Historically, the logistics industry has been at the forefront of technological evolution. Using modern digital capabilities such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and automation at their advantage, companies migrated their businesses online to provide precise cargo traceability and rich data analytics. The efficiency of modern business relies on its prowess to use the latest technology. This statement is especially true regarding the impact of pandemic-driven events on both social and business domains. In this article, we’d like to share two customer stories that prove that proper solutions in the right hands make a difference against all odds.
The client
The first client is a delivery business based in California that employs more than 4.000 couriers. Until recently, to track deliveries, the business used a dashboard application that has been in development during the last five years by the team of in-house developers and freelancers.
Despite their best efforts, the app had serious flaws in functionality, and monthly costs on maintenance and fixing bugs averaged around $500-800. Besides, when delivery traffic had increased because of COVID-19, the system couldn’t support effective work during peak days, affecting the company’s bottom line. As land transportation has generally remained available across the USA, it quickly became clear that the pandemic has placed the business in a position of uncertainty.
The company addressed Akveo to speed up the processing of orders so that it would be possible to track up to 1000 deliveries simultaneously. Also, it was vital to collect statistics and export revenue reports from the dashboard.
Our solution
The team of Akveo used the Fleet Management Template as the basis for the new application. The idea was to use the pre-developed template's features to set up the customer’s business processes the right way. In early June 2020, the team of 3 full-stack developers started the development process with a new API version 2.0. to build a new app. Within 6 weeks, our engineers implemented several main features for operators:
- real-time tracking of new deliveries on a map
- the database of curriers and workload
- delivery orders processing
- the customers’ database and orders history
- transactions history.
These features were delivered to the client and accepted in full. The design for the application was based on the Fleet management UI kit with an optimized default UX. It’s worth noting that the efforts on front-end development were reduced by almost half. The delivery team switched to the new app in September 2020. Now, the app is running in a new production environment.
Racing against time, the Akveo team delivered the fully-functional solution in just two months. Now we continue the development of new features such as couriers delivery planning, revenue and delivery reporting, vehicle management, and others. With our advanced and robust fleet management dashboard, any delivery business can thrive no matter what the current circumstances are.
The client
Our next customer developed a B2B GPS tracking tool targeted at retail and delivery companies in the LatAm region. Before contacting Akveo, the client had investigated a variety of existing solutions in the interactive cars and routes tracking market to integrate into their product. The goal was to find a ready-to-use solution and release a minimum viable product (MVP) in the short term.
Solution
The product team used the Fleet management template as a source of UI components for several product features. The Akveo team customized front-end components in accordance with client style guidelines and business logic. Also, our developers provided consultancy services for front-end architecture design.
The client successfully met deadlines and released the product two months prior to the initial due date. That played a crucial part in the marketing campaign concerning the growing pandemic’s wave. With a limited budget, the client enriched the product with pre-defined template features and got a significant boost in development for the following user scenarios that allow to:
- track and show in real-time the location of a vehicle
- show all trips for a selected car on the map
- track inventory movements for selected items
- see carriers stats and filter out by several parameters.
To sum up
Just like in several other industries, the pandemic-driven disruptions in the automotive sector might stimulate competitiveness and further economic growth for a tech-savvy business. The answer lies in proper technology and effective management, even with limited resources and budget. In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19, we can’t be sure if a cure to eradicate the virus for good may appear any time soon. However, technology can help to minimize the impact of the disease on the logistics business among others, and stabilize the delivery process. It’s all about following the best industry’s practices, and digitalization is the greatest among them.
Is your organization interested in developing a convenient fleet management solution? Regardless of your project’s specifics, we offer top-notch development and consulting services covering both technical and business aspects. Check out our fleet management template’s page and contact us.
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