DriverPilot: compliance & navigation app for EU truck drivers.
An offline-first React Native app covering 5 European countries, with Google Maps integration, background services, driving time tracking, and EU tachograph compliance.
The short version.
A European transport company needed a mobile app for their 2,000+ truck drivers operating across 5 countries with different regulatory requirements. Drivers needed real-time navigation optimized for heavy vehicles, automatic driving time tracking that complied with EU tachograph regulations, and a system that worked reliably in areas with no cellular coverage.
We built DriverPilot, an offline-first React Native app with native Kotlin modules for background GPS tracking, Google Maps integration with truck-specific routing, and automatic compliance calculations. Since launch, zero drivers have received compliance violations, down from an average of 12 per month.
Compliance violations and connectivity gaps.
EU regulations (EC 561/2006) strictly limit driving hours, mandate rest periods, and require detailed digital records. Violations carry fines of €1,000–5,000 per incident, and the company was averaging 12 per month. The existing system had critical gaps:
- Paper-based tracking: drivers manually logged hours on paper tachograph sheets, often inaccurately
- No real-time alerts: drivers didn’t know they were approaching limits until it was too late
- Dead zones: 30% of common routes passed through areas with no cellular coverage; cloud-only solutions failed
- Wrong routing: standard GPS apps sent trucks down restricted roads, low bridges, and weight-limited routes
- Multi-country complexity: different countries had different enforcement rules, rest area requirements, and toll systems
Off-the-shelf telematics apps either required constant connectivity or lacked the compliance depth needed for multi-country operations. See our native vs hybrid framework for how we chose the right approach.
Offline-first, compliance-native.
DriverPilot was designed around two non-negotiable requirements: it must work without internet, and it must make compliance violations impossible. Every feature supports these goals:
- Offline-first architecture: all compliance calculations, maps, and route data cached locally; full functionality without connectivity
- Background GPS tracking: native Kotlin service that records position, speed, and driving state even when the app is backgrounded or the screen is off
- Truck-optimized routing: Google Maps with vehicle profile overlays (height, weight, hazmat), avoiding restricted roads and low bridges
- Real-time compliance engine: automatic tracking of daily and weekly driving limits, mandatory breaks, and rest periods with proactive alerts
- Multi-country rules engine: configurable regulatory modules for each country’s specific enforcement requirements
- Background sync: intelligent queue that syncs data when connectivity returns, with conflict resolution and guaranteed delivery
React Native with native Kotlin bridge.
The app uses React Native for the UI layer with a native Kotlin bridge for performance-critical background services. The compliance engine runs entirely on-device, ensuring accuracy even without internet access.
Offline-first | device to cloud via sync queue
The background GPS service achieves 3-meter accuracy while consuming only 2% battery per hour, critical for 14-hour driving shifts. The sync queue handles 10,000+ queued events per device and resolves conflicts using a last-write-wins strategy with server-side verification.
“Our drivers actually like using it. That never happens with compliance tools. The offline capability was the deciding factor. Our routes go through areas where other apps just stop working.”
Fleet Operations Manager, European transport company
Building a mobile app
that works offline?
We specialize in offline-first architectures with native performance where it matters.