Real-time at scale
Driver positions stream through a lightweight event pipeline, so the map stays live for every dispatcher without hammering the database.
Courier dispatch platform
A dispatch system for a same-day courier company, replacing a patchwork of spreadsheets with live maps, automatic route planning and a driver app.
- Sector
- Logistics
- Platforms
- Web platform, Android driver app
- Timeline
- 6 months, phased rollout
- Squad
- Tech lead, 4 engineers, designer, QA
The brief
The courier company had grown from 20 to 300 drivers on spreadsheets and a group chat. Dispatchers were overwhelmed, and customers could not see where their parcels were.
The new system had to roll out city by city without stopping daily operations for a single day.
What we built
- Live dispatch map with every driver and order
- Automatic route planning with manual adjustments
- Android driver app with navigation hand-off and proof of delivery
- Customer tracking links sent by SMS
- Client portal for business customers to book and track shipments
- Reporting on delivery times, failed attempts and driver performance
Engineering notes
Phased migration
Old and new systems ran side by side for each city until numbers matched, then the old one was switched off.
Route optimisation
An open-source solver was tuned with the company's own constraints, like loading times and business opening hours.
Results
- dispatcher time per order after full rollout
- −45%dispatcher time per order after full rollout
- drivers on the platform across 4 cities
- 300+drivers on the platform across 4 cities
- deliveries per driver per day
- +23%deliveries per driver per day
- platform uptime over the first year
- 99.95%platform uptime over the first year
Stack
- TypeScript
- Next.js
- Node.js
- Kotlin
- PostgreSQL
- PostGIS
- Redis
- Kubernetes
Have a product in mind?
Send us a short brief, a sketch or a link to what exists today. You will get a reply from an engineer, not a salesperson.