• About the client
Tumpang is a marketplace/matching platform that reduces the cost of interstate shipping, by helping logistics providers to consolidate deliveries and fill up their trucks. The platform also allows for everyday customers to save money as they “tumpang” (or tag on) their bulky deliveries into a truck that is already heading towards their intended destination.
• The client’s need/idea
With decades of experience in logistics, our client noticed there was significant wastage happening in the delivery space. The delivery load in trucks was often not optimised – for instance, a truck may be full on the way to a destination, but empty on the way back. Such wastage had the spillover effect of burdening customers with higher delivery costs. Our client wanted to find a way to maximise every round of transportation, and thought it would be useful for everyday customers with bulky deliveries to find transporters who would be going in that direction.
• The solution we designed
From our experience in working on transportation platforms like MyTeksi (Grab) and SPAD (Malaysia’s Land Transport Department), we had a sound understanding of how to organise limited drivers on the road and to optimise their productivity through intelligent customer-matching solutions.
We developed a platform where customers could send their delivery request into the app, detailing the size and weight of their item as well as the destination. The transporters would then be matched according to the destination, and they would place bids for the job. Once the customer accepts a bid, the transporter would get the job, and the tracking process would begin.
In addition, with safety being a big factor in the transportation space, the transporter’s app would conduct item pickup and dropoff via QR code check-ins – which also keeps customers’ information private elsewhere on the platform.
• Key features and innovations
In the traditional industry of logistics, an innovative digital solution like Tumpang was not immediately adopted by transporters. It was thus crucial for us to work closely with the client to listen to feedback on the ground, and to continuously tweak the platform to improve the user experience.
Based on user feedback, we rolled out new key features in the second year of development – from reducing the number of steps to place a delivery request, and moving from a web app to a mobile app to make it easier for transporters to keep customers updated while on the go. These new features had the effect of achieving sustained monthly growth for the client.
• The impact it brought
The aim of making every transportation journey more productive was achieved. Moreover, aside from reducing the shipping costs for customers, this platform also served to reduce the additional carbon footprint that would have been generated… instead of being able to “tumpang”!
