Apple Made Us Prove We Exist

On April 5th we clicked "Submit for Review" on the Google Play Store, and closed that post with a promise:

"iOS is coming. But Android drivers come first because that's where the trucks are."

100 Days Later

That was exactly 100 days ago. Today, Strivie Driver was submitted to the Apple App Store.

Promise kept. Nobody warned us what the paperwork would look like.

Google Asked for a Form. Apple Asked for Papers.

Google Play, from memory: make an account, fill out a form, upload the app, click submit. A grown man cheered.

Apple does not let you sign up. Not as a company. First you need a D-U-N-S Number — a nine-digit business identity number from Dun & Bradstreet whose entire job is to confirm your company is real. You request one. Then you wait. That's step one.

Then Apple verifies your organization. Then Apple emails asking for documents. Actual documents: a government-issued passport — photographed — and the company's Certificate of Incorporation, the piece of paper the state issued the day we came into existence.

A passport. To put a phone app in a store. In 2026.

Google wanted to know what our app does. Apple wanted to know if we exist.

"Within Two Business Days"

We sent the papers. Apple's screen said "We'll contact you with next steps within two business days." They took less. The next email said "Welcome to the Apple Developer Program."

That's the twist: after all the theater, Apple moved fast. Credit where it's due — the bureaucracy is the price of admission, not a delay tactic. Only then are you allowed to pay the $99 and start actually submitting the app.

Then Came the Homework

Being let in isn't shipping. Screenshots at exact pixel dimensions. A privacy label declaring every piece of data the app touches. An age-rating questionnaire. And a written explanation — to a human — for why a trucking app needs to know where the truck is when the app isn't open.

That one's fair. Location is what Apple guards hardest, and "we're a dispatch app" isn't an answer. So we explained it: the driver's carrier sees the truck while the load is running, nobody else does, and the driver can shut it off and still use the app.

Our favorite question: how does a user delete their account? They don't. Drivers don't sign themselves up — their carrier creates the account and hands them the app. Fair question. Still felt like explaining that a company truck has no "buy it now" button.

What Drivers Actually Get

The same app. Not a lite version, not "iPhone support coming later." Your loads with pickup and delivery details, status updates dispatch sees instantly, POD and BOL photos from the cab, chat with the office, and your full pay breakdown.

It's free, and at launch it's in the US and Canada — because that's where the trucks are.

Now We Wait

The last screen said: "1 Item Submitted. It can take up to 48 hours to be reviewed."

It's not approved. It's not live. It's submitted — sitting in a queue, waiting for a stranger at Apple to log in as a driver and decide whether we did this right.

In April we said "pray for us." Same request. Different store.