IIT Madras develops OptRoute Mobile App for Inter-city Goods Logistics

It is currently available for operational use in multiple cities across India, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Panchkula, Pune, Mohali, Surat and Zirakpur.

To enable easier and efficient transportation of goods within cities, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) faculty members, students and alumni have designed and developed a mobile application called 'OptRoute'.

This mobile phone app connects a driver with the consumer and does not take any commission or on-boarding fee. The payment from the consumer goes directly to the driver, with no intermediaries.

Mr. Anuj Fulia, Co-founder, OptRoute Logistics, and an IIT Madras alumnus, added, "We have developed a lightweight mobile application where customers and drivers can get connected. OptRoute does not use any third-party services allowing us to cut down the cost of operation to an absolute minimum and because of the same reason, we are able to provide our service with zero percent commission. This design and development has had a significant contribution done by alumni and students of IIT Madras. By the end of this year, we will scale our service to be available in 500+ cities."

Prof. Narayanaswamy, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, said, "OptRoute aims to solve the issues in connectivity between drivers and customers in the goods logistics and transport domain. The main issues faced are the unavailability of return load for transporters and vehicle capacity under-utilization. The current market of this domain is highly unorganized making it inefficient. It is also ripe for deployment of technology-based solutions to reach the goals set by the National Logistics Policy, 2022."

IIT Madras' OptRoute App Details

The OptRoute application has two user modes - Driver and Customer. In the Customer mode, users can place any goods transport request for which a vehicle is needed. In the Driver mode, users can view the available requests and accept them.

The key points of differences between OptRoute and existing services include zero-commission per transaction and nominal subscription-based service model, direct payment from consumer to driver, high scalability of the software system and operations, and a single app for both drivers and customers. 

The first version of the App has been developed and commercialised through OptRoute Logistics, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up co-founded by Prof. N.S. Narayanaswamy, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras and Mr. Anuj Fulia, an IIT Madras alumnus.

The OptRoute app is available for Android devices and can be installed from Google Play Store.

Read more:

• IIT Delhi offers hands-on training on Semiconductor Device Technology: Fabrication and Characterization
• AIU hosts webinar - "Education partnership between India and the US"