Mobile apps have largely impacted different industries, such as entertainment, finance, banking, retail, etc.
Transportation and logistics businesses are rapidly adopting mobile apps to facilitate better and improved services to their clients and customers. Transport and Logistics solutions such as marketplace app like uber for trucking are in demand.
In case you are looking to deeply understand how to develop a marketplace app for logistics business like uber, you should continue reading this article. Here, we will be discussing and exploring the different aspects of on-demand transportation and delivery services.
It is an established notion that the entire Uberization of the economy, as well as the logistics market, was primarily driven by the unprecedented success of Uber. Owing to its fast-expansion, Uber has revolutionized the entire taxi industry and even reinvented the logistics of the whole transportation industry through the launch of Uber Freight and hence abolished the middle man trader. At present, Amazon is also setting its goals on establishing a major feat in the entire logistics industry.
Mobile applications that are targeted at the transportation and logistics industry essentially exhibit a unique niche in the market. These apps are robust transport solutions that hold the inherent potential to easily make the entire industry quite efficient as well as organized by means of matching the demands of the consumer directly with the actual source and basically cutting out the third-party brokers or middlemen that generally charge a significant amount of commission.
It greatly optimizes the entire cost factor along with the time that is taken to deliver as well as receive shipments. In fact, this is a particularly great way of overcoming all the downsides of quite an unproductive business model where the relocation of the different empty containers cost actually the same as moving the fully loaded ones.
Uber Freight is a revolutionary model that offers immense flexibility and simplicity to the entire logistics market. With the assistance of this application, what was actually a Carrier-Middle Men-Shipper chain actually lost the middle link. It essentially means that the shippers can now easily connect with the carriers, and this approach hasn’t actually resulted only in fewer errors but also cut down the costs for both of the parties in a significant manner. Also, Uber for logistics has minimized the time needed for those who need to make delivery and those who provide it with a great deal.
How to Develop Marketplace App like Uber for Trucking
As we have initially mentioned that utilitarian mobile application development for the logistics industry certainly holds enormous potential. In case you wish to enter this particular niche, you can simply hire the services of a PWA development company. By means of closely working with quite a professional team that pays attention to detail, you can easily get your hands on a functional and powerful mobile app for trucking.
Step 1- Zero In the Type of Marketplace App for Trucking you wish to Develop
In this case, you have two possible situations. First, you need to have your own trucking business with a fleet of trucks, and also you wish to expand the business as well as streamline operations with the assistance of an application. Second, you want to create a marketplace where the shippers can easily contact the carriers. You need a marketplace that allows the carriers to efficiently and quickly get in touch with shippers in their own area.
Step 2- Research for Professional App Development Company for your Mobile App
It is a crucial step since it largely impacts the success of the business. Researching and hiring a reputed and professional mobile app development company is quite important for different reasons. The application needs to be fully-featured, should have a better user-friendly interface, and needs to be easily navigable. In case you are new to mobile app development, you can easily find yourself among a myriad of options. However, you need to conduct detailed and thorough research, check the testimonials of previous clients, study the portfolio, and much more in order to finalize a company. Such a company should be well-versed in retail ecommerce solution too.
Step 3- Validation of Idea
After you have located a professional app development company that matches the requirements your business has, the next step is to validate the app idea. It involves carrying out in-depth market research in order to see if your mobile app fits in the market or how it can easily be tweaked to deliver improved results. It is a vital step as it assists in certifying that all of the efforts made by you, as well as the investment, will not go in vain, essentially.
Step 4- Finalizing the Features to Incorporate into the App
To start with, the launch of Minimum Viable Product or MVP is certainly considered to be a better option. Essentially, you can easily launch an MVP in order to test the application, gather positive as well as negative feedback, and even acquire a loyal customer base too. Also, you may even add some of the unique additional features along with the basic ones in order to make your app quite alluring to the intended users.
Features of Driver App
The essential goal of a Driver app is to allow the carriers to easily fill their trucks with necessary cargo and then transport it to the next upcoming destination. In order to perform this, they need to be able to view all of the available shipments in their own area. Ecommerce app development throws some light on how such app features can be developed. Few of the key features include:
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Register and Login
The user can easily go for the more traditional email registration, and you can offer registration through social media accounts or even provide the users with an individual login ID as well as password after you approve them to make deliveries. Web application development of this feature in the app is quite essential.
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Details of Shipment
Using this feature, the carrier can easily see all of the relevant cargo information like dimensions, weight, type, time and date of pick-up as well as delivery, along with pick-up and drop-off locations and much more, before accepting the shipment.
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Management Request
The carriers need to be able to cancel the shipment if there is an accident or an emergency.
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Route Tracker and Optimization
The carrier can easily track the location of any cargo pick-up and even the final destination point, essentially the place he needs to deliver the shipment.
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Push Notifications
They help in informing the carriers and keeping them updated on the delivery, emergency, and switching to an alternate route, etc.
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Delivery Proof
Whenever a carrier delivers the cargo successfully, he may need to present a delivery proof to the shipper. It can be simply done by uploading a document or even a photo.
Features of Shipper App
The shippers need to be able to utilize the application to easily locate the trucks in their own vicinity. In this app, you need to aggregate carriers for a shopper in order to choose from and then easily notify the shopper once the particular shipment request has been duly approved by the carrier. A few of the vital features include.
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Register and Login
Like the Driver app, this app will also have registration as well as a login feature. In case you are looking for offering services to both individuals and businesses, it is suggested that you actually inculcate easy signup as well as login options through email and even existing social media accounts.
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Vehicles List
It should include all of the available trucks in the given area along with the vital information on them.
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Booking
Whenever a cargo shipment is concerned, the people often prefer to plan as well as book beforehand. Utilizing this feature, the shipper needs to be able to book a particular vehicle for instant or later use. They can easily get a fair estimation for the same.
Read the blog- Do You Want To Know The Cost Of Logistics And Transportation Mobile App Development?
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Reminders and Alerts
It helps in reminding the shippers regarding the date as well as the time of the shipment. The alerts notify the shippers whenever the cargo has been duly delivered.
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Vehicle Tracking
It helps the shippers to easily track the location of any truck using a real-time tracking system.
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Payment Options
The shoppers should be offered different payment options like cash, e-wallet, card, etc. to make the respective payments for the service.
Features of Admin App
This app helps the business owner keep track of all the goods dispatched as well as track truck locations.
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Dashboard
It will contain the entire information on carriers, along with shippers as well as vehicles. Also, it will show all of the orders which are pending and completed.
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Driver Monitoring
It allows you to check every driver’s location, products contained in the shipment, estimated time of delivery, etc.
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Bill Management
You can easily check as well as approve invoices that come via the app notifications. It can even be used to send vital notifications to the respective carriers concerning any change in the route, delivery location change, etc.
Here we have outlined all of the basic features which must be incorporated into the trucking app to make sure success is attained. Along with this, there are certain other features that can easily be added in order to offer augmented ease to not only carriers but also shippers.
Making Money from Marketplace App like Uber for Trucking
Essentially the ultimate approach is to obtain money from the app via establishing a fee. However, the charges which you are going to apply need to be affordable to the truckers and shippers.
- You can easily set it free for drivers and charge the shippers as per the load.
- You can even demand around 10% to 20% payment counting from the cargo’s estimated cost.
- To get more, you can provide premium services such as standard packages, along with secure transportation.
Whatever method you choose to establish charges or even make money from the app, make sure that the truckers and shippers actually find the deal attractive as well as reasonable such that more people are motivated to use the services.
How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Marketplace App like Uber for Trucks?
In order to develop a fully functional and strong app, you have to get in touch with an expert as well as experienced PWA development company which employs a team of capable engineers, like Android app developers, iOS app developers, Project manager, Web developers, Frontend as well as Backend Developer, along with UI/UX designers and even Quality Assurance experts. Also, the estimated time to develop such an app is nearly 5 to 6 months. When it comes to pricing, it majorly depends upon the type and number of features inculcated into it. It also depends upon the expertise as well as the market reputation of the mobile app development company you choose.