How to Create a Transportation App and Succeed in the Transportation Industry

Transportation Apps: Market Overview

Today, stakeholders seek solutions that simplify commutes for riders and improve transit for logistics drivers. These innovations are shaping a more connected and efficient society.

Who are we not to join, right?

This ProCoders guide will help you learn all the needed info about transportation app development solution, including:

• reasons to do it
• features to include
• tech stack
• steps
• where to get help

Let’s start!

Main Reasons to Build a Transportation App

Transportation apps have become useful tools for businesses with complex logistics and supply chains. They:

• improve service delivery
• manage warehousing
• control trucking
• optimize delivery schedules

So, why develop a transportation app?

To Simplify Data Management

Mobile apps reduce the need for paperwork by collecting and consolidating data in one place. They generate instant reports by analyzing metrics like driving time. They can also automate routine tasks, which boosts overall productivity.

To Enhance Visibility

Managing logistics involves multiple layers of oversight. Blind spots often lead to mishaps. A transportation app helps track goods, assets, and operations in real time. It provides managers with consistent visibility and eliminates gaps in performance monitoring.

To Improve Driver Efficiency

Drivers benefit from tools that help them track payments, orders, and KPIs. Transportation apps allow them to:

• access work history
• fulfill tasks efficiently
• submit regular updates remotely, reducing the need for in-person reporting

To Boost Customer Experience

Customers expect fast deliveries and real-time updates. A transportation app lets them track orders easily. This leads to timely service and better communication. The result? Higher customer satisfaction, retention, and brand loyalty.

To Create a Marketing Channel

Transportation apps provide a direct way to communicate with customers. Features like:

• push notifications
• upselling
• cross-selling

create opportunities to promote services and offers. This extends marketing efforts beyond traditional channels like social media.

Reduce Costs and Optimize Management

Mobile apps cut costs by automating processes. Real-time updates allow for quicker decision-making for:

• managers
• drivers
• other stakeholders

This leads to more organized operations and better cost management.

By addressing these areas, a transportation app becomes a valuable tool. Use it to stay competitive in the logistics and supply chain industry.

Key Features for Transportation Apps

Another important aspect of how to create a transportation app is its key features. This section lists some of the most popular features of a transportation app for:

• customer panel
• driver panel
• admin panel

You can find that transportation and logistics mobile app development share similar features in many ways.

Customer Panel Features

• Push Notifications: Push notifications have a lot of uses. First, they can alert users to unexpected failures and interruptions, such as:
  • a traffic jam
  • an emergency
  • any other incident that may cause a delay
    
    This puts the customer’s mind at rest. In addition, push notifications can be used to update customers on the live status of their orders. This includes schedules in the case of logistics service.

• Messaging: customers should have access to an app chat feature. It allows them to communicate with drivers and admins as necessary. The messaging feature doesn’t need complex features like a full-fledged messenger app. However, users should be able to share text messages and, possibly, pictures and documents.

• Vehicle booking: Сustomers need to be able to book vehicles and schedule trips. The booking feature should provide fare estimation.

Other essential customer panel features include:

• user authentication (for sign-ups)
• profile management
• driver rating
• billings and payments
• contact driver, etc.

Driver Panel Features

• Map and Navigation Guidance: With a map integrated into the app, drivers can follow the correct navigation via guided routes. The app can also provide live information on the traffic situation. This allows for route optimization. Offline map functionality, especially for places without adequate connectivity, can be a plus.

• Log feature: This feature allows drivers to record their daily and hourly activities. This includes:
  • mileage traveled
  • deliveries picked up
  • orders successfully delivered
  • number of work hours, etc.

• This feature is also useful for admins. They’re responsible for protecting company assets. So, the driver’s log, which admins must also have access to, is a great way to ensure that nothing is lost.

Admin Panel Features

• GPS location tracking: Monitoring the real-time location of drivers and packages is useful for admins as they have to stay in control. They can also be alerted immediately in case of an emergency.

• Offline support: Admins should be able to provide offline mobile support. This makes sure drivers and customers can reach them in time, particularly for emergency communication.

• Admin dashboard: With an admin dashboard, managers can access trip reports and make adequate decisions. The dashboard typically summarizes:
  • each driver’s activities
  • shipments and orders completed
  • vehicle fleet reports, etc.

Tech Stack for Building a Transportation App

Every project requires a unique set of tools. This section summarises the options.

Remember that the app tech stack is key, so make sure to contact us if you need help with the choice.

Frontend development

• JavaScript: One of the most popular programming languages in the world. Mainly used for building web applications. It also features frameworks such as Node.js, Angular, Vue.js, etc.

• HTML: this is the markup language that determines the structure of a website’s content.

• CSS: it is an assistive technology used with JavaScript and HTML for styling web pages.

Backend development

• Node.js: described as a JavaScript runtime environment, Node.js is open-source and popular for its single-threading, event-driven approach to application development.

• Ruby: Ruby has been around for a long time, and developers still love its object-oriented programming (OOP).

• Python: Python is object-oriented, like Ruby, but not as elegant as the latter. However, it prioritises stability, which is a huge advantage in the debugging process.

• Laravel: a PHP web framework prides itself on expressive and elegant syntax.

Transportation mobile app development

• React Native: an open-source framework by Facebook for building cross-platform mobile apps.

• Ionic: software development kit for building cross-platform native apps

• Flutter: a software development kit by Google for building cross-platform apps

Database management

• MongoDB: MongoDB boasts useful features in database management, such as horizontal scaling, automatic failing, unified API, and the like.

• MySQL: MySQL is designed for cloud-native applications

Cloud functionality

• Amazon Web Services: AWS is the leader in cloud hosting of the three top platforms (with Azure and Google Cloud)

• Microsoft Azure: Azure provides very fast, scalable cloud hosting services.

Messaging and support

• Twilio: provides 3rd party API integration that allows you to connect with customers via different channels.

• Bandwidth: a Twilio alternative that has cheaper pricing and a decent array of communication API features.

Transportation App Software Development: Authentication

• Auth0: a very popular API platform for identity authentication and designing custom login boxes. Those include:
  • Single Sign-On (SSO)
  • Multi-Factor Authentication

• OneLogin: OneLogin promises 9x faster onboarding and over 6,000 app integrations

Payments gateway

• Stripe: Stripe describes itself as the ‘payments infrastructure for the internet,’ used by several companies, including Fortune 500s.

• PayPal: Paypal’s Payflow payment gateway provides high checkout conversion, supporting all major debit and credit cards.

Recommended: How to Build an eCommerce App?

How Much Does It Cost To Make a Transportation Application

To build a transportation app with basic features can cost as little as $30,000.

You will need to spend more than $50,000 to add functionalities without making the logistics app feature-heavy. Very complex apps often cost over $100,000 and even as much as $150,000.

You may also need to include possible expenses on recruitment, onboarding, etc. However, by using an offshore transportation services app development, you can cut costs and waiting time.

MVP transportation app design and development can be done in a couple of months and cost you $10,000 to $15,000.

Building an MVP first helps you save costs when proceeding with the full-fledged app development process. Why? You gather feedback and see what features your audience needs.

To get an idea of how much it costs to hire transportation app software development talents, see the table below.

Role	Average Hourly Rate
Android developer	$54
iOS developer	$55
Backend developer	$40
Frontend developer	$45
Web developer	$36
QA Tester	$36
UI/UX Designer	$44
Project Manager	$38

The table represents the average hourly rates in the United States according to ZipRecruiter. Definitely, you can come across cheaper rates for the same quality in Central European countries.

By the way, we at ProCoders find this region the best in terms of expertise and cost balance.

Contact us, and let’s assemble a perfect team for your project!

How to Create a Transportation App: A Step-by-Step

Step 1. What type of transportation app do you want to build?

Determine the type of app it is going to be. There are different types:

• fleet management
• ride-hailing
• logistics management
• warehousing, and so on.

This is the stage when you define your main objectives for the app. You should also think about monetization strategy at this point. Is it going to be a subscription-based app? A freemium one?

Step 2. Who is the app for?

Determine your audience.

A transportation platform app can be universal, often consisting of sub-apps for drivers, customers, and admins.

Uber, for instance, has two publicly available apps, Uber for the riders and Uber Driver app. You need to understand the target audience and their needs.

Recommended: How to Create an App Like Uber?

Step 3. What transportation app features should you add?

Based on what you know about the target audience, consider the features they need in an app.

Do competitor research to see what works well. Launch an MVP if you want to be absolutely sure.

ProCoders also recommends categorizing the features by priority. This will help your developers know what to put up first.

Step 4. What transportation app tech stack to choose? What are the best programming languages for transportation app?

The next step is to determine the tech stack and integrations that would be enabled on the app. At this stage, you already know which operating system your app will run on (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, etc.)

Also, would the app be a native app, a hybrid app, or a web app? Would the app require cloud storage? All these questions are pointers to form the tech stack.

Sounds confusing? Yes, it does, but it’s also critical to decide. Hiring a software development partner and going through counseling sessions to determine the tech stack is a good idea.

Step 5. Who builds the app?

You have so many options here:

• an in-house team
• outsourcing
• outstaffing
• hiring agency
• freelancers

If you already have an in-house team, great! We at ProCoders will be glad to provide additional developers if you need.

We can also assemble the whole team for you. It will save you time, money, office space, and headaches. Our developers are fluent in English and have experience in over 50 programming languages.

Our approach has helped our clients save up to 40% on their development budget. Plus, they didn’t have to spend all the time on interviewing, hiring, and onboarding staff.

Step 6. Who maintains the app?

This is an important step if you know you are building an app for the future. Support and maintenance are must-dos.

If you’re working with an offshore software development company, you need to clarify things.

• Will the offshore team be responsible for maintaining the app?
• Or will they have to hand over the codebase to your in-house team for maintenance?
• How will you ensure an effective transition if the latter is the case?

These questions are important if you want your app to survive for as long as possible in the market.

Here at ProCoders, we talk about support and maintenance beforehand. We can take care of your platform, roll out updates and adjust the app or website based on feedback.

ProCoders Case Study in Transportation App Development

ProCoders had experience building a transportation app for Same Day Courier Network. They needed a full-fledged transport logistics solution.

The goods transport apps development project took us 1 year and 4 months. If this sounds like a long time, let us assure you that the estimated terms were longer. Considering the demands of the app, a year and a half is quite fast.

The solution was built on a tech stack consisting of:

• AngularJS for the frontend
• Laravel PHP for the backend
• MySQL for database management

SDCN already had a functioning mobile app. However, they needed a functionality upgrade to the updated Laravel framework, as well as some new features.

The app required:

• a live availability feature for space reservations
• an upgraded billing system
• maintenance
• technical migrations

As the project was approaching its end, Richard Mole, the Managing Director of SDCN, said, “The first 12 months have been very productive, and communication has been excellent.”

SDCN are our long-time partners. We’re glad to be able to help them and dozens of other companies achieve their goals through tech!

Conclusion

With the growing demand for transportation apps, businesses can thrive by creating solutions that meet industry needs. Building a well-designed app can significantly improve operations and user experience, whether it’s

• fleet management
• logistics
• ride-hailing

At ProCoders, we specialize in assembling skilled remote development teams. We work with all stages, from concept to launch. Our team has the expertise to develop reliable transportation apps to cover the needs of your customers. Reach out to ProCoders today to get started on your custom transportation app.