Mobile websites for logistics and transport firms

Key takeaways

A logistics mobile website has three audiences, and all of them are frequently away from a desk. Transport managers check a carrier between meetings or on a site visit. Customers open a tracking link from a text message. Drivers look for work on their phones. A site built only for a procurement manager at a monitor misses all three.

• Three mobile audiences: shippers, delivery recipients and drivers.
• Tracking links are opened almost entirely on phones, from texts and emails.
• A quote request should be possible in under a minute on a phone.
• Driver recruitment pages must work on mobile or candidates will not apply.

Who uses a logistics site on a phone?

More people than most logistics firms assume. The buyer may be a transport or operations manager who spends the day in a warehouse or on the road. The recipient of a delivery clicks a tracking link on the device it arrived on. And drivers and warehouse staff, the people firms most need to recruit, run their working lives from a phone.

B2B logistics sites do tend to have a higher desktop share than consumer sites. That is an argument for checking your own figures, not for ignoring mobile. The first contact, the tracking check and the job application are the mobile moments, and each has a direct commercial value.

• Why mobile-friendly web design is essential for UK businesses
• Websites for logistics and transport companies

What does a shipper need on mobile?

A shipper needs to confirm quickly that you handle their kind of load, on their routes, and to start a quote. On a phone, that means a first screen stating services and coverage, and a quote route that does not demand twenty fields.

• Services in plain terms: pallets, full loads, same-day, temperature-controlled, international.
• Coverage: regions, lanes or countries served.
• Proof: accreditations, fleet size, sectors served.
• A short quote form: collection, delivery, load type, date and contact.
• A tap-to-call number for urgent bookings, answered by someone who can quote.

• B2B website lead generation
• Instant quote calculators: do they win more enquiries?

How should the quote form work on a phone?

Ask for what you need to give an indicative price or call back, and no more. Collection and delivery postcodes, load type and size, the date and a contact number are usually enough. Postcode fields should bring up the right keyboard, and dimensions should use a numeric keypad.

If a full quote needs detailed information, split it. Capture the essentials and the contact first, then follow up. A shipper who abandons a long form on a phone is a lead you never knew you had.

• Mobile form design: forms people finish on a phone
• Multi-step vs single-step forms: which gets more enquiries?

What makes tracking work on mobile?

Tracking works when the link in the text message opens a light page that shows the status immediately, without a login and without retyping a reference. Recipients open these links on a phone, often on mobile data, sometimes on the doorstep. The page should show where the delivery is, when it is expected and what to do if nobody is in.

Good mobile tracking reduces inbound 'where is my order' calls, which is a direct saving for the customer service team. If your tracking is provided by a third-party system, test its mobile screens as a recipient would.

• The link carries the reference, so nothing needs typing.
• Status, expected time and delivery instructions in the first screen.
• Options to rearrange or leave safe-place instructions.
• A contact route if something has gone wrong.

• Customer service outsourcing for logistics firms
• Your website on slow mobile data: the test most firms skip

Why do careers pages matter most on mobile?

Because drivers and warehouse staff apply from phones. A careers page that requires a CV upload, a desktop-style application form and an account will lose candidates who would have applied with a few taps. For a sector with persistent recruitment pressure, that is an expensive piece of friction.

Let candidates register interest with a name, phone number, licence category and location, and call them back. State pay, shifts, routes and vehicle types up front, since those are what candidates want to know before they give their details.

• Mobile job applications: can candidates apply on a phone?
• Is your website putting off job candidates?

What are the costs and trade-offs?

Mobile fixes to the marketing pages, quote form and careers page of an existing site are typically an indicative £500 to £3,000. Tracking and customer portals are application work and depend on your transport management system. Improving their mobile screens may be a configuration change or a larger integration project.

The trade-off is where to focus. If most enquiries come through tenders and account managers, the marketing pages need to be sound on mobile, not exceptional, and the gains are in tracking and recruitment. Let your own device data decide.

• Does mobile matter for B2B websites?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in haulage and courier firms: the website was built to impress procurement teams, with a fleet video, a long services page and a 'Request a quote' form of eighteen fields. The careers page says 'send your CV to this email address'. Analytics shows the careers page is the most visited after the homepage, almost entirely on phones.

The firm's biggest constraint is drivers, and its site makes applying hard for exactly those people. A four-field 'register your interest' form changes that at once. Global Bridge Labs (GBL) checks which pages are most mobile-heavy before deciding where to start on a logistics site.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses
• Make your website work properly on mobile

Next step

Check which of your pages has the highest share of mobile visits. For many logistics firms it is careers or tracking, not the homepage, and that is where mobile work pays first.