Shipment management software for logistics company

Project Goal

The main aim of the project was to develop from scratch a rate engine that can calculate shipping costs based on rates provided by the company’s partner carriers. Since the company works with dozens of ocean, air, and ground carriers, making precise cost calculations is particularly challenging. For that reason, the client needed to automate this process and integrate all carriers in its system for reducing operational time and expenses.

About the Client

The US-based company operating in ocean and air shipping was looking for a rate engine to calculate shipping cost based on carriers’ rates. With this idea in mind, the client came to our team requesting a full-cycle development of a custom software application.

Solution

To create a full-fledged product according to the customer’s request, the team of two full-stack software developers and one UI/UX designer worked on the project to complete the following:

• 30+ API carrier integrations. The main challenge was to connect all client’s carriers to the company’s backend. In order to do that, our team had to integrate and write more than 30 application programming interfaces (API) to get direct access to carriers’ rates, routing, and other data.
• Administration panel development. For a centralized control over the whole engine, our team has developed a separate administration panel. In such a way, the client can manage its employees and customers, review and approve shipment, create email templates, and view other common information. 
• User roles and permissions management. As long as different carriers can get involved in delivery of the same order, it was critical to develop user and permissions management. These features let our customer prevent confusions and errors as every single party has access only to the information that is relevant to their operations. 
• Unit testing. To detect and fix flaws within the software, our team decided to run a series of unit tests. Our team divided the entire code into separate logical parts for testing them individually. This approach helped us to find and fix bugs at the early stages of development before they become complex problems on the production stage. As a result, the team saved much time on bug fixing and the engine’s business logic adjustment. 
• Automated deployments. Since the solution had to work on different platforms, it was reasonable to automate deployments to make sure that only clean code comes to the production environment. This decision helped our team avoid fixing bugs on production, thereby significantly reducing associated time and costs. 
• Open ID connect (OIDC) protocol. Since multiple carriers and the company’s customers need to access the engine, it was necessary to come up with a universal solution for data security protection and effortless authorization. That’s why the OIDC protocol was used to implement a single sign-on for all trusted users and secure tokens for their data protection.

Technologies used

Results

After a successful completion of the project, our client got a fully developed custom shipment rate engine that delivers the business such values as:

• Shipment price calculator and engine. The company’s customer just needs to mention the origin and destination addresses, service type, and  shipment details (weight, volume, and type such as container, package, envelope and so on) to find the best offers for shipping their order. The customer views a list of potential carriers which can handle their shipment. Once the user selects the specific quote he will receive quote details on their email.
  
• Door-to-door routing. With integration of all carriers, the company’s customers can track the entire route of the order, even though different carriers are involved. 
  
• Additional load management. In case it’s necessary to add extra load to the order that is already shipping, this feature allows the company’s customer to do this in real time and calculate additional costs. 
  
• Email template management. The client is capable of creating various email templates to send to different customers, carriers, and other parties, thereby speeding up the communication process.
  

With such a solution supporting Full Truck Load (FTL) and Less Than Truckload (LTL) for ground transportation, and Containers for sea shipment, the company can significantly cut operational cost and time. As for the company’s customers, they are able to pick the most optimal offers for their orders delivery and manage them on the go in real time. On top of that, a precise door-to-door routing opened a new avenue of the company’s business: a parcel delivery service.

Power your logistics business with the might of technology

Modern logistics business is hard to imagine without a smart tech solution that boosts core processes and reduces expenses. With X years of experience, Twincore team can help you develop a custom software for logistics and transportation. From product ideation to testing and deployment, our qualified professionals will do their best to deliver a quality solution.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us right now and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible to discuss the details of your request.