case study
Launching Engage Lane, an Award-Winning Freight Marketplace
Going from idea to launch and scalability for Engage Lane, a transportation procurement platform to help carriers and shippers land new best-fit agreements in days, not months.
services
Design, Software Development
platforms
Web
Awards
F3 Best in Show, SaaS Awards, FreightTech
Challenges
The freight procurement process was broken. Kelly Williams and the innovation team at Procter & Gamble had an idea fix it. Their solution would connect carriers and shippers to enable bidding on contracted freight faster than what’s possible today.
Build an MVP and run a pilot program
They needed a team to build a prototype and prove it could work but didn’t have the internal experience to make it happen. They weren’t even sure if it was possible to get done at the speed they wanted.
Iterate and go to market faster
Not only did they need to get into the hands of the customers, they needed to be able to take the feedback and make improvements to the product quickly.
Concurrency and high volume
Be able to periodically sync with DOT safety data, matching lanes with shippers and carriers, and notifying users.
Client Testimonial
Industry recognition
Through our partnership, the Engage Lane tool was named a 2022 Future of Freight Festival Best in Show winner.
2023 SaaS Award winner for the "Best SaaS Product for Shipping, Inventory or Vehicle Logistics" category.
Trimble was named one of the top innovators in the freight technology sector for 2024 by FreightWaves.
Design approach
Task and editing panels
When creating features of the product, we wanted to create an experience where a user could stay inside that screen and not have to navigate to another location in the application to accomplish tasks. We introduced a panel approach that would give users access to actionable items while they remained on that screen.
Card based approach
The need for a card-based approach started with the design of the profile screen. We needed a way to bring pieces of vital information for both a carrier and a shipper to be able to view before conducting business on the platform and with each other. We continued that approach while creating a matchboard where both sets of users could interact and see all of their potential bids and bids that they were in the middle of negotiating. Using a card-based system, gave us the flexibility to interchange pieces where we needed to, and we could maintain a consistent UI.
"I couldn’t wait to see what they had to share in every sprint. In every sprint review, there was a visible change in the product that could be tested or refined. I loved seeing the product workflows come to life."
Kelly Williams
Network Strategy Product Lead
Building the solution
Creating transparency to gain trust
The first area that we identified was transparency. In today's procurement process, there is a lack of transparency between shippers and carriers, which leads to distrust. To be able to build trust, there needs to be transparency between both the shipper expectations and what a carrier is capable of accomplishing, i.e., do they have the right equipment and insurance to carry the load I am offering. If we can create a place where a shipper and carrier can look at each other's organization and see what type of safety ratings, insurance, equipment type, service expectations, accessorials, and collaterals, this helps create transparency into each others organization.
Opening up opportunities to grow business
The second area that we identified is opportunities. Currently, for carriers, it is challenging for them to find ways to work with shippers once the yearly bid process is completed. If they do not land a bid, they often end up spending time driving around from lot to lot trying to find shippers to work with. For shippers, the yearly procurement process can be an overwhelming experience. Having to manage anywhere from ten to hundreds of lanes all bidding once a year is inefficient and stressful. Coming up with a way to help shippers managing this and change this from a yearly procedure to bidding opportunities out when they come up is a more efficient way of handling this process.
Managing agreements and performance
The third area we identified is management. If we set out to change the way procurement of lanes is done from a yearly transaction to an on-demand solution, there needed to be a way for shippers and carriers to manage their agreements from one central location. Both shippers and carriers needed a place to be able to identify low performing agreements, a way to create a new lane or route to notify the other party of available capacity, and a place to see all of their active agreements. We also wanted to keep with transparency when it comes to managing an agreement, so if a carrier or shipper is not happy with the rates or the lane is low performing we wanted a way for users to communicate with each other a challenge a lane.
Results
MVP launched and in the market
Partnering with Intermode they were able to assemble an experienced team to quickly design and develop a working prototype to launch a successful pilot program for Engage Lane. With Engage Lane, carriers can access more contracted freight; shippers have more capacity options. And both connect faster to move freight
Acquisition by Trimble
Initially built and funded by Procter & Gamble, the success of the Engage Lane platform led to a proper Acquisition by Trimble.
An awarded-winning product
The Engage Lane platform was so well received it was awarded at the FreightWaves Future of Freight Festival. Today, it is growing a network of shippers and carriers to help them stop worrying about lost revenue from lanes breaking down.
Reliability at scale
The Intermode development team leveraged the power of Elixir to serve users the data updates they needed faster than other solutions without creating more demand on development.
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