Creative Ventures team8 min read
Last-mile logistics software case study: replacing spreadsheets with a realtime dispatch platform
A last-mile logistics case study — how we replaced a spreadsheet-and-WhatsApp dispatch system for a regional carrier, and why shipping alongside the legacy flow was the key to adoption.
RLC moves 4,000 parcels a day across a regional last-mile network. Before us, that meant a shared spreadsheet, three WhatsApp groups and an office whiteboard. Our job: replace the whole contraption without breaking a single day of operations.
What we built for last-mile dispatch
A realtime dispatch console, a driver mobile app with offline-first sync, a customer-side parcel tracker, and a lightweight routing optimiser that respects the very specific constraints of rural roads, mid-day heat and Ramadan hours. The heart of it is a stream of events — every scan, pickup, attempt and exception — flowing through a single pipeline that everyone shares.
Why driver adoption was the hardest problem
The software was the easy half. Drivers had ten years of muscle memory on paper and WhatsApp. We shipped the first version alongside the legacy flow, not replacing it — every feature had a toggle to fall back. Over eight weeks, one by one, drivers noticed the new flow was faster and stopped reaching for paper. The legacy flow died quietly.
Operational numbers after four months
On-time delivery rate moved from 78% to 94%. Average stops per driver per day went up 17%. Dispatcher head-count stayed the same — they simply stopped spending their day reconciling spreadsheets.
“We did not replace the whiteboard. We made the whiteboard unnecessary, and nobody noticed when it came down.”
