Logistics engineering with a 40+ integration playbook from bolttech
Dispatch dashboards, customer tracking portals, ETA engines, invoicing. Senior engineer on subscription with integration-heavy experience. $3,499/mo.
Who this is for
Ops director at a $10M to $100M logistics operator or 3PL tech lead whose TMS cannot do what the business needs and whose dispatch lives in WhatsApp and Excel.
The pain today
- TMS cannot do what the business needs
- Dispatch lives in WhatsApp and Excel
- Customers want a tracking portal the TMS does not provide
- Invoicing lags actual dispatch by days
- Integration work between TMS, accounting, and EDI is painful
The outcome you get
- Custom logistics app on subscription at $3,499/mo
- Dispatch dashboard, tracking portal, or invoicing tool in 8 to 14 weeks
- TMS and accounting integration with clean sync patterns
- ETA engine and proactive customer notifications
- Integration-heavy architecture from bolttech 40+ provider playbook
Where logistics operations lose money
Three places. Dispatch visibility — dispatchers cannot see current fleet status in real time, so allocation is suboptimal. Customer visibility — customers call asking 'where is my shipment' because the TMS does not offer a public tracking view. Invoicing lag — paperwork from driver to office to invoice takes days, delaying cash flow. Each is fixable with a focused custom app that layers on top of the existing TMS, not replaces it. ROI usually lands in 6 to 12 months through operational efficiency alone, not counting new-customer wins from better experience.
Common apps I build
Dispatch dashboards (real-time fleet status, allocation suggestions, load optimisation hints). Customer tracking portals (shipment status, documents, history, invoice access). ETA engines (pulled from TMS + telematics + traffic data, refined over time). Proactive notifications (SMS/email on delay, delivery, exception events). Invoicing automation (data from TMS through accounting integration, reducing manual entry). Driver apps (delivery confirmation, documents, route optimisation). Each layers on top of the TMS without replacing it.
TMS and accounting integrations
Cargowise, MercuryGate, Turvo, Magaya, McLeod, Aljex — each has API access at varying quality. For TMS with good APIs, direct integration. For legacy TMS, middleware (MuleSoft, Boomi) or file-based integration (EDI, CSV drops). Accounting integration: QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, NetSuite. Integration pattern: TMS is the system of record for shipments; custom app reads and writes via API; accounting gets invoices posted automatically after delivery confirmation. At bolttech I ran integration-heavy work against 40+ providers — same discipline applies.
Pricing and engagement model
Standard $3,499/mo. Pro $4,500/mo. For large integration-heavy projects, Pro tier during initial build. 14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime. 100 percent code ownership under Work Made for Hire. For logistics operators with 10+ office locations or 500+ drivers, hosting scales accordingly ($500 to $2,000/mo). Subscription model works well for logistics operators because custom software tends to grow in scope organically — new integrations, new report types, new ops flows come up monthly.
Case: bolttech — integration-heavy platform playbook
At bolttech, the $1B+ unicorn backed by Tokio Marine and MetLife, I led the Payment Service that integrated 40+ payment providers across Asia and Europe. 99.9 percent uptime, zero post-launch critical bugs, supporting 15+ new international markets. Stack: NestJS, React, MongoDB, Redis, TypeScript. Logistics integration work shares the same pattern — many external systems, many edge cases, idempotency and retry logic on every integration, unified internal interface behind the providers. The playbook transfers directly to TMS, accounting, EDI, and telematics integrations.
When a TMS vendor is enough
For operators under $10M in revenue, a TMS like Rose Rocket, Samsara, or Turvo often handles most needs. Custom apps pay back when the TMS blocks a specific growth lever — unique customer experience requirements, non-standard workflow, or integration needs the TMS cannot cover. My target is mid-market operators where custom engineering materially affects ops efficiency or customer experience. For smaller operators, I recommend TMS configuration and simple integrations over building custom — saves months of work and delivers ROI faster.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Unified payment orchestration across Asia and Europe
Delivered the payment orchestration platform at bolttech, a $1B+ unicorn, with 40+ integrations across multiple regions.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can you integrate with our TMS?
- Yes. Cargowise, MercuryGate, Turvo, Magaya, McLeod, Aljex, Rose Rocket, Samsara — all have integration paths. For modern API-first TMS, direct integration in 4 to 8 weeks. For legacy TMS with limited APIs, middleware or file-based integration. At bolttech I ran integration work against 40+ providers — the pattern for logistics is the same: unified internal interface behind external systems, aggressive testing, idempotency on writes.
- How do you handle ELD and telematics data?
- Samsara, Geotab, Motive (formerly KeepTruckin), Omnitracs — all have APIs for vehicle telematics and ELD data. Custom apps pull position, speed, engine status, and HOS data to feed dashboards, ETA engines, and customer tracking. For compliance-critical ELD workflows, we do not replace the ELD vendor — the vendor stays as the system of record; custom app reads from them. This keeps DOT compliance clean and focuses custom work on value-adding surfaces.
- What about EDI?
- EDI is still common in freight. I have worked with 210, 214, 204, 997, 990 — the standard freight transaction sets. For operators with 5+ EDI partners, a dedicated EDI gateway (Kleinschmidt, SPS Commerce, Actian) sits between partners and your internal systems. Custom app reads and writes through the gateway. For operators just starting with EDI, we can build simpler integrations directly, adding a gateway later when partner count justifies it.
- How do you handle hosting for logistics apps?
- AWS or Azure for most logistics operators — both offer the scale, reliability, and integration options needed. For operators handling government or defence cargo, AWS GovCloud may be required. Hosting cost scales with user count and data volume; typical range $500 to $3,000/mo at mid-market scale. You own the hosting account from day one. Multi-AZ deployment standard for production systems where downtime blocks operations.
- Can the customer portal handle multiple offices?
- Yes. Multi-office, multi-tenant architecture so each customer sees only their shipments and their office contacts. For customers with multiple office locations of their own, we handle their internal hierarchy. Role-based access for customer-side users. For operators serving very large shippers (Fortune 500), deeper features — custom reporting, API access for the customer's own systems, white-label portal options — scope as the relationship develops.
Ready to start?
Tell me what you need in 60 seconds. Tailored proposal in your inbox within 6 hours.