Onfleet vs Custom Delivery Software

What Onfleet does well

Onfleet covers the core of last mile operations for businesses with their own drivers. Dispatchers create or import tasks, auto assign them, optimize routes and watch drivers on a live map. Drivers use a mobile app for navigation, task details and proof of delivery with photos, signatures and barcode scans. Recipients get text notifications with live tracking. An API and webhooks connect it to ecommerce and order systems.

For a florist, a grocery chain, a bakery wholesaler or a retailer running a small fleet, that is often exactly right. Tepia recommends Onfleet or a similar platform when delivery supports the business but is not the business itself, because the platform has already solved the hard parts of dispatch and tracking.

The decision changes when your delivery workflow carries rules, customers or money flows the platform was not designed around.

When delivery is the product

Tepia sees companies move toward custom delivery software in a few recognizable situations:

• Courier and 3PL companies that deliver for many merchants and need merchant accounts, booking, service levels, reconciliation and branded tracking per merchant.
• Regulated deliveries such as prescriptions or alcohol, where the handoff requires ID scanning, age verification, signature rules, refusal handling and a chain of custody record.
• Install and white glove delivery for furniture and appliances, with two person crews, time windows, haul away, damage photos and install checklists.
• Ordering and delivery in one app, where the customer orders, pays and tracks in your branded app and the driver flow is just one part of the product.
• Contractor driver networks that need onboarding, document checks, availability, offers and settlement by stop or zone.
• B2B route delivery with standing orders, pallets, returns, credits and signed delivery tickets for each account.

In each case, Tepia designs software around the handoff, the customer and the payout, because those are what the business actually sells.

Delivery scenarios: platform or custom

Tepia uses this scenario table to show delivery operators where each approach fits:

Many Tepia builds are hybrids: Onfleet keeps dispatch, routing and driver tracking, and Tepia builds the customer app, merchant portal or settlement engine through its API. Our proof of delivery app development page covers handoff capture in detail.

What a custom delivery platform includes

When Tepia builds delivery software from the ground up, it has four connected parts. The customer or merchant side handles ordering or booking, delivery windows, payment through Stripe and live tracking. The dispatch console assigns stops by zone, vehicle type, driver skill and capacity, with route optimization through a mapping provider and manual override for dispatchers. The driver app, built in React Native or Swift and Kotlin, runs offline, scans barcodes, captures photos and signatures, and enforces handoff rules for regulated items. The back office covers driver onboarding, settlement, exceptions, refunds and reporting.

Notifications run through Twilio, so recipients get texts for on the way, arriving and delivered, with a link to live tracking. For a step by step view, read how to build a delivery app, and see driver app development for the driver side.

How Tepia approaches Onfleet and custom delivery software

Tepia runs its six phase process with a US based project manager who works with your operations lead and dispatch team.

1. Discovery: ride alongs, time with dispatchers, a review of your Onfleet setup and API use, and an inventory of every handoff rule and exception. Deliverables are an Investigation Summary that recommends platform, hybrid or custom, an Interview Summary and User Stories such as a driver recording a refused delivery when the recipient cannot show ID.
2. Design: a design questionnaire, moodboards, a style guide and wireframes for customer, merchant, dispatcher and driver screens, tested at the curb in daylight.
3. Development and Testing: an Alpha with internal drivers, then a Beta on a few live routes, with test plans for offline capture, webhook handling, notification timing and settlement accuracy.
4. Training: hands on sessions for drivers, dispatchers and merchant support based on real stop scenarios.
5. Launch: migration of customers, merchants and addresses, zone by zone rollout, and support reps on the first shifts.
6. Support: issue resolution, bug tracking, new zones and feature requests.

Typically Discovery takes 1 to 3 months, development and QA 2 to 6 months, and launch about a month. Read our process or browse our work.

Platform, hybrid or custom

Tepia’s guidance: use Onfleet or a similar platform when you deliver your own orders with standard handoffs. Go hybrid when dispatch fits but your customers or merchants need their own app or portal. Build custom when delivery is what you sell, your handoffs are regulated, or contractor settlement is core to the model.

Whichever path you choose, plan the data early. Tepia exports task history, addresses, delivery notes and proof of delivery records from Onfleet before any change, so recipient preferences such as gate codes and leave at door instructions carry into the new system and past deliveries stay searchable for disputes.

Compare related options in last mile delivery software development and how to choose a delivery app developer, then talk to Tepia about your routes.

Frequently asked questions