IndustriesLogistics
The trip is finished. Nobody can tell you what it earned.
In transport the money is in the small things. The fuel that actually went into that truck. The two days it stood waiting that nobody charged for. The leg that ran back empty. The delivery note that never came back, so the invoice never went out, so you are still chasing money for a job that finished two months ago.
We build the system that holds a trip from booking to payment. You can see where every truck is. The cost and the earnings build up while the trip is still running. Drivers are sent their next load by SMS and WhatsApp, and the invoices come straight off the trips you have run.
You charge by distance and you plan by time. Do you know what a kilometre actually costs you, truck by truck?
What usually breaks
Not a list of features missing. A list of the places the work actually falls over, in this sector, in this market.
- 01
The delivery note is somewhere in WhatsApp
Scattered across a hundred messages in ten different conversations. At the end of the month somebody has to go and find each one, work out which trip it belongs to, and only then can the invoice go out.
- 02
You know the fuel bill, not what it bought
Diesel is recorded against a truck, so the monthly total is easy enough. Which trips used it, and whether those trips were worth running, is a different question and nothing in the business answers it.
- 03
You find out what a trip earned at month end
Four weeks after the decisions that made it. The rate you quoted last week was a guess, and you will only know how good a guess it was in another month.
- 04
Waiting time goes unclaimed
The truck stood two days at the port and nobody told the office. By the time somebody notices, it is too late to charge for it.
- 05
"Where is my cargo?" is a phone call
Answered by whoever picks up, from whatever they can find. It happens dozens of times a day, usually about cargo that is exactly where it should be.
- 06
The papers for one load sit with five people
The declaration, the seal, the manifest, the delivery note. Each one is with whoever handled it, and a load stops moving for the one that is missing.
- 07
Servicing happens after the breakdown
A truck off the road is the most expensive thing in this business, and the service that would have prevented it was due three weeks ago in a book nobody opened.
What we build
This is well travelled ground for us and the shape of the system is known, so the conversation is usually about which parts you need first.
- 01
Where every truck is
One screen showing the whole fleet, read from the tracking you already pay for, with each truck sitting next to its trip, its papers and its money.
- 02
Trips, from booking to payment
Booking, allocation, dispatch, delivery and invoicing, with the cost and the earnings building up as the trip runs.
- 03
Kilometres per litre
Fuel issued against a trip, so you can see kilometres per litre for every truck and every route, and see straight away which ones are out of line.
- 04
Fleet, drivers and papers
Vehicles, trailers, drivers, and every licence, permit and inspection. Each expiry date reaches you while there is still time to do something about it.
- 05
Drivers told what is next, automatically
The next load goes out by SMS and WhatsApp the moment it is allocated, with the pickup, the drop and what they are carrying. Nobody has to ring round to find out who is free.
- 06
Every paper for a load in one place
Attached to the load itself, so the person who needs a document at three in the morning can open it without finding the person who has it.
- 07
Servicing before the breakdown
Planned and unplanned work, with the cost per vehicle, so keeping a truck or replacing it is a decision you make against a number.
- 08
Customers who check for themselves
A page or a WhatsApp number your client can ask directly, answering from the same records your own team is looking at.
What it has to live with
Nothing here runs on its own. These are the systems your business already answers to, and a system that ignores them is a system somebody has to work around.
- 01
The tracking you already pay for
We read your existing GPS and cargo tracking and leave it where it is. Tracking tells you where a truck is. Putting that next to the trip's paperwork and its money is the part that is missing.
- 02
TRA fiscal receipting
Fiscal invoices and receipts issued through the Virtual Fiscal Device from inside the system itself.
- 03
Mobile money and bank transfers
Driver advances, road expenses and customer collections, matched back to the trip they belong to as they happen.
- 04
Your accounting package
The ledger stays where it is. The operational system feeds it, so there is one set of books and everybody trusts it.
What changes
The reason to do any of it, in the language of the person signing for it.
- Where every truck is, on one screen, next to the job it is doing
- Invoices generated from the trips you have actually run
- What a trip is earning while it is still running, so the next rate is quoted on something real
- Kilometres per litre for each truck, and the ones that are out of line
- Waiting time charged for, because somebody was told while it still counted
- Customers checking status themselves instead of phoning your operations desk
- Licences, permits and services that reach you before they lapse
Where this usually starts
Most companies in this sector begin with one of these and add the rest later.
- Business systems (ERP)One system your company runs on, built around the way it already works.
- Mobile appsFor the people doing the work away from a desk, and the office that needs to see it.
- WhatsApp business systemsYour business operated from the app your staff and customers already use.
- AutomationThe repetitive work that eats a week, done without anyone doing it.
Questions you probably have
The ones we are actually asked, answered the way we answer them on a call.
- We run transit loads to the DRC, Zambia and Rwanda. Does it handle that?
- Yes. Transit is mostly a documents and status problem: the declaration, the seal, the border events and the proof at the far end all attach to the load, and the people who need them can see them without asking.
- We already pay for GPS tracking. Is this replacing it?
- No. We read what you already have. Tracking tells you where a truck is. It does not tell you what the trip cost, whether the delivery note came back or whether the invoice went out. Those are the gaps we close, and doing it on top of your existing tracking is cheaper than starting again.
- Can our customers see their own loads?
- Yes, and it is usually the fastest thing to pay for itself. Most operations desks spend a large part of the day answering a question the customer could answer in ten seconds.
- We have a small fleet. Is this only for large operators?
- Below about ten trucks we would tell you to wait. The time it saves does not cover what it costs yet, and an operation that size can still be held together by hand. From ten upwards it changes quickly, and past twenty the paperwork is costing you more than the system would.