Situation
The US road freight industry is 800 billion dollars annually as of 2024 and DAT Freight & Analytics controls 66% of the spot market through their load board and associated products. As of 2022 and 2023 risk has been on the rise in the freight industry with bad actors including fraud, double brokering, truck load theft, identity theft, and other forms of bad actors. DAT’s biggest user pain point in 2023 was the desire to work with safe brokers and carriers within the freight industry.
Task
DAT needed a way to empower brokers to work safely with carriers on a load board which traditionally only surfaced equipment type information and basic company contact details.
Action
I ran multivariate studies with 12 brokers and 12 carriers of various segment sizes in 2023. I interviewed them and watched them work while partnering with our risk mitigation product teams. I mapped out how brokers vetted carriers and how legitimate carriers marketed themselves to brokers. I compiled all of this into two slide deck reports for brokers and carriers.
Solution
We created a comprehensive company strategy eventually dubbed interstate which holistically addressed and targeted the freight industry for risk reduction in the spot market. Interstate includes but is not limited to company profiles for carriers which empowers brokers to vet them, automated company insights, and advanced compliance filtering capabilities built into search fields.
Each road freight equipment type search often has its own standards and vetting themes so we prioritize our risk reduction system to be built in order of highest equipment type searches and bookings. As a result, there are ongoing additions as we continue to build in new capabilities which align with business case priorities.
Example Impact:
Transformed DAT from having no tailored shipment risk reduction product lineup into a product lineup which had 68% (+/- 5%) of
Product line up positioned to achieve 5 Million MRR for DAT in 2025 while maintaining DATs roughly 40% EBITA.
Product lineup solves the largest problem space identified within 2024 CSAT tracking and targeted solutions elevated broker overall CSAT experience from 57% to over 80% (+/- 5%)
Example early iteration of Company profile which houses details about a carrier. (Please forgive the picture of a picture of old prototypes. Our working computers are security locked and these are old scrubbed views of prototypes and previous product iterations.)
Example of having the ability to filter carrier qualifications (carrier company attributes) within search trucks as a search result. (Please forgive the picture of a picture of old prototypes. Our working computers are security locked and these are old scrubbed views of prototypes and previous product iterations.)