A NEW PRODUCT

Overview

Based on survey results, we learned that Turo hosts were spending hours per week to create invoices for toll reimbursements after trips. One of the main problems stemmed from the difficulty to compile and organize all tolls invoices across all trips and all vehicles in a host’s fleet. This workflow was also error-prone and tedious.

Automizing all toll tickets on our platform would not only help hosts save time managing their fleet of vehicles, but also support them to provide better customer service and even potentially grow their fleet size.

I was 1 of 3 designers working on this new feature which was launched in November of 2023. As a main designer for this company-wide initiative, I led the research, product strategy, ideation, design, and ultimately oversaw the shipping of this new guest feature.

Impact since launch

Since the launch of the new tolls flow in 2023, the percentage of toll tickets per reservation on the platform has significantly decreased- from 18.7% in November 2023 to just 6.1% by March 2024. This is approximately a 67.4% reduction of the thousands of toll invoices on the platform.

The company also saw a 25% Y/Y reduction in reimbursement contacts by the end of the year in 2023 due to the launch of the new tolls invoicing flow. This equates to a significant number of hours saved from operational call centers spent resolving ticket issues- and thus saving the company thousands of dollars.

The Business Problem

Problem #1: Scalability issues as business grows

Tolls invoices totaled $5.6M in 2021 for the company and with the expansion of more states, was projected to be $23M in 2023. If these invoices don’t get paid, they eventually remain as bad debt- which impacts business revenue.

Problem #2: Time spent by hosts on tolls

Hosts reported to be spending hours per week on toll tickets alone. It was rated as the number 1 pain point hosts had to operate their fleet based on survey results.

Problem #3: Cost for customer support to answer calls about tolls

As the business grows, the number of calls and need for customer support grows as well. For both guests and hosts, this increase in volume also requires additional funding and costs.

Turo (Business):
Support both hosts and customer support in a tedious process for both sides. This will support scaling the business for more states and larger fleets.

Host (End-user):
Support hosts in their workflows for creating reimbursement invoices for tolls after trips.

Guest (End-user):
Give a trusted invoice experience to guests with proof of tolls data that is not prone to human error from manual input.

Designs

Onboarding

Our main focus for onboarding was to streamline the setup flow across the most commonly used toll agencies being used in the country. Our education experience was also set up to answer common questions hosts might have - to support trust and adoption.

Linking tracking devices to vehicles

Because tracking varies by that specific state’s agency - our system needed to support different tracking methods as well.

Managing accounts

Because changes to tracking devices such as transponders were to be commonly expected, we wanted to support those changes. We also wanted to support edge cases such as changes to vehicles in host’s fleets.

Notifications

Notifications were set up to support engagement by both guests and hosts. Emails and in-app notifications were the methods we chose

Toll Invoicing

Hosts have the chance to review the automated line items in the invoices for trips before sending them to guests.

Guests will also have the ability to view these transactions and pay for them directly within the app. The evidence for these invoices are from the toll accounts linked directly.

The process behind the designs:

Multiple phases of evangelization, research, generating feedback, and reviews went into the process of creating our final MVP product.

Surveys and Interviews with Hosts

To better understand what hosts’ current work frames looked like- we conducted a series of diary studies. From our analysis, it was discovered that tolls were one of the biggest pain points for hosts.

For example, we saw hosts collect stacks of mail to keep track of evidence for toll invoices. Others would use data sheets to organize their workflows for toll invoices across their trips.

We also saw that the manual process to enter details in the app was not only long but wasn’t scalable. If a trip had more than one invoice - i.e. a guest passed through 3 different toll collection points, the host would have to manually enter the information 3 different times. There was no way to bulk upload those details- which meant the process had even higher chances for errors.

This brought us to identify this opportunity:

HMW streamline hosts workflow of identifying, capturing and requesting toll expenses for every trip?

This was also where we discovered that tracking methods differed across state agencies: transponders/toll tags and tracking via license plate.

Which agencies to support:

In our survey, we received 645 responses from hosts. From this survey, we also learned which toll agencies were the most used across the country. This helped us narrow down the agencies we wanted to support in our MVP release.

User Research

Guerrilla Research

Methodology

Tested with hosts from TX, NY, NJ, FL who have more than 3 vehicles. And, with hosts that have submitted more than 3 toll invoices in the past 3 months.

Tasks we designed our testing around:

Onboarding tasks:

• Accessing the new feature

• Signing into a toll agency account

• Linking vehicles to tracking devices
  
  Invoicing tasks:

• Accessing and understanding the notification message

• Making an edit to the invoice

• Sending the invoice to guest
  

Results

Overall, all participants were able to complete the onboarding and invoicing process.

5/6 users gave it a 1 on difficulty. The one user who gave it a 2 said after going through the experience once, it makes sense and is straightforward.

This participant summarized what value it provided for them:

”“This is good that you are collecting the tolls because I've definitely forgotten about them before.”

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Post MVP: After the MVP launch, as we had expected - more hosts were asking about the agencies that weren’t supported yet. After the initial MVP launch, we also expanded to 3 more state agencies in the months afterwards.

Business impact: After the launch, we saw the value provided to the business. The decrease in toll invoices per reservations not only decreases the chance to bad debt for the company - but also led to a decrease of call volume to our customer support team.

Current Turo Ecosystem: How this project fit and worked with some of the currently existing Turo invoicing products was a caveat of this project that I will be continuing to focus in the next steps I take. As of now, tolls are the only automated incidental that is supported- but other opportunities identified for the future include parking tickets, speedin

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