About the Project
CharterUp is a dynamic American transportation company that's been making waves in the charter bus world. They specialize in organizing group travel — think seamless bus services for major corporate clients, large universities, and busy MICE agencies (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions).
What makes them a game-changer? It's their platform. Together, we’ve built an incredibly efficient system that lets companies book buses for employee commutes, events, and business trips in mere seconds. This isn't just a great idea; it's a rapidly growing success story, one that has proudly landed them on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list. As one of our earliest large-scale projects, this collaboration became a turning point in Lumitech’s journey in app development for the transportation industry. It quickly became one of our foundational, long-term partnerships, ultimately spanning over years.
Interesting Facts
The platform currently handles over 1000 bookings per month, making it one of the largest charter bus companies in the U.S.
Just in two years, CharterUp demonstrated a staggering 111,000% growth in revenue, landing the No. 2 spot on Inc. 5000’s list of America’s fastest-growing private companies.
The bus booking platform is a trusted transportation solution for several major client types, including Fortune 500 companies, top universities, and large-scale U.S. infrastructure projects.
The system was engineered to handle peak loads effortlessly, scaling in real time as new regions and partners come online.
The successful transition involved not just new development, but an 85% reduction in app crashes, effectively eliminating the primary operational failure caused by the previous vendor.
Real-time bus tracking and immediate communication with drivers enable the tracking of hundreds of buses live every minute, allowing passengers to be informed down to the minute when each bus will arrive.
Client Request
Our client didn't just come to us looking for routine maintenance; they were ready to hit the reset button. They had just come off a frustrating experience with a previous contractor. The mobile app built by their former team was unstable, full of bugs, and nearly impossible to maintain. Drivers struggled with constant crashes, poor navigation, and frozen screens, while users faced booking glitches that hurt trust and overall satisfaction.
The verdict was clear: the existing code was a liability — unstable, poorly tested, and absolutely unsuitable for the kind of scaling their INC 5000 status demanded. Attempting to maintain or refactor the spaghetti code was essentially impossible.
They needed a partner who could not only rebuild the product but also rethink the experience — one that would actually work in real-world conditions where internet access isn’t always perfect and where every second matters for route tracking.
Together, we set out to:
Completely rewrite and replace the two critical bus scheduling apps: one for the client/user experience and one for the driver experience.
Ensure stable map operation and route tracking, including robust support for offline mode and poor internet connections (a non-negotiable for commercial transport).
Drastically improve interface responsiveness and overall application performance to eliminate lag and freezing.
Integrate effectively with their existing team, working in a hybrid model alongside their in-house experts and Product Owner to ensure alignment and knowledge transfer.
Our Approach
Our approach was built on two core principles: stability first, and sustainable, iterative scaling second. We understood the overall situation was unstable, and adding new features to it would be unwise. We needed to stabilize the ship first, and then proceed.
We started small with a lean team to clean up the existing mess and get the bus booking app up and running. Within a few months, we rewrote the codebase from scratch, stabilized performance, and launched the first version that we knew would be reliable for real users.
Once we felt the situation was stable, we grew the team and fully ramped development. The development team organized work in small, iterative sprints; new features were rolled out, bugs were fixed, and performance improved week by week. The communication was fast and transparent, with daily Slack chats, quick feedback loops, and no unnecessary bureaucracy.
The process started with:
Deep discovery sessions to map user journeys and technical workflows.
Competitor research to identify gaps and opportunities in the market.
Feature prioritization based on user impact and technical complexity.
Incremental releases through agile sprints, supported by ongoing QA and feedback cycles.
Every product decision was driven by the client’s core goals: operational scale, customer convenience, and long-term growth.
Tools We Used
For rebuilding these applications from scratch, we've selected a modern, reliable tech stack that is designed for scaling, speed, and a seamless digital booking experience.
Frontend / Mobile: React Native with RTK, RTK Query, and Bare Workflow for cross-platform apps that feel native on iOS and Android. This allowed us to keep a single codebase while maintaining smooth performance and agile development. The Google Maps SDK provided accurate real-time navigation, which was important for both drivers and passengers.
Backend: The server side was powered by Node.js and NestJS, a strong framework that maintains your code organized and maintainable even as the system grows. PostgreSQL provided a stable, scalable database solution for handling lots of trip, route, and user data.
Infrastructure: Everything was hosted on AWS, utilizing EC2, S3, and CloudFront to ensure high availability and low latency. Deployments and CI/CD were automated using Docker and GitHub Actions to maintain performance everywhere.
Integrations: We integrated Google Maps API for routing and distance calculations, Stripe for secure payments, and the client’s internal CharterUp APIs for fleet and booking management.
QA: For quality assurance, we relied on Jest, Postman, and Detox, which allowed us to thoroughly test functionality, API performance, and end-to-end user flows before each release. We struggled significantly with React Native e2e testing and setting up the environment.
Challenges
The project involved more than just a rewrite; it was an exhaustive effort to stabilize critical systems while developing enterprise-level features from scratch. We tackled several layers of complexity:
Technical Debt and Time Pressure
The immediate issue was the deadline. We had to completely rewrite a failed codebase in a short time frame. This meant our immediate focus on fast stabilization could not be compromised, necessitating a rapid development and testing cycle to recover from the previous team’s delivery.
Mastering Real-World Logistics
For a bus booking system, reliability is everything. We had to conquer complex issues related to driver operations and geography:
Stable Geolocation & Tracking: Implementing stable GPS tracking and route monitoring was crucial. Data needed to sync reliably across the driver app, client dashboard, and backend in real-time.
Offline Reliability: We had to implement offline mode and data synchronization. Drivers often navigate areas with poor reception, requiring the app to function seamlessly and sync data once connectivity is restored.
Driver Real-World Behavior: The system needed to account for driver behavior and real-world scenarios — like unexpected detours, stops, and delays — to keep the client informed and routes accurate.
Operational and Integration Complexity
Integrating our team and our new system into the client's rapidly scaling business presented its own set of challenges:
Process Alignment: We needed to quickly align our agile development processes with their internal development and product teams, ensuring seamless communication and product alignment without slowing down delivery.
Booking at Scale: The online bus booking solution processes bookings and quote generation across a massive network of 600+ partners. This demanded a fail-safe request pipeline with dynamic fallback routing to handle the high volume and maintain reliability.
Enterprise Functionality
The complexity of the platform’s business logic required meticulous engineering:
Fleet & Trip Management: We had to build a flexible trip engine to support all real-world use cases, including recurring routes, last-minute changes, and coordinating multiple vehicles for large events.
Complex Billing Logic: Supporting variable, enterprise-level payment requirements, including variable billing rules, group accounts, refunds, and operator payouts, required a robust and secure transaction handling architecture.
Core Features
The rebuilt mobile bus booking system included two fully functional mobile apps (one for drivers and one for customers), each designed to make daily operations faster, smarter, and more reliable. A dedicated Driver App and Customer App ensured that each user group had a tailored experience. Drivers could manage trips and navigation. At the same time, customers could book, track, and manage reservations effortlessly.
Here are the key features we implemented:
Real-Time GPS Tracking Both apps feature live vehicle tracking, allowing users and operators to see bus locations, routes, and estimated arrival times in real time.
Offline Mode Built-in offline support keeps critical features available even with a weak or no internet connection, automatically syncing data once the network is restored.
Quick Reservations & Route Management Customers can quickly reserve buses, view available routes, and check trip statuses directly from the bus booking app — all optimized for minimal loading time.
Push Notifications & In-App Communication Receiving immediate notifications and internal messaging keeps drivers and customers aware of scheduling information, delays, or changes without needing outside communication.
Web Dashboard & CRM Integration The mobile applications are integrated with the CharterUp web dashboard and internal CRM, which enables the smooth transfer of data between customers, drivers, and administrative personnel.
Smart Route Optimization Sophisticated algorithms automatically optimize routes, manage multiple trips, and adjust schedules in real-time for better efficiency and reductions in non-active time.
Result
In just four months, we launched the first version of a booking mobile app. This was a milestone that marked the start of a major transformation for CharterUp’s platform, and a solid foundation for our cooperation that lasted for three years.
The new bus booking system proved to be not only stable but also scalable. App crashes dropped by 85%, and overall performance and user satisfaction improved dramatically. Today, more than 1,000 corporate trips are booked every month through the new apps, which have become CharterUp’s primary digital tool for managing operations, drivers, and bookings.
What began as a recovery project evolved into a long-term partnership — and a product that continues to grow and power one of the fastest-growing transportation platforms in the U.S.
