Building a Truck Booking Mobile App: Features, Revenue Model, Cost

Every industry and sector has some logistics to move from one place to another. So, the trucking industry’s need can not be avoided no matter how advanced things become. But, one thing that is changing is how the services are utilized. Gone are the days when a party used to have a session of phone calling with carriers and drivers to get the best deal. Truck booking mobile apps have changed the landscape, and just like any other booking, trucks and fleets are also being booked online. 

What Is a Truck Booking App?

Truck Booking Apps are the platforms where the different stakeholders of a logistics transaction register and connect. In a logistics movement deal, shippers, receivers, careers, and drivers fulfill the needs of each other. However, getting the right party for the deal is an arduous task. So, Truck booking apps bring the range of carriers, drivers, shippers, and receivers on mutual platforms so they can connect to service providers who seem best to them.

The app provides an option for deciding everything on the digital platform only, whether it be sharing the details about logistics, pick-up or delivery address, timing, or the charges. Chatting options help the stakeholders to have a real-time talk with other parties and confirm the deal. 

How Does a Truck Booking App Work? 

The truck booking app is an innovative solution to eliminate the long and complex process of hiring suitable transporters and customers. It makes it smoother with a mutual and shared platform. The truck booking app simply brings all the stakeholders of a trucking process on the same platform so that they can connect and choose the right delivery partner. 

Customers just need to fill up a simple and small form detailing the type of load, weight or dimension of load, pick and drop location, time of pick and drop, etc. The application matches them with multiple drivers and carriers who then take part in bidding to grab the deal. 

The digital trucking apps also ensure you can use your negotiation capabilities. So, it allows you to negotiate with the drivers or careers about the fare and pricing. Further, you can also talk with the transport partner via chat and call before coming into a deal. 

What Statistics Say About Trucking Industry & Growth Projections?

Just in case you have any doubt about the massiveness of the truck and logistics industry, these statistics will help you clear the question mark. The trucking industry is one of the prominent employers in the country, offering more than 5.8% of total jobs.

• The industry had total revenue of $732.3 billion in 2020.
• Truck Rental Market Projected to Reach USD 214.57 billion, with a CAGR of 10.32% by 2030.

• This statistic shows the revenue of the industry “rental and leasing of trucks“ in the United Kingdom from 2012 to 2019, with a forecast to 2025. It is projected that the revenue of rental and leasing of trucks in the United Kingdom will amount to approximately 3,746.71 million U.S. Dollars by 2025.

Walmart, one of the biggest retail chains in the country, owns more than 8,600 truckers in its operations. Moreover, among all the logistics being moved in the country, 70% of them are transported merely from trucks. The average truck driver in the US covers more than 100,00 miles each year transporting goods.

Different Models of A Trucking App 

Different stakeholders have different needs in a transport deal. A customer needs to contact the shipper, carrier, or driver. Moreover, the customer is concerned about the time required for the delivery, the fare it would cost in the deal, and the paperwork that will be part of the process. On the other hand, the driver is concerned about the load, weight, and dimension of logistics, pick-up, and delivery location. So, the trucking apps come with different versions and models that deal with specific stakeholders’ needs. 

Carrier App

Carrier is the party that possesses the legal responsibility of transporting the goods from one place to another via road, water, or air. Carrier parties are mostly the airlines, shipping lines, parcel companies, trucking apps, etc. The apps dedicated to assisting carrier companies in making business generally consist of the features such as: 

1. Manage Bookings

Carriers can make bookings of the freights, manage the fleet available and set the pricing without any negotiation. 

2. The Fleet

The app allows the career company to record the booked fleet, available fleet, type of vehicle, fuel cards, operating costs, and much more to manage the fleets. 

3. Manage Drivers 

With this feature, the carriers can add or remove drivers from their list, update the contact numbers and details, track their location when they are on a route, check their availability, etc.

4. Manage Shipments  

Carriers can collect and manage all the information about the shipment, goods type, sustained routes, invoices, taxes, etc. 

5. Analytics 

Carriers can maintain all the data about business deals so far to make better decisions accordingly in the future. For example, they can learn about their loyal clients and conduct marketing campaigns. 

6. Notifications 

All the vital information, such as invitations for the deal and alerts, can be received from notifications. 

7. Reports 

The app allows for managing and analyzing the monthly/weekly reports to gain insight into earnings and thus apply the respective actions. 

8. View Feedback 

Carriers can easily check the feedback and rating given by different shippers and customers in a transport transaction. 

9. Truck Reports 

The app keeps you updated on all the vital driver and vehicle information. You can view the driver report about their performance, truck mileage, earnings, ratings given by the clients and shippers, etc. 

10. Help and Support

24*7 support is available to carriers, and they can contact the admin in case of any glitch, errors, or queries in the apps. 

Shipper App 

A shipper is the one who initially owns the commodities or goods that are being transported. The apps designed specifically to fulfill the needs of shippers carry the features accordingly. Some of the elements in these apps are: 

1. See the Available Vehicles 

First, the shippers can check the availability of vehicles transporting the goods. Multiple vehicles can be searched simultaneously. 

2. Send Shipping Request

Having gone through the available vehicles and drivers list, shippers can list the job by feeding the information such as freight dimensions, delivery addresses, pick-up, or booking the shipment. 

3. Push Notifications 

The notification regarding invitation acceptance from the carriers, new bindings, etc. informs the shipper when they are not using the app.

4. Track Shipments 

Shippers can track the location of their freight from the point of pick-up to the point of delivery. Moreover, the tracking feature helps the shippers ensure that their load is safely transported. 

5. Make Payment

Shippers can even make a secure payment from the application only. Let it be credit card, debit card, internet banking, or any other medium; the app supports everything. 

6. Booking History 

The app allows the shippers to glance at their past, present, and upcoming bookings, all in one place.

7. Rate and Review 

Shippers can rate carriers and drivers on their pricing, service, and fleets. It helps others to choose the best one while listing the job and ensures the safe delivery of their logistics. 

Driver App 

The apps carrying all the features and facilities for the ease of truck drivers fall in this segment. The features of the Driver app consist of but are not limited to: 

1. Driver Authentication 

Drivers can register in the app by submitting their phone number, name, email id, license, identity card, etc. It helps the clients ensure that a professional and experienced driver handles their logistics. 

2. View Shipping Request 

The app brings the shipping requests with all the information about the load and logistics. Drivers can receive the request feasible for them. 

3. Detail About Shipper 

The app provides complete information about the shipper before accepting the request. Drivers can know the location of pick-up and drop, their budget, type and dimensions of logistics, and much more. 

4. Real-Time Chat 

Drivers can chat with the shippers to grab a better deal or get any unavailable information about the transportation request. 

5. Built-In Navigation

The app even provides a built-in navigation driver. The navigation guides the driver to the best roads with the least traffic. 

6. Push Notification 

Drivers will be getting notifications about all activities such as payment received, transporting requests, messages from the client, etc.

7. Proof of Delivery 

Once the load is delivered, the driver can upload pictures of the bill on the app that all relevant stakeholders will receive. 

Admin Panel

The panel has nothing to do with the ordinary stakeholders of the Trucking industry. The Admin panel provides the overall control to the owners of the application. It helps them monitor all the activities, parties, and transactions on the platform. The features include: 

1. Dashboard 

It is an easy interface that brings all the critical insight of running operations on the platform to a single screen. It consists of all the requests being generated, transactions happening, delivery completed, and much more. 

2. Manage Drivers 

Admins can always activate, deactivate the driver’s profile, message them, track them, assign the new jobs, settle the payment, etc.

3. Manage Trucks 

The options let the admins remove or add trucks, update freight vehicles, and receive all the information about any vehicle enrolled in the app. 

4. Manage Shippers 

The admins can access the complete information about the shippers. Moreover, this feature allows the admins to assist the shippers in booking and grabbing the deals. 

5. Manage Carriers

Admins can easily add or remove the cargo and logistics companies to the platform. 

6. Bill Management 

Admins can calculate their commission and profit by monitoring and analyzing all the bills coming to carriers from shippers. 

7. Reports and Analytics 

Admins have access to monthly reports, feedback, and reviews. So, they can take action against the complaint about a particular stakeholder. 

8. Offers and Coupons 

They are mostly the admins that provide coupons or discounts and offer them to stakeholders. It helps significantly in shipper retention.

Prominent Features In a Trucking Booking Mobile App 

Different models of trucking apps have dedicated features. However, some fundamental features that need to be focused on irrespective of the app models include: 

1. Real-Time Tracking

A trucking app tends to have a tracking feature. The subject of tracking might change according to the model of the app. The tracking feature assists the stakeholders in knowing about the position of their dependent variable in the transaction.

2. Hassle-Free Payment Methods 

People are always conscious about their money, and the app must provide a reliable and secure payment gateway. Costumes must feel safe while making the transaction through the app. 

3. Login and Registration

Every trucking app must carry a login or registration feature to entertain the authorized membership of respective stakeholders. Every driver, shipper, or carrier must register with the correct information so that the opposite party can contact them accordingly.

4. Schedule Booking 

It is the core feature of a booking app. The application must have a simple interface that helps different parties to make, request, and accept the desirable bookings. 

5. Calculation 

Pricing is one of the dominating factors in any kind of deal. So, having analyzed the different factors such as type, dimension, the weight of load, pick-up and drop location, the tour season, etc., the app should be able to estimate the fare. 

6. Booking History

All the booking history should always be available on the app. The users should access all the transactions and trips they have processed via the app. 

7. Ratings and Reviews 

The app’s feature will help significantly to know the quality of services one provides in the industry. Every stakeholder should be able to share reviews about the deal partners they worked with. 

8. Seamless UI

People working in the trucking industry might not be well explored with digitization. So, ensure that the UI of the app is easy to understand by users at first glance. 

9. Information Insight 

Every party must have access to important information for decision-making. For example, the drivers must be informed about the type of logistics, dimensions, pick up and delivery points, the budget of the shipper, etc. Similarly, the shipper should be informed about the type of vehicles available, charges of the delivery, availability of the vehicles, rating, and experience of drivers, etc. 

Trucking App Delivering Benefits 

1. To Shippers and Customers

2. To Carriers and Transport Companies 

Popular Truck Booking Apps In The Market

You might find tens or hundreds of truck booking apps on the play store and app store; however, there are few that you can trust to find a good and reliable deal. To meet your trucking needs, you can rely on the following popular apps:  

1. Truckloads- Truck Load Boards 

The application provides you access to more than 120,000 daily loads from your smartphone. The app is entirely free to use with no hidden signup fee. It helps the carrier to find the loads according to the type of vehicle. You can hire or sign up with Dry vans, Reefers, Flatbeds, Power only, Step decks, and numerous other types of trailers. The app has secured over 500K downloads from Google Play Store. 

2. uShip 

The application’s streamlined and user-friendly interface provides the complete transport solution at your palm. You can find, bid, and book shipments even quicker and more effectively. Moreover, the app allows you to manage and view the active, booked, and completed shipments. With uShip payments, you will be paid without any chances of deceit.

3. DAT Load Board for Truckers 

With over half a million downloads on Google Play Store, the app is counted among truckers’ most advanced load boards. Drivers and carriers access 1 million truckloads posted daily on the platform to get the job. Register with the type of truck you offer and get the deals accordingly. Drivers can filter the result by offering rates to get profitable deals. Broker reviews and credit scores are also available on the application.  

4. Direct Freight

Direct freight is a popular app among truck drivers to get the best deals. The app offers more than 300K load options to its users. Search for loads can be filtered and made more relevant by setting the preference of origin, destination, ship date, type of parcel or logistics, load size, weight, credit report, etc. More than 50K android users are using the app. 

5. 123Loadboard Find Truck Loads 

With more than 100K downloads on the Google play store, the app helps truck drivers to find the loads according to their preferences. The app comes with in-built features like filtering the city, state, and zip code, searching for loads by GPS, saving truck loads for future reference, adding notes to the freight listings, truckload display credit scores, truck loads display rate check, sending the documents via email or fax, and much more. 

6. WheelsEye

WheelsEye is the truck booking app with more than a million downloads on the Google Play store. The application lets the carriers of customers book the truck for their load. The app has marked its presence in more than 1600 cities of India, traveled more than 300M km, and engaged more than 2M trucks in the listing.

7. Vahak: Book Online Truck, Load

Vahak helps the driver get loads from the app from different customers, transporters, and carriers. The app is providing business opportunities to its more than a million users. Drivers can connect to more than 1.5 lacs transporters and truck operators from all over India.

8. EasyTruck

The app connects the carrier or load owners to the drivers. The registered fleet of the app helps to move vast loads easily at cost-efficient prices. Moreover, the tracking features of the app ensure the safety of your load as well.

How to Develop a Truck Booking App?

You can contact an app development team, ask them to develop the app, pay them the price, and they will deliver you the app. It is simple and straight when you want to get the app but get nothing from it. On the other hand, when you are investing a considerable amount in app development and expecting something in return of it, you might like to follow the steps below:

1. Decide on a Business Model 

Before getting your hand in the soil, you should know what you will build. As interpreted above in the article, there are several models you can focus on while developing the app. So, you must know the business model you want to develop. Your app’s target audience should be specific if it is going to be drivers, carriers, or shippers.

2. Undertake Thorough Research 

You must know how deep the water is before straight jumping in it. Know about the industry, the demand for certain apps, the competitors operating in the market, their features, and the competitive advantages where you can beat them. You should remember that many hunters are hunting for the same subject. Moreover, know about the needs and preferences of the target customers so you can provide better services.

3. Get an App Development Team 

To develop the app, your app development team will play a significant role. So, ensure that your app development team is reliable and experienced. You can go for the freelance options and the IT companies providing the services. However, we recommend using the company option as you get all solutions under one roof. 

4. Idea Validation 

Before getting into the work, get into communication with your team. Being an app development team, they carry the experience of apps in demand and the needs of customers. Share your idea with them and get the right suggestions to make the right decision. Consider yourself a member of the team and not an external stakeholder. 

5. Analyze the Prototype Effectively

Once initiated with the project, your app development team will deliver the app’s prototype in the early stages of the project. The prototype is the blueprint of the app. Ensure to analyze the prototype effectively. Suggest the changes, remove or add the features according to requirements, and clear the doubt. Once the prototype is passed, it might not be convenient in terms of time and cost to make changes. 

6. Instill a Reliable Payment Gateway 

The payment gateway is going to be a feature in itself. At the same time, the trucking and delivery transactions mostly entertain large amounts. So, make sure you instill a reliable payment gateway in your app. Some of the best payment gateways you can go for are: 

• Stripe
• PayPal
• Brainstree
• Dwolla
• Zooz
• Ezibit
• Shopify
• Judopay 

7. Quality Analysis

The app does not come to you perfectly developed in the first shot. Test your app multiple times to identify the bugs. Remove as many bugs as possible from the app. The fewer the bugs; the better the app’s user experience will be. 

8. Launch and Promote the App

Once you are satisfied with the app’s quality, launch it on the respective platform (App store, Google Play Store, or both). Now, the users need to know about the availability of your app. So, hold promotional campaigns, take social media and digital marketing assistance, and tell people about the app. Remember, the better the marketing, the better the results will be. 

The Estimated Cost of Developing A Truck Rental App

The cost of an app is people’s biggest concern when planning to develop the app. Undoubtedly, app development is a little costlier compared to other general commodities. However, you can not compare the price of one app to another as it depends largely on the type of app and features you want to see in the app. Consider the following points to understand the statement better: 

• The app development cost is directly proportional to the time spent by the developer to develop the app.
• Time spent by the developer is directly proportional to the features instilled in the app.
• So, the cost of the app is directly proportional to the features and functionalities of the app.

However, to get an estimated app development cost, you can consider the cost anywhere between $30,000 to $50,000 for a basic version of an app with fundamental features.

How Is It Going to Pay You Back? (Sources Of Revenue)

Have you invested a good amount of money in app development but don’t know how it will provide a return on investment? Well, Don’t worry. There are a number of ways that will help you monetize the app and get good returns on your investment. 

1. Commission Fees

The commission fee can bring you good fortune by attracting a good carrier and shipper base to the app. You can charge a specific commission fee or some percentage of the deal. Making it easier for the stakeholders to find the right deal, they will be willing to pay the commission fee to the app. 

2. In-App Purchases 

You can offer some of the premium features via the in-app purchase model. Users should be provided with the fundamental functionality, and some advanced features should be offered at particular prices. 

3. Subscription Plan  

You can run the app on a subscription model to get a return on investment. All the users will have to pay a subscription fee to use the services and leverage the app’s features.

4. Listing Fee  

Whenever the carrier or drivers add the new fleet to the app, they can be charged a little. The new vehicle will bring additional income to the drivers and carriers, and thus they can easily pay this fee. 

5. Cancellation Fee 

If any driver, carrier, shipper, or other stakeholder cancels the deal at the last moment without any genuine reason, they should be charged the cancellation fee. A specific portion of this fee can be offered to the opposite party to compensate for their time. The other portion can be the earnings for the app. 

How Can We Help You?

There are hundreds of professional entities that can help you in app development. So, you might be concerned about why you should choose Emizentech. Well, it’s entirely your decision to choose us or not, but we can give a short list of reasons to justify your choice for us. 

• Our market research team is our USP as it helps not only to develop the app but develop the app with the latest and most advanced capabilities. 
• Having spent around a decade in this industry, we have now faced most of the problems that might make the presentation, and we know how to deal with them well. 
• Our strong fundamentals of app development ensure the installation of basic security and privacy features while complying with play store and app store policies. 
• Our team is familiar with the different APIs that transfigure the features and performance of a Trucking app. So, it will secure the competitive advantages for your app. 
• Whether you want to develop the app for iOS, Android, or both, you get everything under one roof. 
• One hour of free consultancy with our project manager helps you make the right decision about your project. 
• Our team supports you even after a year of app development. We will remove any application bugs you face free of cost for a year.

Takeaway

The trucking industry is moving online rapidly. Gone are the days when stakeholders, dealers, shippers, and carriers made hundreds of phone calls to get the right partner and thus the right deal. The trucking app has streamlined the process for everyone and now provides the best deals in a couple of seconds. 

Whether or not you are engaged in the industry, this digital step brings a good business opportunity for you. The growth of trucking apps has been enormous in the previous years. So, developing your own app can bring you good fortune. There are a number of ways to monetize your trucking app and experience an above-average return on investment. All you need to do is maintain the trucking app and provide the latest features according to the needs and requirements of the respective stakeholders.