Trucking Company App Development

What a trucking company needs from its app

Trucking companies come in many shapes: regional truckload carriers, dedicated fleets serving one shipper, flatbed and heavy haul operators, reefer carriers, port drayage outfits and private fleets inside manufacturers and distributors. They share one flow. A load is tendered, accepted, planned and dispatched, the driver picks up and delivers against appointments, paperwork comes back, the customer is billed and the driver is settled. Every gap in that flow is a phone call, a lost document or a late bill.

Regulation shapes the app as much as operations do. FMCSA rules require a driver vehicle inspection report when a driver finds defects, driver qualification files for every driver, queries to the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, and hours of service records kept by an ELD. Most fleets also file IFTA fuel tax returns each quarter, which depend on accurate miles by state. Tepia maps which of these your app should create, which it should read from other systems and which it should leave alone.

The roles differ sharply. Drivers want fewer taps and faster settlements. Dispatchers want to know where every truck is and whether it will make its appointment. Safety managers want inspection and document compliance. Billing wants a complete packet on every load. Tepia designs a separate experience for each role on top of one load record.

Features trucking companies ask for most

Tepia scopes from your freight type and back office. These features show up on most carrier projects:

Detention capture is often the fastest win. When the app records arrival and departure from geofences at each facility, billing can support every detention charge with timestamps instead of a driver’s memory. Tepia connects those events to the load so they flow straight into the billing packet.

Designing for drivers on the clock

A driver app competes with the road, the clock and the ELD for attention. FMCSA prohibits commercial drivers from texting or holding a phone while driving, so Tepia designs every interaction for a parked truck: large targets, a short path to the next task and nothing that invites a glance at highway speed. Screens that matter while moving, such as the next stop and its appointment, are readable at a glance and require no input.

Document capture has to work in a dim cab at 3 a.m. Tepia uses on device edge detection and auto crop so a folded BOL comes out legible, and checks image quality before the driver puts the paper away. Uploads queue offline across rural stretches and send when coverage returns. The app supports English and Spanish, and Tepia tests it on the tablets and phones your fleet actually mounts, including models managed through your mobile device management tool.

Settlement visibility is a retention tool. Drivers who can see exactly what they will be paid for each load, and why, call payroll less and trust the company more. Tepia builds the settlement view with drivers in the room during Design.

Back office connections: TMS, ELD and fuel cards

Most carriers already run a TMS, and Tepia’s apps usually sit beside it rather than replacing it. Common connections include:

• TMS platforms such as McLeod or Trimble TMW, through their APIs or integration tools, for loads, stops and billing status.
• ELD and telematics providers such as Samsara, Geotab and Motive for location, miles and hours of service. See our ELD and hours of service integration page.
• Fuel card programs such as WEX or Comdata for fuel purchases by state, feeding IFTA.
• QuickBooks or an ERP for billing and settlements.
• Factoring partners that need a complete document packet per load.
• Customer visibility through a branded shipment tracking portal and status updates by API.

Tepia documents which system owns each field, so a stop time changed in dispatch never fights a stop time reported by the ELD.

How Tepia approaches trucking company apps

Tepia’s six phase process is adapted here to a fleet that cannot stop running while the software changes. A US based project manager keeps operations, safety and billing aligned.

1. Discovery: ride alongs with drivers, time on the dispatch floor, a review of your TMS and ELD data, and an audit of how paperwork reaches billing today. Deliverables are an Investigation Summary, an Interview Summary and User Stories such as a driver submitting a BOL at a dark dock.
2. Design: a design questionnaire, moodboards and a style guide, then wireframes for the load screen, the scanner, the inspection flow and the settlement view, reviewed with drivers.
3. Development and Testing: an Alpha with a few trusted drivers and a Beta across one terminal, with test plans for offline scanning, inspection rules and settlement accuracy.
4. Training: short driver sessions at the terminal and remote sessions for dispatch, safety and billing.
5. Launch: migration of drivers, equipment and open loads, then a terminal by terminal rollout.
6. Support: issue resolution, bug tracking and feature requests such as a new accessorial type.

Typically Discovery takes 1 to 3 months, development and QA 2 to 6 months, and the rollout about a month. See our process.

Keep your TMS, add the apps around it

Replacing a TMS is rarely the first move, and Tepia does not push it. If your TMS handles planning and billing well, the bigger gains usually come from a better driver app, cleaner document flow and customer visibility built on top of it. Full custom systems make sense for specialized fleets, such as heavy haul with permits and escorts or private fleets tied to a manufacturer’s ERP, where packaged tools never fit.

Explore our dispatch software for trucking and fleet maintenance software pages, look at our work, or contact Tepia to talk through your lanes and paperwork.

Frequently asked questions