Fleet Management
Software for a Waste
Collection Company
About the project
Clockwise Software has joined the development team working on a platform for waste transportation management in Denver, Colorado. The system was initially designed to optimize communication between dispatchers and drivers and minimize mistakes at different stages of waste transportation. The developed platform has proven its efficiency.
Dan Weber, CEO/CTO of the company, decided to improve the platform he developed by enabling multi-tenancy. The system can be adjusted for usage in different types of companies, with flexible settings, access rights management and advanced security. As a result, the software can be used in every business that offers shipping at short distances, such as food or construction materials delivery, taxis, etc.
This product’s exclusive performance was also achieved through comprehensive testing. We reached 99-100% test coverage. As a result, only one support request was made in six months.
Client's problem
Our client is a Denver-based company that provides waste transportation services to businesses all across the city. There are multiple truck drivers and a few dispatchers involved in the process. Initially, the entire order management occurred manually, causing multiple mistakes, repeating time wastage and low work productivity.
Inefficient work order placement
A truck driver had to visit the company office to receive a transportation order. When it was completed, the driver had to return to the office again for the next order. This repeated throughout the workday and resulted in lost time and money.
Phone calls causing mistakes
If an order was changed or canceled by the customer, or an urgent order came in, the dispatcher had to notify the driver by calling him. However, communication via phone wasn’t efficient enough and resulted in frequent misunderstandings and mistakes.
Difficulties with work order tracking
When most of the orders, changes, and cancellations are either on paper or discussed via phone, it’s hard to track the completed work. Some information was constantly missing or incorrect, which made accounting a nightmare.
The CTO of the company was looking for experienced developers and QA engineers to join the on-site team working on the platform to optimize the processes of a waste transportation company. This is how their cooperation with Clockwise Software began.
Solutions developed in tight collaboration
It was important to create a system that makes communication between dispatchers and truck drivers as efficient as possible, eliminating time waste and possible mistakes. We built a platform that solves all the listed problems using a mobile application and web-based dispatcher’s console.
Online assignment of work orders
Dispatchers are now able to assign work orders via the dispatcher’s console and detailed information about the delivery is sent to the driver’s mobile app. There is no need for paperwork and mistakes have been eliminated.
Real-time changes
The Marketsoup application immediately notifies drivers about any changes the dispatcher makes in console. The need for phone calls is eliminated, as the driver can access this information from his smartphone.
Transparent processes with reliable order tracking
All the information is now processed in the system and securely stored on the server. In addition, updated software allows the generation of reports about drivers, processed orders, routes, used containers, etc.
Challenges in the development process
We faced multiple challenges while optimizing company processes with the help of a software. However, the joint experience of two teams allowed us to successfully overcome them.
Long load time of the initial version of the app
With thousands of container markers on the map and a large list of containers, it took up to 5 seconds for the application to load. We managed to reduce the load time to 1,5 seconds by optimizing component lifecycles, minimizing dom structure, adding clusters for markers, reducing the size of data requests, adding pagination for containers list, etc.
Overcomplicated design resulting from incorrect targeting
We started with a sophisticated and trendy design, but most of the drivers had trouble using the Marketsoup app. We had to simplify and adjust the initial design according to the needs and expectations of a target audience who didn’t follow the latest industry trends and required a simple and intuitive app.
GPS failures during order completion
The drivers were using smartphones with the latest Android version, which included a feature that automatically turned off GPS to save battery. We integrated wake lock to prevent the device from turning off any services, even after being inactive for some time.
Time zone mismatch
The system needed to be ready for delivery management in multiple states. However, time zones issues were a problem. To sync the work of dispatchers and drivers regardless of the time zone they are currently in, we set the server time to UTC and enabled the user to switch to current time.
Engineers
QA Engineer
Project Outcome
Marketsoup’s CEO/CTO Dan Weber professionally managed the development, constantly keeping abreast of all the processes. Collaboration of Clockwise Software and Marketsoup team proved successful.
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