Pie, the tech company bringing end-to-end visibility to fleet management solutions, has announced it will launch its official digital London Lorry Route Approver (LLRA) app next month.
The LLRA app will sync direct with Pie’s popular LLRA routing engine, currently the most up to date and comprehensive HGV routing system available.
The announcement is the first major product update from the company since it rebranded from ‘Pie Mapping’ to ‘Pie’ in March last year to reflect its wider vision of revolutionising the freight industry with a holistic solution for planning, tracking, visibility, efficiency and compliance.
The app still boasts all the features of the current cloud-based LLRA, such as generating HGV compliant routes (tailored to the vehicle size, avoiding various width, weight and height restrictions) as well as securing instant, automatic approval from local councils.
It also uses Mapbox and OpenStreetMap technology to deliver real-time, compliant routes with live traffic conditions and turn-by-turn instructions, as well as send alerts when the driver goes off a London Lorry Control Scheme (LLCS) compliant route. This eliminates the chance of a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN), an offence that can cost up to £500 for a first time, and £800 or more for a second.
Being a mobile app, it has the added benefit of empowering drivers to plan routes straight from their vehicles, rather than using the LLRA routing engine from a computer and printing off a map or directions. As well as this, its brand new ‘Live Map’ function lets users know where vehicles are at any moment in time, which is useful when co-ordinating fleets.
Pie’s 250+ customers that currently use its LLRA (including DPD, Superdrug, Next and Co-op) will be offered the new app after its release, to give them the best possible HGV planning and journey experience.
Pie’s CEO, Stuart Hill said: “While we’re immensely proud of the heritage of the LLRA, we recognise that the future of fleet transport is in mobile. We’re excited to be launching our LLRA app - our entry level product - and will be following it up with a suite of other innovative software products later this year. Pie continues to strive to modernise the freight industry in a way no-one else has and pursue its vision of delivering holistic fleet management solutions that drive efficiencies and lower costs.”
In 2016 Pie (then Pie Mapping) was acquired by DPD after winning DPD’s technology incubator scheme, Last Mile Labs the previous year. Since then the company has grown, appointing CEO Stuart Hill (replacing Freddie Talberg in March 2017), as well as making senior hires from the likes of MetaPack and TomTom.
The London Lorry Route Approver app is currently going through final testing in beta mode and will also be compliant for nation-wide routes (not just London routes) upon its release. It will available on Android and iOS with an individual charge per user, per month.
To coincide with the app launch the LLRA routing engine will also receive an update in line with the new Pie branding and product information.