Launching Internal Load Board

Background

• Dedicated Drivers vs. Non Dedicated Drivers: Almost all of the company's loads were previously handled by dedicated drivers, who booked multiple days of work at a time. Now, they have introduced a Load Board, called Spot Loads, for non-dedicated drivers, allowing them to pick individual loads.

• Load Quality: We put 'bad' loads as Spot Loads. These are long-haul loads that may lead to dedicated drivers running empty on the return journey, which wastes time and fuel. Only 2% of the total loads are done via spot loads.

Goal

• Increase spot load adoption

• Spot load adoption is important because

  • Increase earnings for dedicated drivers: The goal is to increase the number of loads dedicated drivers can do each day by ensuring they only take shorter loads.

  • Save Costs: We only pay carriers the linehaul amount for spot loads. However, for regular loads handled by dedicated drivers, we often pay additional fees, such as accessorials for deadhead and more.

Problem

The user journey from sign-up to booking for the Spot Load Board presents several bottlenecks:

• Not Enough Loads: Only 10% of daily loads are offered on the Spot Load Board

• Low Supply: The system doesn’t have enough carriers logging into the platform, with only 50 carriers signed up and few of them actively using the board.

• Low Conversion Rates: A small percentage of drivers who log in take action and book loads.

Solution

To address these issues, we consulted active carriers and came up with the following solutions:

1. Ranking System:
   Show carriers their rank on the waitlist to become dedicated drivers, and to move up the list, they need to take more spot loads.
   
   Why this solution? We noticed a waitlist for drivers wanting to become dedicated, but since we only have a fixed number of loads each day, we need to ensure there are enough for our dedicated drivers. Introducing competition keeps the funnel warm and motivates drivers to take more spot loads.
   
   

2. Bundle Loads:
   Recommend a pair of loads based on criteria like proximity to make it easier for carriers to book multiple loads at once.
   
   Why this solution? The original UI displayed all loads in a table format, which was overwhelming for spot drivers, especially those without dispatch support. Since most have only a few trucks, they prefer to build their schedules by booking multiple loads but often struggle to find the best combinations. Bundling loads simplifies this process and saves them time.

   
   
   

   

Outcome

After introducing a more focused pitch for dedicated drivers and bundling of loads in one market, load board usage increased:

• Adoption grew from 2% to 8%.

• The number of active users in the portal tripled, and the percentage of users taking action also doubled.