Transportation Management System (TMS)

about TMS project

Our client – MAKO TSL hired Bright Inventions to build a customized tool for their internal transport management department. MAKO TSL offers fast and safe forwarding and transport services to companies all over Europe. 

The client has used various freight management solutions available on the market. Yet none of them met all their needs. So they hired us to build a customized transport management system to be used by the client’s employees.

Main features developed by Bright Inventions

• Importing freight listings from popular transport marketplaces.
• Filtering out listings that don’t match the basic criteria (weight and size of the load, route details, etc.).
• Preliminary matching of the listings with the right vehicle and driver. Then it can be verified by the forwarder.
• Managing the route from arrival to the destination point. Adding extra points on the carriers’ map.
• Receiving notifications from the drivers about delays or other disturbances on the road.

stack

Frontend: TypeScript, React, Redux, React Query

Backend: Nest.js, TypeScript, AWS, PostgreSQL, Prisma

Android development: Kotlin, Coroutines, Flows, ViewModel, Firebase, Hilt, and other Google APIs

Product design: Figma, Adobe Illustrator

goal

Our primary goal was to design MVP which could verify the potential of the system to be developed on a bigger scale.

The solution is supposed to transform forwarders’ work into a less repetitive, faster, and more automatic job. The aim is to limit both: the time between finding and matching load with the right transport provider and the number of kilometers done by empty vehicles. Fast and effective utilization of vehicles' spare capacity is essential for the industry.

Also, another long-term goal is to support daily communication with road hauliers.

the challenge of building a transport management system

The main challenge was to build a fast solution. Time is the key to the shipping industry. The app had to aggregate the listings fast and assign them to the right carriers. Every millisecond counts.

What’s more, our team had to design an algorithm that would automatically filter out transport listings to display only the ones that match the client's expectations.

In terms of product design, the right architectural information was the key. Forwarders work at a high pace and they expect any work tool to make their job even faster. The client required us to include as much information as possible on one screen so they could scan all the info fast.

TMS development process

Bright Inventions were responsible for every aspect of MVP development from listing requirements, product design, to web development, QA, cloud management, launch, and finally maintenance. The MVP was launched in October 2022 and received positive feedback from the client’s employees.

Web development and maintenance

From the beginning, we were entrusted to choose the right stack and had the pleasure to work with the top tools available at the moment. The client expected to build the fastest possible transport listing filtering system.

To make it possible we implemented the best solutions JavaScript and AWS have to offer with Lambda and SNS on top of them.

As a result, it takes up to 0.5 seconds to filter out the right transport listings and display them to users. In 1 minute we analyze over a thousand job listings to display only the ones that meet all the requirements.

Product design

Before our team presented the MVP mockups we took a couple of crucial steps which helped us design the product. Typically, it all started with desk research, followed by benchmarking. We also had a great opportunity to conduct field studies and user shadowing combined with adaptive interviews. Thanks to our client who enabled us to visit the forwarders who in fact were going to be the MVP end users. Based on that research our product designer created the final MVP designs.

Mobile development

After a successful web MVP launch, our client decided to engage us in mobile development too. We have been developing a native mobile application for Android. MVP was released recently. The mobile app supports communication between freight forwarders and drivers. For example, it allows sharing of carriers' localization with the forwarders and sending scans of documents. After the MVP launch, the app is now being tested by the first users.

client’s perspective

Their flexible and professional approach to business was impressive. The difficulties encountered in the creation process were never a problem, only a challenge. All the set goals were met on time.

Grzegorz Gajewski, Development & Training Manager @ MAKO TSL

result

MVP launch ensured the client that the system has the potential to change the daily work on their team. We’re delighted to say that the client decided to continue our cooperation. Now we focus on implementing other features in the system for example the electronic circulation of documents.

It’s definitely a busy time for our TMS team. We will keep you updated on the project.