Road Hunter

About the project

Road Hunter was thought of as a solution for the truck drivers’ community to support their daily work. The app used to be a digital places of interest catalog and provided detailed information for every truck stop, including diesel prices, parking spaces, restaurants, and many other amenities. With time, Road Hunter became a beloved environment where truckers can easily find weigh stations, check their live status, use GPS avoiding low clearance bridges, find jobs, loads, and many more.

About the project

Challenges

Solutions

The first and the biggest challenge was to offer route navigation that could fit different user needs, considering the variety of vehicles and job peculiarities.

We have built custom in-app directions with the help of Google API and have integrated third-party map navigations that are available as options for selection. In-app directions provide the route from point A to point B with detailed instructions, whereas third-party services consider truck parameters when sending us the most optimal way for selected directions and open navigation maps within our app.

Another challenge was to provide quick access to the abundance of places of interest when opening the app.

Places of interest (POI) are shown within a certain radius of the user’s location, so the map is not overwhelmed by all points that exist in the database. Moreover, POI are stored in two databases, one of which is local that does not require processing backend requests each time the map is opened and drastically reduces the time to display elements on the map.

Discovery pha Discovery pha Discovery pha

STAGES

01/ Discovery Phase

The client has done rigorous preparation before approaching us. With the product vision, understanding of end-users, and a list of files for the database, our task was to carefully analyze the incoming information, research the development possibilities and build a solution that could fit both requirements and budget. As a result, considering the peculiarities of the target audience, we drafted a thorough plan for the app development process with the primary focus on the Android platform.

information information information

information architecture

The structure of the app

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STAGES

02/ Development

Careful planning and thorough thinking are what describe the development process of the Road Hunter the best. The backend development started weeks ahead of mobile development. Building a parser to create a unified database structure, our team processed plenty of files containing information about places of interest around the USA. Mobile development began with Android and went ahead of its iOS counterpart. Within the project, we have worked with Google Maps API, HERE Maps, TomTom API and Mapbox and managed to ensure quick optimization for a smooth user experience.

02/ Development

Features we have developed

Map

Map is the landing point and the primary source of information for users. They can look for places of interest, select needed map layers to view traffic, track restrictions or weather, and start navigation from the map screen.

POI

Places of interest are divided into categories and are specific for truck drivers. Users can view them within a 112 km radius of their location, filter the map by needed place, and check each place’s detailed information. Some information is provided in real-time, e.g., fuel prices or waiting time.

Navigation

Navigation feature builds optimal routes based on the truck type and settings, including truck height, maximum weight, and information on hazardous goods.

Load

Loads provide the list of goods that belong to different companies and need to be transported across the country. Users can filter the list, select the loads that suit their route, and pick up the goods on their way. There is a possibility to check detailed information, like rate, type of load, contact information, and more.