Development Agency
Contact Sign in Get a project quote

Service

Transport quote platform development

For haulage brokers, freight forwarders and founders of freight exchanges who want a quote platform designed around their lanes, load types and carrier vetting rules rather than a generic marketplace template with a lorry icon.

Get a project quote See the software package

The problem

What goes wrong today

Where it usually starts

A haulage broker lives in an inbox and a phone.

  • A shipper emails a request for four pallets from the Midlands to a port on Thursday; the broker forwards it to eight carriers they trust, waits, chases, collects quotes by text and email, picks one, confirms by phone and types a consignment note in a word processor.
  • The shipper is quoted a figure that includes the margin; nobody writes down which carrier quoted what, so when the same lane comes up next month the whole round of calls starts again.
  • A carrier whose insurance expired in March is still being sent loads because the certificate in the shared drive was never checked.

Where it gets harder

Once the load is moving, the shipper rings the broker, the broker rings the driver, and the answer is relayed with a delay at each step.

  • Proof of delivery arrives as a photograph of a crumpled note a week later, or not at all, and the carrier invoice cannot be matched to the job.
  • Loads that need a tail-lift, a curtain-sider or two drivers are sent to carriers who do not have them because the request did not carry the detail.
  • A freight exchange trying to replace this process with a website inherits every one of these problems unless the platform models loads, vehicles, quotes and documents properly from the start.

Scope of the service

What the build covers

A custom transport quote platform normally covers the load from posting to rating:

  • Load posting with pallet count or dimensions Weight, load type, equipment needs such as tail-lift or temperature control, collection and delivery locations with dates and time windows, and the lane that implies
  • Carrier accounts with vehicle types Equipment, operating areas, insurance and licence documents with expiry dates that gate what they can quote on
  • Quote submission with price Validity period and conditions, visible to the shipper or to the broker only, as your model demands
  • Award of the job to one quote with the others closed
  • Status updates from the carrier for collected In transit, delivered and exception
  • Consignment note and proof of delivery exchange as documents on the job
  • Carrier ratings after delivery
  • A commercial layer of commission per job Carrier subscription or both

How discovery works

Discovery works through a week of your loads with you: which load types you really handle, whether shippers see carrier quotes directly or only your price, how carriers are verified and re-verified, what documents must exist before a lorry moves, how status is reported today, and whether you earn commission, subscription or margin. Each answer becomes a named stage in the scope document: posted, quoted, awarded, collected, delivered, documented, rated, settled.

Deliberately out of scope

  • Transport management for the carriers' own fleets, customs declarations, driver tachograph records and the payment of carriers by the platform acting as a bank, each of which stays in its own system and is connected where it earns its place

When the scope grows

Scoping scenario

A broker with two hundred vetted carriers wants shippers to post loads and receive only the broker's price, carriers to compete behind the scenes on matched lanes with automatic exclusion when insurance lapses, a document checklist that blocks collection until the consignment note is signed, and a monthly settlement showing carrier cost, shipper price and margin per lane. That is a materially different build from an open exchange where shippers choose carriers themselves, and the scope document says which is being built.

Deliverables

What you receive

  • Discovery notes from a walk-through of a week of loads, from the first shipper email to the matched carrier invoice
  • A written scope document naming each load stage, load type and verification rule, with what is out of scope
  • Design of the load posting form, the carrier quoting view and the job and documents screen, checked on desktop and phone
  • The build, deployed to your hosting or ours
  • Migration of carrier records, documents and historical lane prices from current spreadsheets, where relevant
  • Training for your operations team and onboarding material for carriers and shippers
  • Handover material and full ownership of the source code and your data

Process

How a project runs

Each stage maps onto the project view in your client panel. Durations are set in your proposal, never on this page.

  1. Onboarding

    Access, contacts, your carrier list and documents, sample load requests and the consignment note you use today.

    Project stage: Onboarding

  2. Planning

    Discovery with the owner, the operations lead and a friendly carrier; the scope document and milestone plan are agreed.

    Project stage: Planning

  3. Design

    Clickable designs of load posting, the carrier quote view and the job screen with documents, checked on an office screen and a carrier phone.

    Project stage: Design

  4. Development

    Built in stages: carrier accounts and verification first, then load posting and quoting, then award, status, documents, ratings and settlement.

    Project stage: Development

  5. Client review

    Your team posts a week of real loads in parallel with the inbox, a few carriers quote, and you tell us where load detail, matching or documents fall short.

    Project stage: Client review

  6. Revisions

    Load fields, matching rules, quote visibility and document checklists are adjusted from the review and re-checked against the scope.

    Project stage: Revisions

  7. Ready for launch

    Carriers migrated with documents and expiry dates, notifications tested, commission or subscription rules confirmed, launch checklist signed off.

    Project stage: Ready for launch

  8. Delivered

    Loads are posted and quoted on the platform; optional maintenance and hosting continue under their own agreement.

    Project stage: Delivered

Integrations

Commonly integrated

Systems this kind of business usually asks us to connect. Each integration is confirmed during discovery; none is assumed.

  • Card and bank payment providers for carrier subscriptions and shipper payments
  • Accounting software for commission invoices, carrier self-billing and settlement
  • Mapping and distance services for lanes, mileage and matching carriers by area
  • Email and SMS providers for quote requests, award notices and status updates
  • Vehicle telematics and tracking devices for carrier position updates
  • Customs and port community systems for loads crossing borders, as an integration point

How we would approach it

Worked example

Concept demo

A broker who wanted competition without exposing carriers

The situation

A haulage broker with two hundred vetted carriers wanted the speed of an exchange without shippers ever seeing carrier names or prices.

Why it is a custom build

This needs a custom build rather than a marketplace template because the two-sided visibility rules, the document gates and the margin model are the business itself, and no off-the-shelf exchange assumes the shipper should never see the carrier.

The scope we would propose

  • Shippers post loads with pallets, weight, equipment needs and windows and receive a single broker price
  • The load is matched to carriers by lane, vehicle type and equipment and offered to them to quote within a validity window
  • Carriers whose insurance or licence document has passed its expiry date drop out of matching automatically
  • The broker awards the job and the platform generates the consignment note, which must be signed before the carrier can mark the load collected
  • Status and proof of delivery flow to the shipper under the broker brand
  • A month-end settlement report shows carrier cost, shipper price and margin per lane

Concept demo: a scoping scenario written to show how we would approach the work. It is not a delivered client project.

Pricing

What affects the price

Every proposal is priced on scope. These are the factors that move it most for this kind of build.

  • Open exchange, brokered model or a mix, and who sees which prices
  • Load types and the detail each needs: pallets, vehicles, abnormal loads, temperature-controlled, removals
  • Carrier verification rules and how many document types gate quoting
  • Status updates by carrier tap, by telematics connection or both
  • Documents exchanged on each job and whether signatures are captured
  • Commission, subscription or margin model and the settlement reports it needs
  • Number of carriers and shippers to migrate with their documents and lane history
  • Hosting choice: your own hosting or ours

Start from a package

Transport quote package

A freight quote platform where shippers post loads with dimensions, weight, dates and locations, verified carriers submit quotes with expiry, a job is awarded and tracked through delivery, documents are exchanged and carriers are rated.

Custom build
View the package

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Would the package do, or do we need a custom build?

An exchange where shippers post loads, verified carriers quote openly, one quote is awarded and both sides exchange documents is covered by the transport quote package through configuration. A brokered model with hidden carriers, margin settlement, customs touchpoints or telematics feeds is where the custom route becomes the honest recommendation. Discovery is where we say which.

How are carriers verified?

Carriers upload the documents you require, such as goods-in-transit insurance, operator licence and vehicle details, each with an expiry date. Your team approves them, and a lapsed document removes the carrier from matching until it is renewed. Which documents and what they must show is your decision; the platform enforces it.

Can shippers see which carrier quoted?

That is a scope decision. An open exchange shows carrier identity and rating with each quote; a brokered platform shows only your price and keeps carriers behind the scenes. Both patterns, and a mix by shipper type, can be built.

Does the platform handle payment between shipper and carrier?

It records what is owed and produces settlement and commission reports. Holding and paying out money on behalf of others is regulated activity, so where that is wanted the scope names a payment provider that offers it, rather than the platform acting as a bank.

Who owns the system afterwards?

You do. The source code, carrier and shipper records, load history and documents are handed over at delivery and can be exported at any time. Hosting and maintenance are optional and separately agreed.

Get a project quote for transport quote platform software

Answer a few questions about your business, your current systems and what should change. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.

Get a project quote Discuss a partnership
Get a project quote

Cookies on this site. Strictly necessary cookies keep the site working. Allow first-party analytics so we can see which pages lead to enquiries. No advertising, no third-party trackers, no personal data; you can change this at any time on the cookies page.

Manage preferences