Most logistics software fails for one of two reasons: it assumes signal, or it assumes the driver has time to use it.
Case studyBuilding PTC Cargo's logistics softwareFrom a vague brief to software matched to the operation.What actually goes wrong
Where is the vehicle. The office does not know, so the customer phones, so someone phones the driver, so the driver pulls over.
Proof of delivery on paper. Which gets lost, gets wet, and cannot settle a dispute three weeks later.
Job allocation by phone. Which works until you have more than a handful of vehicles.
Telematics that costs a fortune and does one thing. You are paying a monthly per-vehicle fee for a system that will not do the specific thing your operation needs.
A customer contract that now requires tracking. This is the trigger for a large share of the enquiries we get in this sector, and it usually comes with a deadline.
What we build
- Driver apps that work offlineJobs, navigation handoff, and capture that syncs when signal returns.
- Proof of deliverySignature, photo, timestamp, and location, attached to the job permanently.
- Customer-facing trackingA link the customer can check themselves, which is what stops the phone ringing.
- Job allocation and dispatchAn office view of who has what, without a whiteboard.
- Periodic vehicle locationPosition updates at a sensible interval, plus events at each stage.
The constraints that matter here
Signal is not guaranteed. Industrial estates, rural routes, underground loading bays. An app that needs connectivity to record a delivery will lose deliveries. How offline-first apps are built.
Battery is a hard limit. A driver on a ten-hour shift cannot have an app that flattens the phone by lunchtime. Continuous GPS polling is the usual culprit.
Drivers will not use anything fiddly. One-handed, in the rain, in a hurry, sometimes wearing gloves. If capturing a delivery takes more than a few seconds it will be done badly or not at all.
Cold and heat. Phones throttle. Warehouses and cabs are extreme environments.
Common questions
Can you build real-time vehicle tracking?
We build periodic location updates, which is what almost every operation actually needs: a position every minute or two, plus events at pickup and drop-off. Genuine second-by-second telematics across a large fleet is infrastructure work measured in months, and we say so rather than shipping something that fails on the road.
Will it work where there is no signal?
It has to, and that is a specific design decision rather than a bonus. Jobs and proof of delivery are captured on the device and sync when signal returns. Any supplier who does not raise this first has not built for drivers.
Will it drain the driver's battery?
It will if location is polled continuously, which is why we do not. Sensible update intervals plus event-based capture keeps a shift on one charge in most operations.
Can customers track their own delivery?
Yes, and this is usually the feature that pays for the build, because it removes the phone calls asking where the van is.