Features of Courier Management System
Celadonsoft has worked on a bunch of delivery apps that included courier apps and admin panels. We comprehended the key features based on our experience and here’s the courier app design we arrived at.
Sign-in and Profiles
Log-in are the gates to the app. If we’re talking about courier service app development, the log-in and profile features serve as identification. Clearly, courier identification is crucial for management. Once you have the details about the courier, you can check on their performance, hours worked, and other information related to the work of a particular courier.
Signing up can be done in a number of methods - via e-mails or phone numbers. It’s up to you which one will work best.
Order Info
Order information is to be displayed on the delivery order screen. This component is of great importance to ensure the flawless delivery of food and beverages. What information the screen should contain:
- Automatically generated order number;
- Information on items included in the order;
- Orderer’s name;
- Call button or orderer’s phone number;
- Delivery time;
- Pick-up point for if products are distributed from various locations;
- Drop-off point that can be supported with a map;
- Payment information specifying payment status, payment method, total sum to be paid;
- GPS tracking to transmit information about courier’s location to clients;
- Notes left by a recipient;
- The list of completed and canceled orders.
If you are developing an application in which several orders can be placed for delivery, there are some more sophisticated features that need to be taken into account to ensure that delivery services run properly:
- An order list and the ability for couriers to book the order they are about to fulfill
- Order sorting and filtering, so that couriers can choose to view orders suitable by time, distance, etc.
A complementary feature that is appreciated by the clients is delivery status. The status is updated in real-time mode after completing each phase of order delivery.
Proof of Delivery
The PoD feature is needed to make sure the orders are delivered and avoid fraud. The completion of delivery can be achieved in several ways:
- Client's e-signature;
- Delivery photo;
- Scanning a QR code that is generated by the customer's app;
- Order receiving button on the customer’s app;
- Code confirmation that is also generated by the customer's app.
Any of the abovementioned options can work well for your couriers and be adapted to build a courier tracking app.
Navigation
Navigation is important to develop courier logistics software. Thanks to this feature, orders will be delivered on time and without delays.
The navigation function is represented as a GPS navigator with a route between the order pickup point and the delivery point. Destinations can be set manually by the courier or automatically by the system. In addition, this function will help you and your customers to track the location of the courier.
The most popular implementation of this feature is Google Maps integration. This helps to save time and money to develop the feature from scratch.
Means of ?ommunication
Courier management applications can use several means of communication: calls and chats. Calls can be built into the application itself and can be made via the call button in the order description.
Couriers need the ability to communicate with both customers and courier delivery administrators. To contact technical support, the technical support section may contain a call button or written technical support number that can be copied.
Notification
The app can send notifications to the courier about new orders, expiring delivery, order status updates, etc. The list of situations about which the app will notify the courier can be customized.
Admin Dashboard
The admin panel may vary from business to business. One courier service app design needs one set of functions, and the other needs a different set of functions. However, there are a number of features that are mandatory for all:
- Current and recent order statuses: pending, in progress, delivered, canceled, etc.
- Revenues and expenses, which can be filtered by such parameters as time (last day/week/month/3 months/year), product, or any other parameters you deem necessary.
- Fleet status, which will display information on the total number of couriers, the number of couriers working at the moment, which ones are busy, and which ones are free.
In addition, this screen often displays information about your most popular and profitable items from the catalog.
Admin dashboard can be developed as a separate software for a delivery business. Why it is a good idea and what features are to be added will be covered in the next article related to food delivery app development.
