Custom software · Logistics and transport companies

Build a transport system around your lorry receipts, trips and proof of delivery.

In transport the paperwork is the money. A proof of delivery (POD) folded in a cabin for days holds up the payment it supports.

Two transport companies a kilometre apart run differently. One owns every lorry, the next hires half the market, and a third moves part loads through a warehouse every night.

So the system has to be drawn around your own booking counter, your trip sheets, your hire settlements and the bill your consignor will accept without argument.

Share your requirements

Who this is for

Transport businesses we can build for.

A twelve-lorry fleet and a part-load network with six depots keep different records, and only one of those two sets belongs in your system.

Goods transport companies
Fleet owners
Full truckload operators
Part load and parcel services
Container and trailer operators
Tanker operators
Cold chain transporters
Third-party logistics companies
Freight brokers and booking agents
Courier and last-mile companies
Transporters running their own warehouses
Packers and movers
Bus and staff transport operators
Car and equipment carriers
Port and container freight operators
Multi-branch transport networks

What can be built

The modules, and what each one covers.

Nothing here is a fixed package. Each module is built, left out or changed to match how your organisation already works.

Booking counter

Enquiry
Rate
Booking
Lorry receipt
Vehicle assignment
Loading
Dispatch

What the lorry receipt (LR) carries

Consignor and consignee
From and to
Goods description
Packages and weight
Invoice and transport document reference
Freight amount
Paid, to-pay or on account
Vehicle and driver
Expected delivery date
Special instructions
Printed at the counter or sent as a PDF

Consignors and rates

Customer record
Branch and contact persons
Rate contract by route
Rate by weight, per trip or per tonne
Loading and unloading terms
Detention terms
Credit period
Billing cycle
Documents required with the bill
Rate revision history

Most disputes start where the rate sheet and the bill disagree, and the rate is visible to the booking clerk and the billing desk. Holding the agreed rate against the lorry receipt settles them before the bill goes out.

Part loads and transhipment

For a parcel network, the consignment changes vehicles more than once and the record has to follow it.

Booking at the branch
Loading sheet
Transhipment at a hub
Unloading and short receipt
Onward loading
Delivery branch
Door delivery
Undelivered and returned consignments

Your own vehicles

Vehicle register
Registration number and chassis
Make, model and body type
Capacity and tare weight
Purchase and finance details
Loan and instalment dates
Assigned driver
Current location or trip
Running kilometres
Vehicle-wise earnings and cost

Vehicle papers and their dates

Each of these papers stops the lorry at a checkpoint when it expires.

Registration certificate
Route and regional permits
Fitness
Insurance
Emissions certificate
Road tax
Electronic toll tag
Environmental levy
Reminders before each expiry

Drivers

Driver record and photo
Licence number and expiry
Badge and endorsements
Address and reference
Assigned vehicle
Trips completed
Advances taken
Allowance and salary
Accident and traffic fine history
Account balance

Trips

Trip created
Vehicle and driver
Advance
Loading
In transit
Unloading
POD
Settlement

Trip sheet and settlement

Diesel, tolls and driver allowances are settled against a record and not a pocket of slips.

Opening and closing kilometres
Diesel issued and purchased on the way
Toll charges
Driver allowance
Loading and unloading charges
Halt and detention
Repairs on the road
Advance given against actual spend
Balance recoverable from the driver
Trip profit

The driver’s phone

Designed for a driver at a roadside stop with one bar of signal and greasy hands.

Today’s trip
Consignment details
Loading and unloading points
Start and end trip
Diesel and toll entry with a photo of the slip
Expense request
Delivery confirmation
POD photograph
Breakdown report
Language he reads

Entries made without signal can be held on the phone and sent when the network returns, so no trip sheet is lost to a coverage gap. Live tracking, though, depends on the network on that stretch.

Proof of delivery

The bill cannot go without the POD, so the paper should stop travelling by lorry.

POD photographed at the delivery point
Receiver name and stamp
Delivery date and time
Short or damaged goods noted
Attached to the lorry receipt
Original paper tracking
Pending PODs by age
POD copy attached to the bill

Market-hired vehicles

Half the lorries on your bills may not be yours, and that is where money leaks.

Lorry owner and broker record
Vehicle hired
Hire rate agreed
Advance paid at loading
Diesel and toll given
Balance freight
Deductions for shortage or damage
Payment released after POD
Owner account statement
Hire against freight earned

Diesel

Diesel issued from your own pump
Purchases on the road
Fuel card transactions
Litres against kilometres run
Average by vehicle
Average by driver
Average by route
Sudden drops flagged
Rate paid against pump rate
Diesel cost per trip

Mileage figures mean something only when the odometer readings are honest, so photographs of the odometer are taken at each end of a trip where that is practical. Where a vehicle has a telematics device, readings can come from it instead.

Tolls and toll tags

Toll tag balance by vehicle
Toll transactions
Route-wise toll cost
Unexpected toll plazas
Recharge records
Toll against trip

Pulling transactions from a toll tag account depends on what the issuing bank offers. Where it offers nothing, the statement is uploaded instead.

Tyres

Tyre register by position
New, retreaded and scrap
Fitted and removed date
Kilometres run per tyre
Retreading sent and received
Cost per kilometre
Tyre vendor
Claims

Maintenance and workshop

Service schedule by kilometres
Job card for each vehicle
Breakdown on the road
Outside garage work
Spares issued
Labour
Downtime
Cost per vehicle
Repeat complaints
Warranty items

Stores and spares

Spare parts stock
Oil and lubricants
Issue against vehicle
Purchase orders
Supplier rates
Minimum stock
Consumption by vehicle

Freight billing

Bill raised from the lorry receipt
Rate from the contract
Detention and halting charges
Loading and unloading charges
Deductions for shortage and damage
POD copy attached
Customer-wise billing cycle
Consolidated monthly bills
Sales tax or VAT treatment on freight
Bill submission record

Whether freight carries tax at your end or the consignor’s is a matter for your accountant. The system follows the treatment you set, and does not decide it.

Paid, to-pay and on account

Freight collected at booking
Freight collected at delivery
Billed to account
Cash handed over by the driver
Collection at the delivery branch
Reconciliation of collections

Money still outstanding

A bill submitted is not a bill acknowledged, so outstanding items are followed up.

Bills raised and pending
Ageing by customer
Bills submitted but not acknowledged
Deductions made by the customer
Follow-up calls and dates
Payment received against bills
Disputed amounts
Collection list for the week

Customer portal

Customers can see status themselves and stop calling drivers on the highway.

Book a consignment
Track by LR number
Expected delivery date
Delivery status
Download POD
Bills and payment status
Rate contract
Raise a complaint
Shortage and damage claims

Branches and warehouses

Branch-wise bookings
Loading and unloading
Stock held at the warehouse
Cash collected
Branch expenses
Staff
Branch profitability
Consignments pending delivery

Loading labour

Loading contractor or gang
Loading and unloading records
Rate per tonne or per package
Work done by date
Payment due
Advance adjusted

Vehicle tracking

Where a GPS device is already fitted, its position can be shown against the trip, so nobody has to open a separate tracking website.

This depends on the tracking vendor offering a route in, and each vendor is different. Some charge for it, some will not open it at all, and we find out which before we agree to it.

Transport documents

Transport document reference against the consignment
Vehicle number updates
Validity
Invoice copies
Delivery notes
Weighment slips
Gate passes
Document checklist per consignment

The official portal decides what it accepts and when a document expires. The system carries the reference and the dates.

What the owner looks at

Trips running today
Vehicles idle
Freight booked
Freight billed
PODs pending
Bills pending submission
Outstanding by customer
Diesel average by vehicle
Trip profit by route
Hire paid against freight earned
Vehicle-wise profit
Branch performance

Who sees what

Owner
Operations manager
Booking clerk
Traffic supervisor
Branch manager
Driver
Workshop
Accounts
Billing
Customer
Lorry owner

What it connects to

Accounting software such as QuickBooks or Xero
Transport document data
GPS and telematics devices
Fuel card statements
Toll tag statements
Customer portals and transporter panels
WhatsApp and SMS updates
Payment gateways

A large consignor may ask you to update his own transporter panel. Whether that can be automated depends entirely on what his system opens up.

The journey

One connected workflow, end to end.

Every stage below can sit in one system, so nobody re-enters what the last stage already captured.

Enquiry
Booking
Lorry receipt
Vehicle assignment
Loading
Trip
In transit
Delivery
POD
Billing
Collection
Settlement

Built in phases

You do not have to replace everything at once.

Each phase is usable on its own, so the system earns its place before the next part is built.

1
Booking and the LR
The booking counter, lorry receipts, customers and rate contracts. The counter stops writing the same details twice.
2
Trips and the driver
Vehicle and driver assignment, trip sheets, diesel, the driver’s phone screens and POD capture at the delivery point.
3
Money
Freight billing with the POD attached, hire settlement for market vehicles, collections and what is still outstanding.
4
Fleet and customers
Maintenance, tyres, document expiry, the customer portal and the reports the owner reads daily.

How we work

How a build actually runs.

01
Ride along
We follow one consignment from the booking counter to the collection call, papers and all.
02
Map
Branches, customers, routes, own and hired vehicles, drivers, rates and where a document changes hands.
03
Design
Counter screens, office screens and phone screens, each drawn for the person who will use it standing up.
04
Build
Booking, the lorry receipt and trip sheets first. Billing follows, because billing needs both.
05
Test
Your clerks and drivers push live consignments through it while the old register still runs beside it.
06
Deploy
Go-live branch by branch, with the driver app introduced on one route before it goes to the whole fleet.
07
Extend
Tracking, the customer portal, hire analytics and whatever integrations are worth the trouble.

What you bring

What you bring, and when.

The build moves at the speed of the answers. These are the things we ask for, in the order we ask.

01
A book of LRs, trip sheets and the rate list
Bring a book of LRs, a few trip sheets with settlements, the consignor rate list and the vehicle papers register. Diesel and toll records help. Scans are enough.
02
Booking clerk, fleet supervisor and accountant
The booking clerk, a fleet supervisor and the accountant must be reachable. A branch may book differently from head office. The owner decides.
03
Consignor rates, trip advances and credit days
Rate rules per consignor, driver allowance and advance limits and credit periods need your answers. Freight billing leans on them. Staff who use each area try it when shown.
04
Vehicle papers, drivers and party balances
Vehicle details with due dates, driver records, open consignments and party balances come in at launch. Your tracking provider grants access. The owner approves.

What we can build

Systems we can put together for you.

Transport management systems
Fleet management software
Lorry receipt and consignment systems
Trip sheet and settlement software
Driver mobile applications
POD capture applications
Freight billing systems
Market vehicle and hire settlement software
Fuel and tyre management systems
Workshop and maintenance software
Customer tracking portals
Branch and warehouse management systems
Logistics dashboards
Multi-tenant logistics platforms

Common questions

Questions owners ask before starting.

What does custom transport software cover?

Bookings, lorry receipts, vehicles, drivers, trips, diesel, PODs, freight bills, hire settlements and collections. Built around your routes and your rate contracts rather than a fixed template.

We hire most of our lorries from the market. Does that work?

Yes. Hire rates, advances, diesel given, deductions and the balance released after POD are tracked per owner.

Can drivers send the POD from the delivery point?

Yes. A photograph taken at the gate attaches itself to the lorry receipt, so billing does not wait for the paper to travel back.

Our drivers are not comfortable with apps. Will they use it?

Only if it is built for them. Big buttons, the language they read, few fields, and an option for the office to enter on their behalf when they will not.

Can it connect to our GPS trackers?

Sometimes. It depends on whether your tracking vendor offers a route in and what they charge for it. We check with the vendor before putting it in a plan.

Can our freight bills still go through our accounting software?

Yes. Bills, hire payables and expenses can post across to QuickBooks, Xero or similar, and your accountant keeps the books where they are today.

Can we see the profit on a single trip?

Yes, as far as the expenses are entered. Freight earned against diesel, tolls, driver allowances, hire and repairs gives a trip figure, and a route figure over time.

Can customers track their consignment themselves?

Yes, through a portal or a tracking link against the LR number. Staff then field fewer status calls.

Does it handle part loads through a hub?

Yes. Booking branch, loading sheet, transhipment, onward loading and delivery branch are all tracked against the same consignment.

Can it handle government transport documents?

It can prepare and carry the data, within what the official portal permits. The portal decides what it accepts, and a lapsed validity is still a lapsed validity.

Would it work to start with just the billing part?

Yes, though booking and PODs usually have to come with it. A bill that leaves without its POD is the problem being solved.

Your trade

How we work with this trade.

Logistics and transport companies

Build a transport system that gets the bill out on time.

The lorry is the visible part of this business. The paperwork is the part that decides whether you get paid this month or next.

Count the days between a lorry unloading and the bill reaching the party. Shortening that one gap is where a transport build should start, ahead of any tracking screen.

Tell us how you work

Tell us how your logistics and transport companies runs today.

We will tell you what can be digitised, what can be connected, what is worth automating, and what you should leave alone.

What happens after you share your requirements

A senior engineer reads your answers. Nobody phones first.
Within one business day you get a written note: what we understood, what we would start with, and the questions we still have.
If it fits, a proposal follows with the order of work, what we need from you and what you receive at each step.
No call is booked and nothing is paid until you have read the note. Your details stay with us.

Start with your requirements

Seven short steps that tell us what you need. A senior engineer reads them before anyone gets in touch.