Route Management App for an LTL Shipment Leader Launched in 2 Months

About Our Client

The Client is one of America’s leading freight transportation providers focused on end-to-end less-than-truckload (LTL) shipment services. The company operates an in-house fleet of 17,000+ vehicles. Throughout its 50 years in business, our client has partnered with a range of global T&L providers to expand its service offer with intermodal freight.

Shipment Opacity and Extensive Communication Hampered Efficient Route Management

LTL transportation assumes combining LTL shipments from multiple customers into one full truck load shipment, and thus, commonly involves complex multi-stop routes. Historically, our Client’s fleet managers relied on GPS-based fleet tracking to monitor route progress and used personal messengers or phone calls to keep in sync with drivers. However, this process provided little real-time control over the execution of the route, burdened managers with intensive communication, and distracted drivers during the journey. Plus, fleet managers could not ensure that a driver would correctly fill out the paperwork, which was plentiful due to the numerous, varied shipping destinations.

The Client decided to implement an Android app that would enable drivers to check the route tasks and report their completion quickly and with minimal effort. App integration with the company’s fleet management system would provide fleet managers with full visibility into the route progress and ongoing connection to drivers throughout the shipping process.

The Client decided to outsource the project to a professional IT vendor. Trusting ScienceSoft’s mature project management practices and decade-long experience in the transportation and logistics domain, the company commissioned us for the end-to-end development of the Android app.

Design and Development of an LTL Route Management App

ScienceSoft provided the Client with a development team consisting of a project manager, a business analyst, a full-stack Android developer, and a QA engineer.

Our Client already had a clear vision of the future app, so our business analyst helped the company consolidate and fine-tune the requirements, resolving contradictory expectations. She introduced a detailed technical requirements specification that laid the basis for the app’s technical design.

When designing the app’s UX and UI, ScienceSoft’s team prioritized driver convenience and safety. Our specialists introduced intuitive user journeys and a clear, minimalistic visual style to alleviate the Client’s concerns regarding distracted driving.

After the app’s design was approved by our Client, ScienceSoft’s team moved to the implementation stage. Although the project scope was defined from the onset, we suggested cooperating under the Kanban model (daily refinements in the first week, then weekly planning and review sessions) to give the Client more control over the progress and foster continuous releases.

ScienceSoft’s engineers carried out the entire development process, from coding to testing to deployment. The team used pre-built UI and functional components from the Jetpack Compose framework to reduce the share of effort-intensive custom coding and fit into the tight project schedule. The app’s MVVM architecture allowed our experts to build and test the UI and logic in parallel, ensuring faster delivery.

ScienceSoft established app integration with the Client’s fleet management system to automate route data exchange. We also integrated the app with vehicle ELD software to validate the driver’s hours of service and mileage.

The resulting route management app comprises the following functionality:

Route planning

• Automated import of route details (dispatch and destination points, expected lead time, mandatory stopovers, documentation tasks, etc.) from the Client’s fleet management system to the driver’s profile.
• Locking the route details once imported to the app to prevent unauthorized task manipulations by the driver.
• Real-time route plan adjustment of when route requirements or tasks change.

Driver-facing route execution features

• Intuitive logging using a driver ID or vehicle ID and instant proof of authentication (enabled via the integration with ELD).
• Viewing the route task checklist and marking the tasks as completed as the route progresses.
• Uploading signed bills of lading (BOL) to the profile.
• Template-based generation of reports on accidents, vehicle maintenance (e.g., pre-trip vehicle inspection, breakdowns, repair activities), and expenses (fuel reimbursement, repair expense compensation, etc.).
• Ad hoc report submission to fleet managers.

Communication and support

• Instant messaging for drivers and fleet managers (enabled via the integration with the Client’s fleet management system).
• A complete log of the message history.
• Snapshotting app issues and immediately reporting them to the app’s administrator.
• Automated notifications to drivers about route changes, overlooked tasks, report submission status, and more.

ScienceSoft added support for offline mode to ensure the Client’s drivers can use the app whenever needed en route, including in out-of-service zones. Once the app is online, the changes get instantly synced with the fleet management system and reported to managers.

After the app was deployed, the company received all necessary technical documentation for the solution to streamline its future maintenance and evolution.

A Ready-To-Use Route Management App Launched in 2 Months

In only two months, our Client obtained a full-featured route management app that offers convenient driver experiences and smoothly integrates with the necessary systems. The new solution gave the company complete visibility into the real-time route progress and enabled enhanced control over the driver’s hours of service, mileage, and route task completion. Convenient driver task checklists and instant notifications on changes promoted more accurate route execution, while reduced communication efforts for fleet managers and drivers resulted in improved manager productivity and better driver attention.

The Client appreciated ScienceSoft’s collaborative approach, transparent communication, and mature development practices that, the Client believes, secured the quick app launch.

Techs and Tools

Kotlin, Flow, MVVM, Jetpack Compose, Workmanager, LiveData, Room, Retrofit, Firebase Storage, Firestore, Crashlytics, JUnit, Mockito.