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Mobile App Development
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The global logistics market is expected to reach a value of about USD 13,326.3 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 5.7% between 2022 and 2027.
The exponential growth in the eCommerce sector, rise in the on-demand deliveries during the pandemic, and adoption of technological computations such as AI, IoT, data analytics, and cloud computing are the factors driving growth in the logistics industry. Digitization of logistic businesses brings enormous tools to the table, that’s making logistic management and supply chain operations management a breeze.
As an efficient mobile app development company, we have served the logistics business clients’ needs with the app for logistics management. The logistics app development has helped them achieve the goal of a reliable supply chain with improved transparency and the elimination of intermediaries. If these benefits appeal and you are keenly interested in knowing about how to make a logistics app, you reached the right place.
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.
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.
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 software solution based on your business requirements.
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.
Having mobile applications for businesses save a lot of paper contributing to saving Mother Nature.
Fleets, transportation, and warehouse data are stored digitally in separate databases that are interconnected and enable easy and quick data access. With the help of logistics and transportation app solutions there is no possibility to modify or lose the data. The processes remain controlled and managed seamlessly, which ultimately improves logistic operations and their efficiency.
The logistic app facilitates real-time updates and ETAs to the customer and logistic partner when the order gets confirmed by the seller. Considering that for some delivery there are various modes of transportation involved which is in respect to the distance of the product/package source and delivery. It builds a huge delivery ecosystem for which efficiciency is of the utmost importance which is achieved with the implementation of various types of IoT sensors used for tracking various aspects with precision. It ensures the time that the order takes to reach the users and reduces the possibility of delay.
With the growing instant gratification needs of people, unnecessary delays have become completely unacceptable in the B2C industry. With on-time deliveries becoming a norm, the logistic businesses partnering with logistics app development companies to get a logistic mobile app developed for bringing sheer accuracy to deliveries. The real-time tracking of vehicles with GPS technology integration in logistics solutions enables speedy deliveries with the best route, real-time location sharing, and continuous updates for unexpected delays.
The digital way to book cargo is an extremely efficient, effortless, and easy job. Removing all the complexities associated with traditional logistics booking, the online booking facilitated under the logistics app development solution logistics app is the best way to get cargo delivery booked.
Also Read: What is a Freight Management System?
There are different types of mobile apps that your app development partner can build depending on the logistics and transportation business processes and requirements.
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.
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.
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.
Tracking and dispatch solutions integrated under on-demand logistics app development to receive the information related to online shipment where the order is tracked instantly along with drivers’ real-time location. It helps with order monitoring, routing, freight forwarding, vehicle tracking, and product delivery. The last-mile delivery technology implementation just adds more efficiency and streamlines the whole delivery ecosystem.
Supply chain management software improves visibility into all the logistic events and enables businesses to seamlessly control and manage them. It keeps all the documentation and material related to cargo such as shipment time, cargo weight, and others in one place. Additionally, integrating IoT makes supply chain management easy by enabling real-time tracking of cargo. The fulfillment visibility enables knowing the frequency of shipment delivery such as weekly, monthly, and yearly. The connected data sheds light on the facts hidden in plain sight.
There is no universal formula to calculate the logistics app development cost as the development cost varies according to a row of factors. The factors individually define the mobile app development cost and when summed up, the businesses will get an accurate estimate for logistic app development. The logistic app development costs start from, $30,000 and goes upto $50,000 as the complexity surges, but it’s not a ballpark cost and varies according to several factors. 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.
Let’s discuss the factors that impact your logistic app development cost with a unique set of requirements.
The frontend development is about creating the brilliant UI that helps in attracting user attention, engaging them while they are using the app, and making them use functionalities with great ease. The logistics with a large number of users requires a robust backend that can handle the increasing traffic without any crashes. The level of UI design complexity and backend strength, the technology leverages vary, which, in turn, scale up/down the logistic app development cost.
The businesses that want to make logistics solutions advanced and progressive prefer integrating the latest technologies in trends such as blockchain to secure data access, big data analytics for knowing unexpected things ahead of time, smart NFC and RFID solutions to securely and easily observe parcel in bulk, pre-generated route for faster delivery, chatbot integration for customer support, and nearby facilities mapping. The cost increases as the number of advanced features implemented increases.
The Android platform suffers from device fragmentation issues as compared to the iOS platform. The app when developed for the Android platform requires developers to increase the efforts and time investment for version compatibility, design resolution, testing, and maintenance. On the other hand, iOS app development requires developers to pour in more effort into quality and security testing as Apple is very strict with its policies and guidelines. The Android logistics app costs around $25,000 while the iOS logistic app costs you $30,000. Don’t consider it as a definite sum of money to pay as the development cost for different platforms based on various parameters.
With a native development approach, the developers built the app from scratch for a specific operating system considering a few devices leveraging the specific programming language. With a cross-platform approach, the apps are developed for more platforms to improve their accessibility to a broader audience. Conclusively, the native development costs quite lesser as opposed to the cross-platform app development. However, the compromise on quality is obvious with the cross-platform approach.
When the project is comprehensive, it requires a big team with specialists and experienced developers, which increases the development cost. The hourly rate of specialists and experienced developers (Cost starts from $50 per hour) is quite high as compared to junior developers (Cost starts from $20 per hour).
The developers from the USA, UK, Europe, and Australia charge $25-75 per hour for basic app development, while South Asian developers cost $20-40 per hour. Thereby the location of the app developers increases the app development cost accordingly.
Get an insight about the Development Cost for various Applications and Websites across industries
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 usersThe 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also Read: A Client’s Guide to Mobile App Development
Depending on your logistic business nature, you need to select the logistic app you need, be it warehouse app, fleet tracking, supply chain management, and others.
Explain the logistic app development goals and the description of all the functionalities along with a flow that you want in the app. The documentation of the specifications makes developers easily understand your expectations.
The selection of app development can make or break the project. It’s critical to hire developers that have the required expertise and experience in niche development. It’s done by checking the portfolio, interviewing them, or communicating with existing clients.
The tech stack selection is important to get the modernized logistic app developed. If you have good knowledge of technologies, then it’s great. Otherwise, the technical experts can help you with the selection of the right mix of technologies and tools.
When the developers are on the board with the tech stack finalized, it’s time to get the app developed, and tested it in the limited market, and then iterate it to improve the app performance.
Summing up
Building a logistics app is not just a cool feature nowadays; it has evolved into a necessity in this digitally connected world. The customers have become more demanding, expecting nothing less than the best; by having a dedicated logistics mobile app, you will be able to provide them with your best service. Also, consider that a logistics app development will substantially improve the communication between your drivers and the logistics managers, leading to better delivery times.
We are one of the premier on-demand logistics app solution providers in the industry today. Armed with an efficient team that has more than a decade of mobile app development experience, we will ensure that your journey towards success becomes smoother.
He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Prismetric . An enthusiastic entrepreneur, interested to discuss new app ideas, rich gadget tricks and trends, and admires signature tech business styles to readily embrace. He enjoys learning most modern app crafting methods, exploring smart technologies and passionate about writing his thoughts too. Inventions related to mobile and software technology inspire Ashish and he likes to inspire the like-minded community through the finesse of his work.
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