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Improving the external load process for quick job approvals

P_ External load hero_4x.png

CloudTrucks is a virtual carrier that helps independent truckers (owner-operators) run their business on one platform, from booking loads to getting paid and tracking revenue.

Company: CloudTrucks

Project launch: Nov 1, 2021

Background

Drivers use the CloudTrucks loadboard to book jobs, but often they negotiate a load with a broker outside of the CloudTrucks app. To run the load and get CloudTrucks’ instant payment upon delivery, users are required to submit the job details to the CloudTrucks Operations team for approval.

About 40-70% of total monthly jobs are booked outside of the CloudTrucks loadboard.

Problem

Currently, there is no way for drivers to report these external loads other than calling CloudTrucks Operations. There are two requirements for job approval, which have issues:

1. Driver must submit job details, but there is no way to do this in the app. Currently, drivers call in and the Operations team must enter each external job manually, which is error prone and causes delays.

2. Brokers must send the rate confirmation (contract) to the Operations team, but 99% of the time leave out the driver's name, making it hard to match the job with the correct driver. 

How can we reduce the Ops burden, and simplify approvals?

Solution

After brainstorming through options with the Operations team, I designed a flow so users could enter their external load details in the app.  This would:

  • Eliminate manual entry for Operations - Once a job is created in the app, this automatically creates a job in our internal system. Operations no longer needs to enter in details.

  •  Focus on rate con matching only - The name of the driver is automatically tied to the job entry, so Operations just focus on matching the rate confirmation to the newly entered job. 

  • Reduce errors - Drivers have more control over their job information so there are less errors. (Less back and forth between driver and the Operations team)

Approach

I mapped out the user’s journey to understand the steps that users and the Operations team needed to take.

Design decisions

One key decision was making it feel easy for drivers to enter job details, so I reduced the fields to only what’s needed to match the rate confirmation. I considered 2 models for entering details into the app.

Option 2 - Card flow

Option 2_4x 3.png
Pros:
  • Information to enter feels digestible
  • Review page makes it easy to scan for mistakes
Cons:
  • Many pages to build
  • You have to go back through the flow to edit

Option 1 - Single page form

Pros:
  • Small number of pages to build
Cons:
  • Many form fields can be overwhelming
  • Reviewing the info is not easy at a glance
Prototype
Final Designs
Final Designs 3.png
Outcome and learnings

In our initial launch, many drivers appreciated being able to enter job details themselves—no more back and forth calls from the Ops team. Additionally Operations reported a significant relief in their call volume, freeing them up to complete their other tasks.

I continued working with Operations to make improvements on this flow. Later, we were able to automate the rate confirmation matching to further optimize the process. 

Three months after launch

25%

of all external jobs booked were done by drivers in the app.

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