Fleet & Logistics Platform for Bal**** Roadlines, IndiaCase Study

Consignment status was established by phoning the driver, an approach that neither scaled nor left any record. Customers wanted tracking the operator could not offer, and the gap was starting to cost business. Office staff spent much of the day on calls, information was lost between shifts, and any dispute about delivery timing or condition came down to recollection rather than evidence.

GST compliance posed the harder problem. Each interstate consignment needs an e-way bill whose validity depends on distance, and staff were generating these manually on the government portal — slow, error-prone work where mistakes risked detention at checkposts. Invoices also had to apply correct place-of-supply treatment for interstate movements.

The driver app faced tough real-world constraints. Drivers used inexpensive Android handsets running older OS versions, with limited storage and patchy connectivity across highway dead zones. Anything requiring constant connectivity or a recent device would be abandoned in favour of phone calls, and the existing third-party GPS data had to be incorporated rather than replaced.

PapaSiddhi developed a React Native driver application that deliberately targets older Android versions with a small install footprint. It is offline-first by design: consignment updates, proof-of-delivery capture and photographs are stored on the device and synchronised when coverage returns, so drivers are never blocked by a missing signal. A Node.js back end on PostgreSQL ingests the third-party GPS provider API and correlates vehicle positions with active consignments, so tracking reflects the shipment, not just the truck.

E-way bills are generated through the GST e-way bill API directly from consignment data already in the platform, with validity calculated from distance and alerts raised before expiry. GST invoicing applies interstate place-of-supply rules automatically, customers receive a tracking link per consignment through a React web view, and an SMS gateway handles notifications.

Working as a dedicated team, we piloted the app with a small group of drivers on their actual handsets before wider rollout, uncovering usability issues emulators had missed. Office staff kept a manual e-way bill path for the exceptions common in interstate freight, so an unusual consignment never holds up a vehicle.