CONTAINER FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
Port Appointment System and Truck Drayage Productivity Tool
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BRIEF
Conduct in depth study of container port freight transportation system.
Develop design opportunities for the container supply chain system which would allow the stakeholders to develop informational transparency and trust among themselves and work together towards a sustainable supply chain system.
Project Timeline : 10 months
Role : UX Researcher/Strategist, Master's Thesis
Role : UX Researcher/Strategist, Master's Thesis
PROBLEM SPACE
Container Supply Chain
Institutional nature of the operations in the container supply chain ecosystem hinder effective communication among its stakeholders and brings operational inefficiency at various stakeholder touch points.
Container Terminals
The role of container ports has changed over the years from just being the region's gateway to a link between the interaction parties along the whole supply chain. They are now transforming into knowledge based global centers in the supply chain.
Trucking Companies (Drayage)
Drayage (short haul) companies are the ones who play very important role in local ground transportation.
They are the ones who rope-in truck drives to transport consignments from the port terminals to its respective destinations.
They are the ones who rope-in truck drives to transport consignments from the port terminals to its respective destinations.
Truck Drivers
Truck driving has always been a lucrative job for the American. The drivers feel pride in being a truck driver.
But unpredictability in the business has forced them to leave, creating a shallow pool of drivers in the system.
But unpredictability in the business has forced them to leave, creating a shallow pool of drivers in the system.
Freight Forwarders (Brokers)
Freight forwarders are someone who connect different parties in the supply chain to move the consignment from the start to end.
They are basically travel agents in the container supply chain system.
They are basically travel agents in the container supply chain system.
DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES
Planning is the key. There must be enough transparency among the concerned stakeholders to communicate well in advance and plan things better. Informational transparency in the system will encourage accountability and develops trust among the stakeholders
Stakeholder Desires
Stakeholders are not economically motivated, they to accept any change in the industry. Therefore, it becomes important to understand their desires and aspirations to alleviate their frustrations from the container supply chain system.
SOLUTION
Adaptability is the biggest concern for the current appointment systems. This is because they do not create enough value for its users. They are usually designed keeping terminal productivity in focus and often fail to provide value to other major stakeholders.
System Diagram
The system diagram of an appointment system conveys the system’s ability to perform various operations to ease out the operational challenges of various stakeholders at their human centered touch points.
Freight Forwarder Tool
One stop solution to conduct peer to peer billing with multiple parties, live equipment tracking, availability of local carriers at once, easy load match, reduced LTL moves.
Container Terminal Tool
One stop solution for various operations performed at the terminals, visualizations to interpret fluctuations in the system.
Truck Driver Mobile Application
A mobile application to facilitate quick communication during trouble tickets, terminal condition and chassis visibility, optimize daily work plan for higher productive trips, automate billings.
Information Flow
Level of operational sophistication varies among the stakeholders, they have accustomed their operation to their needs. For Example, a small trucking company would not require a productivity tool as the scope of operation is very limited in contrast to a trucking company managing a fleet of 50 trucks who have a Transportation Management System built for them. Others just rely on excel or access based platforms.
The following platform designed to manifest data points from the traditional spread sheets and visualize it for better user experience and to cater specific stakeholder needs. One can extract information or can switch to spreadsheet platform as and when required.
Above is the mid-fidelity wire-frame structure which is user tested and validated with respective stakeholders to define and design necessary features/information to improve productivity and user experience at stakeholder's operational touch points.
VALUE PROPOSITION
