How a South African Logistics Founder Built a Fleet Management App That Would Have Cost $250,000

Andrew Clarke is the founder of Drop 24, a motorbike logistics company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He started the company in 2019 to address systemic problems in South Africa's fast-growing on-demand delivery industry.

As Drop 24 scaled, Clarke needed a comprehensive fleet management system to control everything from bike maintenance and fuel tracking to driver behavior and identity verification. The quotes he received to build one ranged from $200,000 to $250,000. Instead, he built Gig Fleet on Emergent, a fully integrated app covering dozens of operational functions, in roughly two months of building between running the business.

Challenges

An exploding industry with no infrastructure to manage it

South Africa's motorbike delivery sector took off between 2018 and 2019, then surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike countries with established motorbike cultures, South Africa went from having very few delivery riders to thousands almost overnight. Drop 24 grew with the wave, but that growth brought a tangle of operational problems: bike maintenance, breakdowns, insurance, fuel consumption, speeding, reckless driving, and shift management all needed to be tracked and controlled.

Before Gig Fleet, Clarke managed everything through WhatsApp groups and paper records. "WhatsApp groups and a whole lot of three million different things and a whole lot of paper," he said. The system could not scale. Every new rider compounded the administrative burden, and adding structure to the operation required tools that did not yet exist for the South African market.

Illegal outsourcing of delivery accounts

A pervasive problem in the South African delivery industry is the unauthorized sharing of app accounts. South Africans can register for delivery apps like Uber Eats without a motorbike license, while foreign nationals who want to do the work often cannot register themselves. The result is a grey market: South Africans lease access to their accounts for a cut of each delivery, while foreign nationals ride under someone else's identity. Riders who are not verified operate without accountability, creating safety and legal risks.

Clarke needed a system that could verify rider identity at the device level, tie each rider to a specific bike, and block unauthorized account sharing entirely. No off-the-shelf fleet management tool addressed this problem.

Development quotes of $200,000 to $250,000

Clarke approached Indian development firms and Google Africa to build a custom fleet management app. Both returned quotes in the range of $200,000 to $250,000 USD, with timelines of roughly eighteen months including development, testing, and proof of concept. For a startup reinvesting every dollar into wages and bikes, that price point was off the table. "I am not spending $250,000 US on an app," Clarke said. "I can use that money in a better way."

Solution

A full-stack fleet management system built through natural language

Clarke discovered Emergent through a TikTok video, signed up immediately, and started building. He had no development background, but once he realized he could use ChatGPT alongside Emergent to help structure his prompts, development accelerated. He worked in bursts, spending a few days building, then stepping away to plan the next set of features before returning. Google Maps integrations and address verification were the most complex pieces to configure, but he got them working without outside development help.

The result was Gig Fleet, a comprehensive fleet management app that consolidates dozens of operational functions into a single system. Clarke built it over approximately two months of active work, building in bursts and pausing for the holiday delivery rush. "I built a seriously complicated app," he said.

What Gig Fleet does

The app covers the full operational lifecycle of a motorbike delivery fleet:

• Live location tracking: - Real-time GPS monitoring of every bike, including where bikes are parked overnight, with photographic evidence for insurance purposes.
• Bike inspections and maintenance: - Riders log daily inspections, parts conditions, and mileage at clock-in. Service and maintenance records feed into a centralized dashboard.
• QR code bike-rider pairing: - Each bike carries a QR code linked to a specific company phone. Riders can only access their assigned bike, preventing unauthorized swaps.
• Biometric identity verification: - Company-issued phones are locked to the rider's biometrics. Combined with QR pairing, this blocks the illegal outsourcing of delivery accounts to unverified individuals.
• Five-star behavior system: - Riders start each month with five stars displayed on the app's landing page. Violations cost stars, which directly impact performance bonuses and bike hire costs. Losing stars increases weekly hire rates by 10% per tier.
• Push notifications for engagement: - Automated alerts for emergencies, performance milestones, and operational updates. Clarke designed these deliberately to reinforce accountability.
• Emergency contact access: - In the event of an accident, riders can access emergency contacts, medical aid details, the nearest hospital, and ambulance services without a PIN, as long as the phone is unlocked.
• Route optimization: - Google Maps integration with address verification and geofencing for zone-based delivery assignments.
• Fuel tracking and contactless payment: - Riders tap their company phone to pay for fuel, with consumption logged automatically.
• Training manuals: - Four integrated modules covering entrepreneurial development, behavior, personal growth, and bike maintenance that riders engage with at clock-in.

The app also integrates with the company's existing vehicle trackers, bringing all data streams into a single operational view.

Outcomes

From $200,000+ quotes to a fraction of the cost

Clarke built the equivalent of what developers quoted at six figures and eighteen months on Emergent, at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time, using his subscription and credits over approximately two months of active work.

A full operations stack in a single app

Gig Fleet consolidates operational functions that would typically require multiple standalone tools. Insurance documentation, fuel consumption tracking, biometric identity verification, bike maintenance scheduling, driver behavior scoring, route optimization, and emergency response all run through a single system. Before, these processes were scattered and manual. Now, Clarke has a centralized view of every rider, every bike, and every delivery zone in the fleet.

Conclusion

Andrew Clarke went from managing a fast-growing delivery fleet on WhatsApp and paper to operating a fully integrated fleet management system that covers identity verification, bike maintenance, fuel tracking, behavior management, route optimization, emergency response, and rider training. The app is now in team testing ahead of a full market launch, and Clarke has already begun discussions with two other delivery companies, representing roughly 15,000 riders combined, about licensing Gig Fleet for their operations. He also plans to use Emergent to rebuild both of his company websites and to add month-end statement generation for riders.

Drop 24's story is a direct example of what happens when domain expertise meets a platform that removes the development barrier. Clarke understood the delivery industry's problems because he lived them for years. What he lacked was $250,000 and eighteen months. If you have deep knowledge of a problem in your industry and the operational vision to solve it, Emergent is where you build the software.