Valparaíso’s Terminal Pacífico Sur or “TPS” is a port terminal that offers high end services and technologies, specialized in container transport (More than 850.000 containers managed on 2019).

Our work with TPS focused on improving the efficiency of the logistic process associated with container movement and connecting the Terminal directly with the truck drivers that transport the cargo, through the mobile app “TPS Go”.

The main challenge addressed in this case was TPS’ need to improve the time of arrival of trucks to the port, in order to reduce late arrivals that impact the order in which the cargo is loaded, and in turn, directly affect the cost and performance of their operations. However, there was no direct communication channel with the truck drivers, whose transport times have a high correlation with the load process efficiency.

Using Elun’s Methodology, which includes a Discovery phase, one of the insights gathered was that the drivers saw a lot of value in being able to adequately manage their transport times and schedule their routes, in order to make their trips profitable.

One of the focuses of Elun’s Methodology is to deliver value to those who interact with the designed economic experiences. In this case, a key actor were the drivers, whom are benefited from using the app (occupancy status, wait time and manage documentation, among others).

Through interviews and behavior studies we got to know their vision, motivations and concerns. Which allowed to design an approach that represents a virtuous circle of value and sustainability.

Innovation must deliver measurable value to the business stakeholders. In this product we measure the feature that allows to detect a late delivery using the truck GPS location and the scheduled delivery time.

With this data, an arrival and late predictor was designed, that combines the smartphone based location with an heuristic regarding the driver’s observed behavior, as well as environment factors, information requests and document uploads within the app.

As a result of the Inspiration and Conceptualization processes, elements that motivate the drivers to use the app were found.

This motivations are related to knowing truck congestion in the terminal and outer port, which would allow to avoid unnecessary traffic jams or having more control over their own schedule to make other routes, rest or grab a bite to eat in case of a detected slow road.

The app was named TPS Go, in reference to keeping users informed: about cargo documents status, terminal status, and any relevant information within the cargo load and transport context.

This incentive or trigger, stimulates the user investment of sharing of geolocation and cargo information with TPS, to anticipate and plan the ship loadings, which was the original focus for profit in this initiative. All of this in harmony with attention to experience design from the start.