CN
Express Pass
An intermodal driver app that lets truck drivers complete gate entry before arriving at CN rail terminals — cutting gate wait times and turning terminal visits into planned, productive trips.
Year
2021
Type
mobile app - ios & android
Client
canadian nationals (Infosys + WONGDOODY)
Problem & Context
Intermodal truck drivers lost significant time at CN terminal gates — booking delays, waybilling issues, reservation problems, all discovered only on arrival. The Express Pass app (next generation of ModalPass) lets drivers validate travel information and complete gate entry from their cab before arriving.
Capabilities designed:
Complete gate entry from the cab before arrival — the core time-saver
Streamlined registration built for truckers, not office workers
Pre-populated booking information to minimize driver input
Container availability check + bad order / hold status search
Equipment damage recording in-app
Paperless gate receipts shareable with drayage/trucking companies
Container location updates while in the rail yard
Safety tips and terminal-specific notifications
/01
Research & Discovery
Six Thinking Hats workshops for structured problem exploration
User personas — intermodal drivers with distinct constraints (gloves, sunlight, moving vehicle context)
User journey mapping across the full terminal visit lifecycle
Benchmarking + app review analysis of the existing ModalPass app
User flows and wireframes before visual design
View Atrifacts
/02
Key Insights
The gate is the bottleneck — solve before arrival:
Every minute at the gate is unpaid driver time and terminal congestion. Moving validation pre-arrival flips the problem from queue management to trip planning.
Design for the truck drivers, not the desk:
Large touch targets, minimal typing, glanceable status — drivers interact in bright sunlight, often with work gloves, between tasks.
Pre-population is the killer feature:
Drivers hate re-entering data dispatch already has. Every pre-filled field is friction removed at the moment of least patience.
Paper receipts were an invisible tax:
Physical gate receipts got lost between drivers, trucking companies, and logistics providers. Paperless shareable receipts fixed a whole downstream workflow.
/03
Design Decisions
Gate entry as a pre-trip checklist
What: The core flow is a validate-before-you-drive checklist: booking, container status, equipment, gate pass.
Why: Reframing gate entry from an on-site transaction to a pre-trip ritual is what actually saves the time— the UI enforces the new behavior.
Glanceable status system
What: Color-coded status cards for container availability, holds, and bad orders — readable at arm's length.
Why: Drivers check status in seconds between tasks. Dense tables fail in a trucks; status cards don't.
Minimal-input damage recording
What: Equipment damage logged with photos + taps, near-zero typing.
Why: Damage recording only happens if it's effortless — otherwise it's skipped and disputes follow.
/04
Final Designs
The complete Partner Journey
From discovery to first incentive — 4 key stages, each redesigned to remove human dependency from the critical path.
/05
Onboarding & Login
Registration and login built for drivers, not desk workers — minimal fields, forgotten-password recovery upfront, and a first-run explanation of what the app does in one glance. A driver goes from download to ready-to-use in under a minute.
User Landing Screen
The home screen has exactly one job: start the visit. "Initiate New Visit" is the single dominant action — no dashboard clutter, no menu diving. Route updates and terminal kiosk notifications reach the driver before they leave, so surprises are handled on the road, not at the gate.
Gate Pass Creation
The heart of the pre-gate concept: drivers create their In-gate pass before arriving — equipment type, container and chassis IDs, terminal, seal number, load status — in a short structured form with smart defaults. Submitting generates a QR-coded In-gate ID, turning the gate transaction into paperwork done from the truck.
QR Validated at
Terminal Kiosk
Validation closes the loop: a successful scan immediately hands the driver their parking zone on a real-time map with satellite view and equipment-level guidance — from gate to spot without stopping to ask anyone.
User Testing
Testing the application by rolling out to 30% of the merchants.
Research Goals:
Determine how design change in the application is affecting users
Determine if app is hard to use
How Invoice and Links update are helping people
Research Questions:
Are users to use the application?
Are there any parts of the flow that users struggle with?
Can users easily navigate to different parts and products of the application ?
How users are reacting to the UI / UX Changes in the application ?
/06
KPIs:
TAT : To compare the TAT to use the PayU products in comparison to older version
User Error Rates : How users are struggling to perform a task
Conversion Rates : How many customers are able to complete the task
App Engagement : How avg. time users are spending on the application.
Methodology and Participants:
Unmoderated usability study
Participants are existing PayU merchants.
Merchants are categorised in Only App users, Only Dashboard users and who uses both the platforms
Outcomes & Impact
Faster, more efficient terminal visits — gate entry completed from the cab Registration and booking input dramatically streamlined vs ModalPass v1 Paperless receipts adopted across drayage/logistics sharing workflows
Full E2E design delivery — personas, journeys, flows, wireframes, design system, visual design
/07
Reflections
What worked:
Context-first design — every pattern tested against the cab environment, not the office
Building on ModalPass review data — v1's failures were the sharpest requirements doc
What I'd do differently:
Push for in-cab field testing earlier in the process
Design offline-first from the start — rail yards have notoriously poor connectivity
/08
Email:
hello@sagarkumar.site
Phone:
+91 70668 72321
I work with brands to define who they are, design how they show up, and create experiences that matter. Less noise, more intention.
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CN EXPRESS PASS
An intermodal driver app that lets truck drivers complete gate entry before arriving at CN rail terminals — cutting gate wait times and turning terminal visits into planned, productive trips.
Year
2021
Type
mobile app - ios & android
Timeframe
canadian nationals (Infosys + WONGDOODY)
Problem & Context
/01
Intermodal truck drivers lost significant time at CN terminal gates — booking delays, waybilling issues, reservation problems, all discovered only on arrival. The Express Pass app (next generation of ModalPass) lets drivers validate travel information and complete gate entry from their cab before arriving.
Capabilities designed:
Complete gate entry from the cab before arrival — the core time-saver
Streamlined registration built for truckers, not office workers
Pre-populated booking information to minimize driver input
Container availability check + bad order / hold status search
Equipment damage recording in-app
Paperless gate receipts shareable with drayage/trucking companies
Container location updates while in the rail yard
Safety tips and terminal-specific notifications
Research & Discovery
/02
Six Thinking Hats workshops for structured problem exploration
User personas — intermodal drivers with distinct constraints (gloves, sunlight, moving vehicle context)
User journey mapping across the full terminal visit lifecycle
Benchmarking + app review analysis of the existing ModalPass app
User flows and wireframes before visual design
Key Insights
/03
The gate is the bottleneck — solve before arrival:
Every minute at the gate is unpaid driver time and terminal congestion. Moving validation pre-arrival flips the problem from queue management to trip planning.
Design for the truck drivers, not the desk:
Large touch targets, minimal typing, glanceable status — drivers interact in bright sunlight, often with work gloves, between tasks.
Pre-population is the killer feature:
Drivers hate re-entering data dispatch already has. Every pre-filled field is friction removed at the moment of least patience.
Paper receipts were an invisible tax:
Physical gate receipts got lost between drivers, trucking companies, and logistics providers. Paperless shareable receipts fixed a whole downstream workflow.
Design Decisions
/04
Gate entry as a pre-trip checklist
What: The core flow is a validate-before-you-drive checklist: booking, container status, equipment, gate pass.
Why: Reframing gate entry from an on-site transaction to a pre-trip ritual is what actually saves the time— the UI enforces the new behavior.
Glanceable status system
What: Color-coded status cards for container availability, holds, and bad orders — readable at arm's length.
Why: Drivers check status in seconds between tasks. Dense tables fail in a trucks; status cards don't.
Minimal-input damage recording
What: Equipment damage logged with photos + taps, near-zero typing.
Why: Damage recording only happens if it's effortless — otherwise it's skipped and disputes follow.
Final Designs
/05
From discovery to first incentive — 4 key stages, each redesigned to remove human dependency from the critical path.
Onboarding & Login
Registration and login built for drivers, not desk workers — minimal fields, forgotten-password recovery upfront, and a first-run explanation of what the app does in one glance. A driver goes from download to ready-to-use in under a minute.
User Landing Screen
The home screen has exactly one job: start the visit. "Initiate New Visit" is the single dominant action — no dashboard clutter, no menu diving. Route updates and terminal kiosk notifications reach the driver before they leave, so surprises are handled on the road, not at the gate.
Gate Pass Creation
The heart of the pre-gate concept: drivers create their In-gate pass before arriving — equipment type, container and chassis IDs, terminal, seal number, load status — in a short structured form with smart defaults. Submitting generates a QR-coded In-gate ID, turning the gate transaction into paperwork done from the truck.
QR Validated at
Terminal Kiosk
Validation closes the loop: a successful scan immediately hands the driver their parking zone on a real-time map with satellite view and equipment-level guidance — from gate to spot without stopping to ask anyone.
Outcomes & Impact
/06
Faster, more efficient terminal visits — gate entry completed from the cab
Registration and booking input dramatically streamlined vs ModalPass v1
Paperless receipts adopted across drayage/logistics sharing workflows
Full E2E design delivery — personas, journeys, flows, wireframes, design system, visual design
Reflections
/07
What I'd do differently:
Context-first design — every pattern tested against the cab environment, not the office
Building on ModalPass review data — v1's failures were the sharpest requirements doc
What worked:
Push for in-route field testing earlier in the process
Design offline-first from the start — rail yards have notoriously poor connectivity
Email:
hello@sagarkumar.site
Phone:
+91 70668 72321
I work with brands to define who they are, design how they show up, and create experiences that matter. Less noise, more intention.
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service