Depot Dash

Depot Dash was built as a new digital service connected to an existing sorting facility. The business model required much more than a basic website or simple booking form. It needed a complete operational system capable of coordinating customers, pickups, drivers, routes, staff workflows, notifications, counting processes, and payout handling.

Codebytes developed the software ecosystem from scratch, creating the infrastructure required to run the service as a real operational business rather than a manual or partially digital process.

The finished platform supports customer sign-up, pickup scheduling, route generation, driver coordination, bottle intake tracking, payout requests, reporting, staff workflows, and online payment capabilities.

Depot Dash needed to solve several operational problems at once:

Because the service was built as a new digital business, the software platform was not an add-on. It was core operating infrastructure.

• Customers needed a simple way to sign up, schedule pickups, and manage their accounts
• The business needed automated scheduling and route generation for daily operations
• Drivers and staff needed tools to manage pickups and workflow status
• Bottle counts needed to be associated accurately with the correct customer pickup
• Customer payouts needed to be tracked and processed efficiently
• Administrative staff needed visibility into operations, reporting, and issue handling

Codebytes focused the project around five primary goals:

• Build a complete customer-facing booking and account platform
• Create advanced route planning and driver assignment tools
• Support internal operational workflows from pickup through bottle counting
• Enable efficient payout processing and financial tracking
• Deliver a scalable foundation for a growing logistics-based service

Codebytes developed a customer-facing website where users can sign up, schedule bottle pickups, view upcoming and past pickups, track account balances, request payouts, and cancel pickups.

The website acts as both the public-facing entry point for the business and the customer self-service portal.

A separate internal platform was developed for staff and administrators to manage operations across the service.

Booking and scheduling workflows were built to operate with a high degree of automation, reducing manual coordination requirements for routine operations.

• Route planning and route review
• Driver assignment
• Reporting and operational oversight
• Payout management
• Issue resolution
• Workflow visibility across pickup and counting stages

Depot Dash also includes mobile application infrastructure supporting field operations. Drivers are able to work from assigned route information, receive operational updates, and move through pickups with the platform connected back to backend systems and notifications.

A dedicated intake workflow was built to keep bottle counts accurately associated with the correct customer.

Pickup bags are tagged using unique four-digit identifiers generated to avoid repetition over an extremely long operating horizon. Once bags return to the facility, staff can photograph, count, and record the contents while maintaining traceability back to the originating customer pickup.

This creates a practical bridge between field collection and facility-based processing.

Depot Dash needed to pay customers for collections. Direct payment through the program was the intended approach, but the client could not find a provider. Fully automatic Interac transfers were considered next; the providers explored could not support the startup, with some serving only larger corporations.

Codebytes built an export workflow that generated a file the client could import into its bank to send e-transfers in bulk. The software prepared the file while the client retained the bank-import step.

This reduced payment preparation work while keeping the process practical within the options available to the business at the time.

The platform includes automated SMS and email notifications for customers, drivers, and administrators based on business events.

• Pickup confirmations
• Upcoming pickup reminders
• Route-related status updates
• Counting completion notifications
• Payout-related updates

The route planner was one of the most technically significant parts of the project.

Codebytes designed and implemented a sophisticated route generation pipeline that supports automated planning at scheduled times based on existing pickups. Routes are pre-planned using latitude and longitude estimates, then grouped into geographic clusters before being processed through the Google distance matrix workflow.

This staged approach reduces cost while preserving route quality by limiting unnecessary matrix expansion and focusing paid optimization steps on relevant clustered groups.

The final result is a highly optimized routing process that supports automated route generation, geographic clustering, driver assignment, route ordering, navigation support, and operational scalability for a growing service.

Depot Dash also includes online payment support through Stripe, alongside internal payout and balance workflows used for customer account handling.

The platform was built with practical web, mobile, infrastructure, and integration choices suited to the operating workflow.

• Django backend
• PostgreSQL database
• React web frontend
• React Native mobile applications
• Ubuntu Linux infrastructure
• Nginx, Uvicorn, and Cron
• Stripe payments
• SMS and email notifications
• Google routing services

Depot Dash launched as a full operational platform for a growing service and moved from concept into active revenue-generating use.

The platform now provides:

• A complete booking and customer account experience
• Automated operational scheduling
• Advanced route planning for pickups
• Structured driver and staff workflows
• Accurate bottle-to-customer association during counting
• Practical payout handling
• Administrative visibility across the service
• A scalable software foundation for continued growth

Codebytes designed and developed the platform architecture, customer-facing website, backend systems, administrative software, route planning engine, automated workflows, notifications infrastructure, payout workflow support, and operational tooling required to launch the service.

The project was completed over approximately three months.