zPatch: Dispatch and Driver App for Small Carriers

zPatch Technologies builds a transportation management solution for small and mid-size carriers in the US: create shipments, dispatch drivers, track loads, collect proof of delivery and share status with shippers. The founding team came from the trucking industry and wanted the parts of an enterprise TMS that a small fleet actually uses, at a price it can afford.

We built the mobile app together with LKnet, a London software agency and our partner on the project, who supplied the design. Two audiences share the app: dispatchers managing a fleet, and drivers working a load.

For dispatchers, the home screen is the driver roster — in transit, off duty, offline — with each driver’s current load and stops remaining, and an assign-a-new-load action on top. For drivers, a load is a first stop and a last stop with time windows (Las Vegas, NV, 07:00–13:00; Los Angeles, CA, 09:30–15:00), the trailer required and the weight, with loads grouped as assigned, active and history.

Problems are first-class. From any stop a driver can report that the stop isn’t available, an equipment breakdown, a traffic jam or an accident, and the dispatcher sees it on the load. Five tabs — Map, Inbox, Loads, Offers, Garage — cover the driver’s whole day, and sign-up verifies the phone number with an SMS code.

The app shipped with real-time driver status, load assignment, stop-by-stop progress, problem reporting, a live map, messaging, load offers and a garage view for the vehicle.

It is the driver-facing half of the zPatch platform, alongside the web dashboard for shipments, billing and shipper visibility.