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Improving driver verification and handoff process at Roadie Cross-docks

Results

Redesigned handoff experience to improve driver verification. Increased pickup efficiency by 50% and reduced Support escalations.

Cross-dock Overview

Roadie Cross-docks are warehouses where incoming packages are sorted into batches and get handed off to delivery drivers for last-mile delivery within the same day.

Problem

Cross-dock employees need to verify and assist drivers during pickup. The current tool lacks support for cross-dock employees to verify drivers reliably and handle exceptions. How can we improve the handoff experience to make the process smooth and efficient?

Currently, cross-dock employees manually verify the drivers by asking drivers for their Driving License and Auto Insurance. If driver passes verification, a cross-dock employee will share the assigned batch information with the driver and allow them to proceed with pickup.

Where the handoff process was breaking down

To understand why pickups were slow and inefficient, I interviewed cross-dock employees, a facility manager and an operations leader. Employees were responsible for verifying drivers, confirming assigned inventory, and resolving pickup issues, but the tools did not support how fast decisions had to be made at the dock.

Key breakdowns

Driver information was fragmented
Slowed down employees during peak pickup windows.
Driver verification relied on manual judgment
Created inconsistency across sites for handoff decisions.
Multi-bin pickups made assignments harder to confirm
Increased the chance of confusion during handoff.
Vehicle details were missing from the handoff decision
Made it harder to confirm whether the assigned batch fit the driver’s vehicle.
Employees had to escalate pickup exceptions to Support
Delayed pickups for issues employees needed to resolve on-site.
Pickup progress was not visible to employees
Made it difficult to identify missing items or assist drivers mid-pickup.

Turning breakdowns into design requirements

After identifying where the handoff process was breaking down, I translated each operational issue into a design requirement. The goal was to centralize pickup information, improve the verification process and reduce manual judgement and give employees the tools to resolve common issues.

Exploring verification flows

After defining the design requirements, I mapped two possible flows for supporting in-app driver license verification.

The first flow required employees to find the driver and then scan the license to verify the driver. The second flow used the license scan to not only verify the driver but use license scanning to search the driver. While the second flow was preferred because it reduced manual search, license-based driver lookup was not reliable enough at this stage. I moved forward with the first flow to search for the driver and then use the license scan as a verification step. To make that path faster, I added search to help employees quickly find the right driver profile.

Sketches & Wireframes

After finalizing the flow and design requirements, I created sketches to explore the interaction experience. I converted the sketches into low-fidelity wireframes to collect feedback from cross-dock employees and engineering stakeholders before moving into high-fidelity design.

Turning Point

I reached out to the Drive Product team to understand how license verification works. Through deeper evaluation, we found that parsing scanned license data is unreliable as license formats vary across different states. From a employee’s perspective, this introduces the risk of false positives, not only blocking driver verification but also undermining trust in the process.

At the same time, the Drive Product supported a Secure QR Code feature that could be used to verify drivers more reliably. As a result, we moved away from scanning driver licenses as the primary verification method and I redesigned the user flow to use Secure QR Code for driver verification.

Secure QR Code for driver verification

Solution

I designed an improved handoff experience to help cross-dock employees verify drivers, confirm bin assignments, and handle common pickup exceptions such as driver removal.

Redesigned Handoff Page

I redesigned the handoff page to centralize the information employees needed before starting a pickup. The new list combines driver status, ETA, profile photo, and vehicle details so employees can quickly identify the right driver and understand who is ready for handoff.

Driver Verification

Instead of relying on scanned license data, the redesigned flow uses Secure QR Code scanning to verify the driver. After scanning, employees can confirm the driver’s profile picture, name, and vehicle details before continuing with handoff.

Driver Profile

The driver profile groups assigned bins under the selected driver, making it easier for employees to verify which bins belong to the pickup. Each bin shows its batch ID and readiness status so employees can quickly confirm whether the pickup is ready to proceed.

Driver Removal

I added driver removal flow so employees could resolve common pickup exceptions without escalating to Support. Employees can select which bins to remove the driver from and provide a removal reason with additional details that can be reviewed later.

Usability Tests

I conducted usability tests with cross-dock employees and on usability platforms using interactive prototypes to validate the revised handoff flow. Feedback primarily focused on UI refinements such as button position and surfacing vehicle details like license plate information.

Importantly, the feedback on the core flow was positive and users were able to complete all tasks successfully.

Refining the Verification Flow

Although users did not raise concerns during testing, I later found an ambiguity in the verification step that required user to select between two options: Accept or Remove. If an employee initially marked a driver as “Accept” but later noticed a discrepancy, it was unclear how the earlier confirmation should be interpreted. While the step was originally intended to support verification, it risked confusing users in the real world. To reduce confusion, I removed the explicit “Accept” action. Instead, the final design presents the verified driver details for review, while keeping removal as the clear exception path if something does not match.

Design Outcomes

After the redesigned handoff experience was implemented and deployed in facilities, cross-dock employees were able to verify drivers more quickly, confirm bin assignments with more confidence, and resolve common pickup exceptions without escalating to Support.
50% improvement in pickup efficiency
The new experience replaced fragmented driver lookup and manual license verification with Secure QR Code scanning. Cross-dock employees can now search and verify drivers quickly.
Reduced Support escalations
Employees could remove drivers and resolve common exceptions without waiting on Support.
Staging and handoff became more efficient
To our surprise, employees began using arrival times to stage bins in the order drivers were expected to arrive. This has helped facilities reduce driver wait times.

Takeaway

This project reinforced the importance of framing the right problem before designing the solution. While the business needs were clear, the real opportunity came from understanding how cross-dock employees made decisions during pickups.

By understanding the operational workflows, I was able to design a solution that supported driver verification, bin confirmation, and exception handling.

Thank you for reading!

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