App builder

See next week coming with a logistics planner app
for loads, dock slots and trailers.

Describe your dock doors, fleet and lanes, and Netiva’s AI builds a web app that sets open loads against free trailers, books carriers into dock slots and holds units for the shop.

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Starter prompt

Build a logistics planner web app for a regional distribution center with 10 dock doors, 18 tractors and 40 trailers. Track planned loads with ship date, lane, trailer type, pallets, weight, who covers each load and status. Planners reserve a tractor or trailer for a load or a maintenance hold between two dates, and the app blocks overlapping reservations. Show a weekly calendar comparing open loads with free units by trailer type. Carriers sign in to book 60-minute dock slots from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., with doors 9 and 10 kept for reefer loads, and get an email confirmation.

Build it in Netiva Paste the prompt into a new workspace and adjust it to your business.
Overview

Who this logistics planner app is for

Transport planners and warehouse schedulers often discover a week is short on trailers after it has already started. Capacity sits in one spreadsheet, dock times on a whiteboard or in a carrier’s email thread, and maintenance holds in the shop manager’s head. A logistics planner app built with Netiva keeps planned loads, tractors and trailers, reservations and dock appointments in one place. You spot next Wednesday’s gap on Friday, give each carrier a slot at a door that fits the load and stop promising the same reefer to two lanes.

Key features

What your logistics planner app can do

  • Weekly load and capacity calendar

    Every planned load sits on a seven-day grid by ship date and trailer type, next to the units still free that day, so a short Wednesday shows up while there’s still time to book another carrier.

    • Open loads, pallets and weight totaled for each day
    • Days with more open loads than free trailers flagged
    • Saved views for each lane or trailer type
    • Own-fleet, contract and spot coverage side by side

  • Dock appointment slots

    Carriers sign in, choose an open slot at a door that suits the appointment type and get an email confirmation. Your scheduler sees each door’s day in time slots and confirms or moves requests.

    • Slot lengths set per type, such as live unload or drop trailer
    • Reefer-capable doors offered only for temperature-controlled loads
    • Confirmation and day-before reminder emails
    • Each carrier sees only its own bookings

  • Tractor and trailer availability

    Each unit has its type, pallet positions and payload. Reservations for loads, preventive maintenance, repairs and inspections block it between two dates, so the same trailer can’t be promised twice.

    • A two-week availability strip for every unit
    • A warning when two reservations overlap
    • Annual inspection due dates listed a month ahead
    • A page per unit with upcoming holds and recent loads

  • Order feed and Friday plan email

    If your TMS, WMS or order system offers a REST API, the app can pull next week’s confirmed orders in as open loads. A scheduled email then sends the finished plan to the warehouse before the weekend.

    • API keys for your order system stored securely
    • New orders arrive as open loads with lane, pallets and weight
    • Next week’s loads listed by day in one email
    • Loads nobody has covered yet shown first
Data model

The collections behind it

Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.

Loads

Every shipment you plan to move, by day, lane and trailer type.

  • Load number (required) Text
  • Ship date (required) Date
  • Lane (required) Origin and destination, such as DC 2 to the northern store group Text
  • Trailer type (required) Dry van, reefer or flatbed Text
  • Pallets (required) Number
  • Weight (required) Pounds, from the order or forecast Number
  • Covered by Own fleet, a contract carrier’s name or Spot; blank while open Text
  • Status (required) Open, Covered, Dock booked, Shipped or Cancelled Text

Equipment

The tractors and trailers you plan with, and what each one can carry.

  • Unit number (required) Text
  • Unit type (required) Tractor, dry van, reefer or flatbed Text
  • Home yard Text
  • Pallet positions Trailers only; the floor positions you plan with Number
  • Max payload Pounds you allow on this unit Number
  • Next inspection due (required) Annual inspection, or sooner if your maintenance plan says so Date
  • In service (required) Yes or Retired; short holds go in Reservations Text

Reservations

Date ranges when a unit is taken, for a load or for the shop.

  • Unit (required) Relation to Equipment
  • Load Blank for maintenance and inspection holds Relation to Loads
  • From (required) Date
  • Until (required) Last day the unit is unavailable Date
  • Reason (required) Load, Preventive maintenance, Repair or Inspection Text
  • Reserved by (required) Filled in from the signed-in planner Text

Dock appointments

Inbound and outbound bookings at each door, from request to completion.

  • Reference (required) PO number for inbound, load number for outbound Text
  • Load Outbound appointments only Relation to Loads
  • Carrier (required) Filled in from the carrier’s account when they book Text
  • Door (required) Door number; reefer-capable doors marked R Text
  • Slot start (required) Date & time
  • Appointment type (required) Live unload, drop trailer, live load or preloaded pickup Text
  • Pallets Number
  • Status (required) Requested, Confirmed, Checked in, Completed, No-show or Rescheduled Text

Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.

Screens

Pages and screens to start with

A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.

  • Week plan

    Seven days of planned loads by trailer type, with pallets, weight and free units for each day and short days highlighted in the header.

    Your team

  • Dock schedule

    Every door’s day in time slots, with requested bookings waiting at the top and checked-in, completed and no-show appointments marked.

    Your team

  • Book a slot

    A carrier enters a date, appointment type and reference, then sees only the open slots at doors that fit the load.

    Signed-in users

  • My appointments

    A carrier’s own upcoming and past bookings, with a button to ask for a different time or cancel.

    Signed-in users

  • Fleet availability

    Every tractor and trailer on a two-week strip showing free days, load reservations and maintenance or inspection holds.

    Your team

  • Unit detail

    One unit’s type, payload, pallet positions and inspection due date, with its upcoming holds and the loads it covered recently.

    Your team
How it works

From prompt to a live logistics planner app

  1. Describe your doors and fleet

    Tell Netiva how many dock doors you run, which ones take reefer loads, how long each appointment type takes and which units you plan with. The agent drafts collections for loads, equipment, reservations and dock appointments.

  2. Add units and a sample week

    Enter tractors and trailers in the collection grid, or ask the collection assistant to draft records and fill payloads and pallet positions across many rows at once. Then add a week of typical loads.

  3. Test a tight week

    Plan a week with a few short days and an overlapping hold, then check the calendar and booking screen in the live preview. Annotate anything that looks wrong and the agent fixes it.

  4. Publish and share the booking link

    Publish in one click, send carriers the booking link and switch on reminders. Every later change is checkpointed, so a slot rule that didn’t work can be rolled back.

Why Netiva

Netiva vs a traditional build

Building a logistics planner app with Netiva compared with a traditional build
Criterion With Netiva Traditional build
Checking next week’s capacity A weekly calendar that sets open loads against free units for each trailer type A yard walk to count trailers, matched by hand against a spreadsheet of orders
Booking dock appointments Carriers book open slots themselves and get an email confirmation and reminder Carriers phone or email for a time and someone rewrites the door whiteboard
Getting started Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan
Content and data Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages Set up and connect a separate database or CMS
Making changes Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy
Hosting and domain Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself
Code ownership Clean production code you own and can export Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup
Examples

Ways teams use it

  • A beverage distributor’s warehouse

    Heavy pallets mean weight fills a trailer before floor space does. Planners check each day’s loads against the payload set for every trailer, and the scheduler keeps early slots for brewery deliveries so afternoon doors stay free for outbound loads.

  • A building supply company with its own flatbeds

    The fleet manager books tractors and flatbeds in for preventive maintenance and annual inspections a week out, and the transport planner sees those holds on the calendar before promising units to next week’s jobsite deliveries.

  • A small 3PL sharing doors across clients

    Carriers for several client accounts book into the same eight doors. Each carrier sees only its own appointments, while the scheduler works through the no-show list and moves late requests to quieter slots.

Good to know

Before you build

  • Pallet positions depend on how you load

    Pallet positions are the numbers you enter for each trailer. What a trailer actually takes depends on pallet size, whether pallets go in straight or turned and whether they can be stacked, so set the figures from your own loading patterns.

  • Weight limits are yours to enter

    Payload checks compare the weights you enter with the limits you set for each unit. Federal rules cap gross vehicle weight at 80,000 pounds on the Interstate System, lower where the bridge formula says so, and states set their own limits on other roads.

  • Detention and late-arrival terms

    Free time, late-arrival and no-show rules come from your carrier agreements and receiving policy. The app records booked slots and the check-in times your team enters, but deciding who owes detention stays with you.

  • Planning, not live tracking

    The app looks ahead; it doesn’t follow trucks on the road or import order files. Arrivals are recorded when your team checks a carrier in, and notifications go out by email only — no text messages or push alerts.

FAQ

Questions about building a logistics planner app

Can carriers book their own dock appointments?

Yes. Carriers sign in to the web app from any browser, including a phone, enter a date, appointment type and PO or load number, and see only the open slots at doors that fit. The booking lands as requested or confirmed, depending on the rule you choose, and the carrier gets an email confirmation plus a reminder the day before. Each carrier sees only its own appointments.

How are dock slot lengths and door rules set?

You describe them to the agent and it builds them into the booking screen — for example, 60 minutes for a live unload, 30 minutes for a drop trailer, reefer doors kept for temperature-controlled loads and no bookings after noon on Fridays. If a rule turns out wrong in practice, ask for a change. Every edit is checkpointed, so you can roll back to the earlier setup.

How does the weekly calendar show we’re short on trailers?

For each day, the app counts open loads by trailer type and compares them with units of that type that are in service and have no reservation that day. When open reefer loads outnumber free reefers, the day is flagged in the header. Loads covered by a contract carrier or on the spot market don’t use your own units, so the flag clears as coverage is booked.

Can the app hold a trailer for its annual inspection?

Yes. A reservation with the reason Inspection blocks the unit between two dates, just like a load. Each unit also stores its next inspection due date, and a scheduled email can list units due within 30 days. FMCSA rules require every commercial motor vehicle, including each trailer in a combination, to pass a periodic inspection at least once every 12 months. The app reminds; your shop performs and documents the inspection.

Does the logistics planner app track drivers’ hours of service?

No. The app plans loads, units and dock time, not driver hours. Under FMCSA rules, property-carrying drivers may drive 11 hours within a 14-hour window, and most record duty status on an electronic logging device. If your ELD provider offers a REST API, you can ask the agent to show each driver’s remaining hours next to the week plan, with your key stored securely. Check the provider’s documentation first.

Can the planner pull next week’s orders from our TMS or WMS?

If your TMS, WMS or ERP offers a REST API, yes. Netiva apps can call any REST API with keys stored securely, so you can ask the agent to pull confirmed orders on a schedule and add them as open loads with lane, pallets and weight. Netiva doesn’t import order files, so without an API your planners enter loads in the collection grid.

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Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.

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