Capacity matching for private truck fleets
Capacity matching at Loadsmart: an email that offers private truck fleets loads for their empty return trips. I tested it against a planned platform; the people who handle loads chose the email, so we redesigned it. The response rate rose 250%.
- Role
- Senior Product Designer, with 2 PMs
- For
- Fleet staff who handle loads
- What I did
- Research
- Design sprint in four countries
- Comparison test
- Fleet and loads
- Empty return
- Match
- A/B test
- Email and platform
01
An idea with no evidence
Loadsmart started a product for companies that run their own trucks: paying loads for trucks that would drive back empty. There was no evidence fleets wanted it.
My job was to find out and report to the PM and the VP of Product, even against the plan.
02
What the interviews showed
I interviewed six people from fleet teams. Return loads mattered less than expected:
6
People from fleet teams interviewed
4 h
A live load can add to a driver's day
- Dedicated fleets are paid for the round trip, so an empty return is already paid.
- The committed route comes first. A return load that risks it is not worth it.
- Loading time decides. Waiting, strapping and covering a load can add four hours.
03
The sprint, and the test
I ran an online design sprint with the team in four countries. No fleet staff could join, so its output, View Matches, was a guess: a site where a fleet uploads spare trucks and receives matching loads.
4
Countries in the sprint, all online
- Upload the spare trucks
- Review the matching loads
- Set which loads fit
- Choose how matches arrive
- Submitted
I tested it against the match email fleets already received. Six people picked one. Staff who handle loads daily chose the email; only their managers chose the platform.
6
People chose between the platform and the email
04
The email
So we redesigned the email. Staff decide on their phone, often in the yard, and the old email led with an internal number, with the price and accept button below the first screen.
The new one leads with the lane, then the price and the accept button, and says if the load repeats weekly. Staff can also reply with feedback or more free trucks. That feedback showed most loads were rejected for loading time.
05
The result
250%
Rise in the response rate
4
Replies in the 6 months before
The response rate rose 250%, from four replies in the previous six months. The platform stayed on the roadmap for managers. Later, the company stopped serving private fleets.
06
What I learned
Ask people to choose, not to rate
Asked if one design is good, they agree. Asked to pick between two, they decide.
Use the channel people already check
The email was less to show, and the better decision.
Plan the test before the sprint
Without users, a sprint only produces guesses.
07
What this case doesn't cover
- Revenue. The 250% is a rise in replies from a small base.
- The rest of the platform. Only the matches view was built.
- Drivers. Their side came from managers; no driver was interviewed.
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