I spent three weeks riding along with truck dispatchers before writing a single requirement.
- 68% reduction in dispatch time (25 min → 8 min)
- 14-point improvement in on-time delivery (82% → 96%)
- Built for underserved small fleets (5-25 trucks)
- 340% ROI at pilot customers
The Backstory
aKumoSolutions had engineers. They had ambition. What they didn't have was clarity on what to build.
The idea was a fleet management platform for trucking companies. But "fleet management" can mean a hundred different things. GPS tracking? Load boards? Compliance software? Driver apps? The market is crowded with options ranging from free spreadsheet templates to six-figure enterprise contracts.
I was brought in to answer the question: what should we actually build, and for whom?
Finding the Gap
I started by looking at who was being ignored.
The big players like Samsara and Motive? They're built for massive fleets. Hundreds of trucks, dedicated IT teams, six-figure software budgets. The sales process alone takes months.
At the other end, owner-operators with one or two trucks were getting by with free tools. TruckingOffice, spreadsheets, a notebook in the cab. Not elegant, but it worked for their scale.
The middle was getting squeezed. Companies with 5-25 trucks. Big enough that spreadsheets were falling apart. Too small to justify enterprise software priced for 500-truck fleets and built for operations teams they didn't have.
I wanted to understand their world. So I stopped reading market reports and started showing up.
What Dispatch Actually Looks Like
I did ride-alongs in the Chicago suburbs. Sat in dispatch offices. Rode in trucks. Asked a lot of questions that probably seemed obvious.
Here's what a typical morning looked like for a dispatcher managing 15 trucks:
By 9 AM, she's made 40+ phone calls and she hasn't actually managed anything. She's just been playing telephone, trying to figure out where everyone is and who can do what.
One dispatcher told me: "My job title says dispatcher but really I'm just a professional phone-caller."
25 minutes. That's how long it took to assign a single load. Not because the work was complex. Because the information was scattered across spreadsheets, text threads, and people's heads.
The Core Insight
The problem wasn't that these companies needed "better technology." They weren't asking for AI-powered route optimization or predictive analytics.
They needed to see where their trucks were without making phone calls.
That's it. That was the unlock. Real-time visibility into driver location, availability, and hours. The basic information that enterprise platforms take for granted but that small operators were still gathering manually, one call at a time.
What We Built
We kept the scope tight. Four and a half months, seven engineers. No room for feature creep.
Dispatch Dashboard
The centerpiece. A real-time view of every driver. Where they are, whether they're available, how many hours they have left. A dispatcher can look at the screen and know instantly who can take a load. No calls required.
Automatic Load Tracking
Load tracking that updates automatically. When a driver marks a pickup complete, the customer can see it. No more "let me call the driver and get back to you."
Driver Mobile App
A mobile app for drivers that doesn't suck. Simple status updates, document scanning, navigation. Drivers actually use it because it makes their lives easier, not because they're forced to.
Compliance Hub
A compliance hub for safety docs. Small operators dread audits because their paperwork is scattered across filing cabinets and email attachments. Now it's in one place.
We deliberately left things out. No load board integration. No advanced analytics. No ELD hardware. Those could come later. First, we had to nail the core problem.
Building It
I ran MoSCoW prioritization workshops that were sometimes uncomfortable. Engineers had ideas for cool features. I had to keep pulling us back to the dispatcher in the Chicago suburbs making 40 phone calls before breakfast.
We shipped in two-week sprints. I stayed close to the engineers, writing detailed requirements and being available when questions came up. We ran pilots with real customers and iterated based on what we saw.
The hardest part wasn't building. It was staying focused. Every week someone had an idea for something we could add. My job was to protect the scope.
The Results
At pilot customers, dispatch time dropped from 25 minutes to 8 minutes per load. On-time delivery went from 82% to 96% because dispatchers could finally see problems before customers called about them.
The ROI calculation was straightforward. Hours saved on dispatch plus reduced missed deliveries plus fewer angry customer calls. For a small operator, 340% return on a software subscription is hard to ignore.
Since launch, TechFleets has scaled to 100+ customers across 3 states.
Why This One Mattered to Me
I've worked on internal tools and enterprise platforms. This was different. We built something for people who'd been ignored by the software industry.
Small trucking companies keep the economy moving. They're delivering medical supplies and groceries and auto parts. And they've been stuck with tools built for someone else, or no tools at all.
TechFleets isn't going to win any design awards. It's not disrupting anything. It's just a solid product that solves a real problem for people who needed it solved.
That's the kind of work I want to do.
My Role
- Led 0→1 product development as Senior Product Manager
- Conducted ride-alongs with dispatchers and drivers to find the real problem
- Defined product strategy and MVP scope through MoSCoW prioritization
- Led team of 7 engineers, design, and client operations through 4.5 months of agile sprints
- Shipped production-ready platform that has scaled to 100+ customers across 3 states