. Decide on features for an MVP/MLP
A minimum viable product (MVP) and minimum loveable product (MLP) are both abridged versions of your future trucking logistics app. You can launch an MVP or MLP to test the app, gather feedback, find its strong and weak points, and acquire your first users. The main difference between an MVP and MLP is in focus: to help your app get noticed, an MLP offers some kind of unique feature in addition to the minimum must-have features. You can read a more detailed comparison of MVP and MLP in our previous article.
Mind Studios tip: When selecting features for an MVP or MLP, don’t stress over what you could or should do; instead, focus on doing something useful to your users. Do not overcomplicate the first version with too many features; instead, focus on the essentials, and the rest can be added based on feedback. When designing first versions, accessibility and ease of use must come before “bells and whistles”.
In general, you can use other logistics technologies for your application, but the ones described above are more than enough to create a minimum viable product.
Features an Uber for truckers app needs
As with most on-demand apps, an on-demand logistics mobile app involves separate apps for carriers and shippers. Or at least several panels, if you decide to go for a combined app.
“At Mind Studios, we've found that when developing a logistics platform, it's best to separate the shipper and carrier panels into two distinct apps. Combining them into a single app can make it too “heavy” on the users’ devices, leading to lag and performance issues. Building separate apps ensures smoother operation and a better user experience for both parties.”
Features for a shipper app
Registration and login
This is a traditional feature for most apps, and you’ll need it on both the shipper and driver sides. If you’re aiming to provide services for individuals as well as businesses, we recommend enabling registration and login via social networks or automatic login via email. This will make the process quicker and smoother, to your clients’ delight.
List of vehicles
In Uber, carriers choose what cargo to accept based on their location, vehicles, shipment destination, etc. But for carriers to choose, shippers should be able to pick a type of vehicle for moving their cargo based on its size and weight capacity.
If you own a fleet, you can also allow shippers to choose a vehicle. In this case, you’ll need another feature.
Vehicle booking
People usually book a taxi when they already need to leave. With cargo shipping, it’s not unusual to plan beforehand. And to avoid situations when a suitable carrier is unavailable, you can implement an option to book a vehicle in advance.
Alerts and reminders
Life is a busy affair, and it’s normal to forget things. What’s not normal is making a carrier wait because you’ve forgotten the day and time for your shipment. This disrupts schedules, and some carriers charge shippers for wait time. Reminders and alerts from an app can help to avoid this.
Another role of alerts is to notify shippers that their cargo has been delivered.
Vehicle tracking
It’s reassuring for shippers to check where their cargo is at any given moment and see if it’s being delivered according to schedule. Tracking can be implemented by accessing the driver’s location via their phone’s GPS.
Payment gateway integration
Shippers should be able to pay for cargo delivery right from the app, without fussing over cash or bank transfers. To manage that, you’ll need to integrate a payment gateway. Uber uses Braintree to manage payments. Choosing a payment gateway is no easy task, as you need to take a number of things into account. If you can’t decide on your own, you can ask your project manager for advice.
Ratings and reviews
Allowing shippers to rate carriers helps you monitor the latter. In any business, it’s important to know your partners, as working with the wrong people can cost you reputation, clients, and money.
Features for a carrier app
Registration and login
Depending on how you select carriers — whether you have your own fleet or private carriers you partner with — the registration process will differ. You can use traditional email registration, offer registration via Facebook, or provide each carrier with a personal login and password after you approve them to make deliveries.
Shipment details
Before accepting a shipment request in your Uber-like app for logistics, carriers should see all pertinent information about the cargo: dimensions, weight, type (fragile or perishable, for example), pick-up and drop-off locations, date and time of pick-up and/or delivery.
Sorting and filters
Shipment details should also be sortable when there are many orders available for carriers to choose from. Let carriers filter by date, pick-up location, destination, and type of cargo.
Request management
Carriers should be able to cancel an order in case of a change in circumstances or accidental acceptance.
Route tracking and optimization
While optimization isn’t strictly a must-have feature, it helps carriers a lot when making deliveries. If you track vehicle routes in real-time and adjust routes according to traffic, road repairs, and accidents, it will enhance the services you provide.
Proof of delivery
When a carrier delivers cargo, they might need to prove delivery to the shipper. This can be done by uploading a photo or a document.
Features for the admin panel
The admin panel isn’t a separate app. It’s a web page where the business owner can monitor and manage their business. An admin panel is of utmost importance if you’re developing an Uber for logistics for your own fleet. It needs the following features:
Dashboard
This is where you’ll see orders — pending, in-progress, and completed — as well as data on shippers, carriers, and vehicles.
Billing management
Easily check and approve invoices that come through the app.
Driver monitoring
Check each driver’s location, track where they stop and for how long, and see any pending orders.
Vehicle monitoring
Check a vehicle’s condition, location, speed, stops, and fuel consumption.
Extra features that will help you win over more users
These features aren’t strictly necessary for the proper functioning of a logistics and transportation mobile app. They are optional features that can help your app stand out. Whether you’re planning to take on a giant like Uber or you’ve got your own niche where Uber isn’t too big a threat, having a couple of convenient features won’t hurt.
Chat
Letting carriers contact shippers for additional details can make a big difference for both sides. Chat can also be used by drivers to notify shippers of any delays and the reasons for them.
NFC and QR code reader
A QR code reader is a feature usually present in inventory management apps, but it can be of use for shipments as well. QR codes can eliminate the possibility of mixing up cargo, for example. Near-field communication (NFC) can be used for proof of delivery.
Support for multiple languages
Even if you’re operating in a single country, chances are that shippers won’t all speak the same language. This isn’t a must-have feature, but it’s nice.
Let’s discuss
your tech
needs
Contact Mind Studios
It can be tough to decide which features are truly essential for your logistics app. Mind Studios’ experts are here to guide you in selecting the right features to make the biggest impact. Book a free consultation today and start building the app that fits your business perfectly!
Challenges and solutions in building a logistics app
When building a logistics app like Uber for trucks, there are many technical and business challenges to consider. This section will walk you through some of the common ones you’ll face and how to overcome them to make your app reliable and scalable.
- Data management: Managing massive amounts of data—shipment info, vehicle tracking, user profiles, payment details—can be overwhelming. Without proper systems in place, it can lead to errors, delays or even security issues. Securing this data and having real-time access is key to smooth operations and customer trust.
Mind Studios tip: Use a scalable, cloud-based database with real-time syncing to keep data up-to-date and accessible. Don’t forget to encrypt and do regular security audits to protect sensitive details like cargo and payment info. - Integration with existing systems: Integrating your logistics app with legacy systems like ERP or GPS tracking can be tricky, especially with different software setups. Without seamless integration, daily operations will suffer instead of being improved.
Mind Studios tip: Start by doing a full evaluation of your current systems to see what’s compatible. Using APIs can simplify data exchange, reduce errors and manual input. We have experience integrating these tools smoothly to create a more efficient workflow. - Scalability: As you grow your business, your app needs to grow with it, handle more users, vehicles, and regions without crashing. Designing for scalability can be tough, especially for companies with big growth plans.
Mind Studios tip: Design the app’s infrastructure with scalability in mind from the very beginning. Use modular architecture, microservices, and cloud-based platforms to prevent performance issues as you scale. At Mind Studios, we build apps that can handle sudden user growth without performance drops. - User adoption: Even if you build a technically sound app, getting users—carriers, shippers, and internal teams—to adopt it can be a challenge, especially in industries that are used to offline processes.
Mind Studios tip: Focus on a user-friendly interface and provide tutorials to ease the transition. An MVP lets you get feedback early on and fine-tune features that will encourage user engagement and satisfaction.
Weak points to pay attention to
- Carrier credibility: Ensuring the carriers you work with are reputable is essential to protect your business from fraud or lost cargo. Implement a thorough vetting process to verify carriers' reliability before they are approved to take on shipments.
- Cargo insurance: To minimize cargo damage or loss risks, require or provide insurance coverage for carriers. This will help protect both parties from financial loss and build trust with your customers.
- Data security: Logistics apps handle sensitive information, including names, addresses, and payment details. To avoid breaches, it’s critical to implement strong security protocols to protect this data during transit and storage.
- Double-booking prevention: Multiple carriers working in the same area can accidentally accept overlapping shipments. To mitigate this, an algorithm that avoids double-booking is necessary to maintain smooth operations and prevent logistical errors.
Addressing these main and additional challenges with thoughtful solutions will ensure the success of your logistics app. Mind Studios is here to help you navigate each step, from data management to scaling your operations, so you can focus on growing your business. Let’s build a logistics app that transforms your company.
How much does it cost to develop an Uber for trucks?
At Mind Studios, the cost to make an app like Uber Freight for both iOS and Android will include the work of the following specialists:
- Project manager: 1
- UI/UX designer: 1
- Android developers: 1–2
- iOS developers: 1–2
- Backend developer: 1
- Frontend developer for web admin panel: 1
- QA specialist: 1
The estimated time to build an app like Uber Freight is at least four months, and the approximate development cost will start at about $65,000. These time and price estimates are very rough, of course, since the actual numbers will depend on how many features you want to include in your transportation and logistics app.
There are many factors to consider while developing an Uber app for cargo shipping. However, none of them are unmanageable. With the proper team, you can create a successful Uber for truckers that reduces the logistical strain. Contact us if you have any questions or would like a quote.
