Services · Mobile app development · Logistics apps
Codeeo handles logistics app development in Chicago for trucking companies, drayage carriers and freight brokers. We build load booking, dispatch, driver apps and shipment tracking around the way Chicago freight actually moves: containers coming off rail ramps, loads heading out on I-55, I-80 and I-94, and drivers whose hours of service decide what the dispatcher can promise. The result is one system where a load, its driver, its paperwork and its status live together instead of across phone calls and spreadsheets.
Chicago is the meeting point of the country's freight railroads, so a lot of trucking here starts or ends at an intermodal terminal. An app that ignores container numbers, ramp cutoffs and free time will never fit the work. Ours start from those details, and from the fact that a load can change hands between rail, truck and broker several times before it reaches a dock.
200+ companies across the US and the UAEFrom a first store to a listed developer
What the app can include
A Chicago dispatcher's day is shaped by things a generic delivery app never sees: which rail terminal released a box, how much free time is left before storage charges start, whether a chassis is available, and how many on-duty hours a driver has before the clock stops them. Brokers in the Loop and the western suburbs have a different set of worries, mostly about which carrier is really hauling the load and whether the paperwork arrives in time to bill. The features below are the ones we see carry the most weight for Chicago operators. We do not build all of them in a first release. Discovery decides which ones come first, based on where your team currently loses the most time or money, and the rest are planned as later phases on the same platform.
Each drayage move carries its container number, steamship line, rail terminal, availability status and last free day. Dispatchers see which boxes are released at the ramps out toward Joliet and Elwood, which ones are still on hold, and which are close to running out of free time, so the day's pulls are planned before storage and per diem charges stack up.
Fewer containers forgotten at the terminal past their free time.
The board shows every truck alongside the hours each driver has left under federal hours of service rules, pulled from your electronic logging devices. Before assigning a run to the far suburbs or into Indiana, the dispatcher can see whether the driver can legally finish it and get back.
Loads assigned to drivers who can actually complete them.
Drivers receive loads, confirm pickups, photograph signed bills of lading, seal numbers and interchange receipts, and report delays from the cab. The app keeps working with a weak signal under viaducts and inside terminals, then syncs when coverage returns.
Paperwork arrives in the office the same day as the delivery.
A logistics tracking app for your customers shows where each load is, its estimated arrival and any exceptions, using location from the driver app or your telematics provider. Shippers check a link instead of calling dispatch every hour.
Fewer status calls interrupting the dispatch desk.
Track which chassis, trailers and tractors are where, who has them, and when inspections or repairs are due. For drayage fleets this ties each container move to the chassis it rode on, which matters when a pool provider sends a bill.
Equipment bills you can check against your own records.
For brokers, the app holds rate confirmations, carrier onboarding packets, insurance certificates and operating authority details, and flags a carrier whose records look wrong before a load is tendered. Every load shows which carrier accepted it and who is actually driving it.
Less exposure to double brokering and unvetted carriers.
When lake effect snow, road closures or a terminal slowdown hits, dispatch can push a single update to affected drivers and customers, reschedule appointments, and record the cause against each late load for later billing disputes.
A clear record of why a load ran late.
Delivered loads move straight to invoicing with accessorials such as detention, chassis split and prepull attached, supported by timestamps from the driver app. Driver and owner operator settlements are calculated from the same data.
Faster billing with fewer disputed charges.
Chicago has low viaducts, posted truck routes and busy grade crossings that the CREATE rail program is still working through. Dispatch can attach clearance warnings, gate instructions and preferred approach roads to each customer and terminal, so a new driver gets the same local knowledge your senior drivers carry in their heads.
Fewer wrong turns, struck viaducts and missed gate windows.
Turns per truck per day, dwell time at each terminal, empty miles, on time performance by customer and revenue per load, in a dashboard the owner can read without asking someone to build a spreadsheet.
Decisions based on how the fleet really performs.
Who this is for
Chicago freight is not one business. A drayage company pulling boxes from rail ramps has almost nothing in common with a brokerage on Wacker Drive or a refrigerated carrier serving food plants on the South Side, apart from trucks and drivers. Each needs a different first release. These are the four situations we hear most often from operators in the Chicago area, and what we would usually build first for each one. Plenty of Chicago companies sit in more than one group, such as a drayage carrier that also brokers overflow loads, and the platform is designed so a second business line can be added later without starting again.
If most of your moves start at a rail terminal, the first release is usually container tracking, last free day alerts and a driver app that captures interchange paperwork. Dispatchers stop chasing boxes by phone and start the day knowing which pulls protect your margin. Later phases often add chassis tracking and automated accessorial billing, because those are the charges that drayage operators most often lose track of.
Start with the containers that cost you money when they sit.
A Chicago brokerage usually needs carrier vetting, load tendering, tracking updates for shippers and fast collection of proof of delivery so invoices go out quickly. We build the broker side around your existing transportation management system where one exists, rather than asking your reps to work in two places. Carrier onboarding with authority and insurance checks is often the feature that pays back first.
Fleets running the Midwest out of Chicago need dispatch tied to driver hours, route planning around the Illinois tollway and Indiana, and maintenance tracking for tractors and trailers. These are fleet management app development projects at heart, and we usually connect them to the ELD and telematics hardware you already run rather than replacing it.
Manufacturers and distributors with a private fleet want delivery scheduling, driver apps and customer tracking without the broker features. We keep these builds lean, link them to your order or warehouse system, and leave room for carrier management if you later move some freight to outside trucking companies.
A private fleet app can be much simpler than a carrier platform.
How we work together
Codeeo has delivered 200+ projects across the UAE and the US, with a team of 80+ people across Dubai, Riyadh and Karachi. We act as logistics mobile app developers for Chicago firms without keeping an office in the city, so we work remotely with Illinois clients and run discovery, design reviews and demos over video calls. Most carriers begin with a fixed scope first release, then keep improving the app on a monthly retainer. Larger fleets and brokerages sometimes prefer a dedicated team that works through a longer roadmap with them.
A defined build with a deadline
We agree what the product has to do, write it down with a price and a date, and build exactly that. Changes are priced before they are made, not discovered on the invoice.
A product that keeps evolving
Named engineers who work your hours, join your standups and stay on the codebase. You direct the backlog; we own the quality of what ships.
Something live that needs looking after
A monthly block of hours for improvements, fixes and the small requests that otherwise wait months. Unused hours carry for a quarter.
Technology
We choose the stack around your fleet: cross platform driver apps that run on the phones and rugged tablets drivers already carry, a web dispatch console, and cloud hosting in your own account, with integrations to the ELD, telematics and accounting tools you use today. Where a railroad, broker or shipper offers an API or EDI connection, we use it before considering any screen scraping.
01Mobile
02Data and cloud
03Marketing and tracking
It depends on scope, integrations and how quickly your team can test, and we agree it in discovery.
A focused first release for one part of the business, such as container tracking for a drayage fleet, moves faster than a platform covering dispatch, brokerage, settlements and customer tracking at once. Integrations with ELD providers, rail terminal data and accounting systems add time because each partner has its own access process. We set out the phases, milestones and review points in writing at the end of discovery, so you know what arrives in which order before development starts.
Schedule a free consultation and get a written recommendation, with costs, before you commit to anything.
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