A few months after public launch of the Uber Freight brokerage’s smartphone app aimed at connecting owner-operators to its book of customer freight, the ride-sharing giant’s affiliated freight broker is tweaking both its regions of emphasis and its app based on driver feedback, company reps say.
A new recommendation engine within the app, developed in collaboration with data scientists from the ride-share side of the business, will be capable of delivering push notifications to owner-operators when new loads are available, based on their past load history and/or set preferences. The “data-science team has worked on creating these algorithms,” says Senior Product Manager Eric Berdinis, so that “recommendations are continuously improving to make the experience more personalized.”
This approach marks “a shift in how we approach users using the app,” Berdinis says.
The app will continue to show posted available freight within a driver’s selected set of criteria, but will now also make recommendations based on the carrier’s load history with the platform and their personal preferences.
Berdinis says the function, which will be made available through an app update beginning to push out today to the entire universe of users, is designed to put the loads the driver is most likely to want in front of them more quickly.
“Local drivers and long haul drivers have specific wants,” Berdinis says. “Do they like loads that take them home or do they like loads that have a certain quality to them?”
The more loads a driver accepts through Uber Freight, Berdinis says, the more the platform learns about their preferences. A “For You” pack will show the driver all of their personalized recommendations.
