Platform Feature Specification

Load Lifecycle — the Spine of the Platform

Every feature below hangs off a single state machine: the life of a load. Getting these states right first means tracking, payments, and proof of delivery all have unambiguous trigger points.

Cancellation and exception states (no-show, damage claim, weather delay) branch off this spine and are covered in Sections 7 and 8.

Driver Verification & Onboarding

Trust is the product. A shipper handing freight to an independent box truck owner needs confidence the platform has done the diligence. Verification is a one-time gate at signup with periodic re-checks.

Required at signup

Identity — government ID + selfie match (via an identity API such as Persona or Stripe Identity). Driving credentials — valid driver's license; CDL only where vehicle class requires it. Vehicle — registration, photos (four angles + cargo area), GVWR from the door jamb sticker, which also determines ELD applicability (Section 5). Insurance — auto liability and cargo coverage with minimums set by vehicle class; policy expiry stored and re-verified automatically. Business — EIN or SSN for tax reporting (1099), plus DOT/MC number where the driver operates for-hire across state lines.

Ongoing

Insurance and license expiry trigger automatic re-verification 30 days out; a lapsed document suspends load matching, never mid-load. An annual MVR (motor vehicle record) pull flags serious violations.

Load Posting & Matching

The shipper flow is deliberately short: origin, destination, what it is (photos encouraged), dimensions/weight or a simple size picker ("2 pallets", "half a box truck"), pickup window, and any handling notes. The platform returns an instant quote — no broker phone calls, no two-day waits.

Matching logic (v1)

Filter drivers by vehicle capacity (volume + payload), radius from origin, availability (driver toggles on/off duty), and verification status. Rank by proximity and rating. Notify the top tier first; cascade outward if unclaimed after a configurable interval. First-accept wins — no bidding wars that race rates to the bottom, which would undercut the living-wage promise.

Pricing & Rate Schedule (2026)

Loads are priced per dispatch mile by vehicle class, with a minimum dispatch charge, accessorials, and a fuel adjustment. The schedule is positioned on the high side of the national market and assumes the owner-operator supplies the vehicle, driver, fuel, maintenance, registration and commercial insurance. The rate below is what the driver receives; Ooobar adds its 20% platform fee on top, billed to the shipper (shipper total = driver rate ÷ 0.80).

Rate schedule

*Loaded-mile equivalent assumes ~15% deadhead / unpaid positioning mileage.

Accessorial charges

Tolls, ferry charges, permits, parking, lumper fees and other job-specific expenses are reimbursed at actual cost.

Mileage policy

All authorized dispatch miles are compensable — travel from the designated dispatch point to pickup, loaded transportation, and any authorized return/repositioning. Paying all authorized miles keeps the schedule transparent and avoids deadhead disputes (a $3.00 loaded-mile rate becomes only ~$2.55/actual mile at 15% deadhead). Miles are calculated with an agreed commercial-routing engine, not the shortest passenger-car route.

Fuel adjustment

Baselines: gasoline $3.75/gal, diesel $4.50/gal. Whenever the applicable EIA national price moves at least $0.25/gal, apply:

Example: diesel from $4.50 → $5.00 raises the Class 8 rate by $0.08/mi.

Real-Time Load Tracking

Tracking runs off the driver's phone — no hardware to install for v1. The driver app streams GPS while a load is active; everything else derives from that stream.

How it works

Ping cadence: every 30–60 seconds in transit, batched and compressed to respect the driver's data plan; reduced to every 5 minutes when stationary. Geofences at origin and destination automate state changes — arrival at pickup, departure (→ In Transit), arrival at drop-off. ETA recomputed continuously from position + live traffic (Mapbox or Google routes API). Exception alerts fire when the ETA slips beyond a threshold, the driver is stationary unexpectedly, or the app loses signal for a sustained period.

Who sees what

The shipper sees the live map for their load only. A shareable tracking link (no login required) lets the shipper's own customer watch the delivery — a strong B2B selling point. The driver controls privacy: location is only ever transmitted while a load is active, never off-duty. This should be stated explicitly in the driver agreement — it's a trust differentiator against gig platforms that track continuously.

Electronic Driver Logs (Hours of Service)

This one has a regulatory shape worth understanding before building. The FMCSA ELD mandate applies to drivers required to keep records of duty status — generally vehicles over 10,001 lbs GVWR operating in interstate commerce. That splits the Ooobar fleet:

Recommended approach: don't build a certified ELD in v1 — certification is a heavy lift and most Ooobar loads will be local/short-haul exempt. Instead: (1) capture GVWR and operating area at onboarding to classify each driver's obligation; (2) build lightweight duty-status logging (on duty / driving / off duty) into the driver app for all drivers — it powers fatigue-aware matching and the living-wage hourly math regardless of regulation; (3) for drivers who need a certified ELD, integrate with an existing registered provider (Motive, Samsara) via API rather than certifying our own; (4) the platform warns — never blocks silently — when accepting a load would exceed available hours.

Proof of Delivery

POD is the trigger that releases money, so it must be unambiguous. At pickup the driver photographs the freight (condition record — protects the driver against pre-existing damage claims). At delivery: photo of freight at the drop point + recipient signature on the driver's screen, with name typed. For unattended deliveries the shipper opts in to photo-only POD at posting time, and the photo must be geotagged inside the destination geofence.

Each POD bundle (photos, signature, GPS coordinates, timestamp) is hashed and stored immutably — it's the evidence file if a dispute arises. The shipper gets the POD packet by email automatically; their customer can see it via the tracking link.

Payment Management

Cash flow is the number-one pain for owner-operators — brokers commonly pay in 30–60 days. Ooobar's answer: escrow at acceptance, fast release at delivery.

Mechanics

Rails: Stripe Connect (Express accounts for drivers) handles card/ACH collection, escrow-style holds, split payouts, and 1099 generation — this avoids Ooobar becoming a money transmitter. Standard payout: automatic release 24 hours after POD unless the shipper flags an issue; funds land next business day. Instant payout: optional push-to-debit for a small fee (~1%), driver's choice. Driver wallet: shows pending escrow, cleared balance, weekly earnings vs. hours (from duty logs — the living-wage receipt), and tax summaries.

Fees & transparency

One platform fee, shown identically to both sides: shipper sees price = driver pay + platform fee; driver sees the same two numbers. No spread hidden between a "shipper rate" and a "carrier rate" — that opacity is exactly what Ooobar positions against.

Ratings, Messaging & Disputes

Ratings: double-blind, prompted after payment — neither party sees the other's rating until both submit or the window closes. Drivers rate shippers too (accurate load descriptions, dock wait times); repeat offenders on either side lose matching priority.

Messaging: in-app chat opens at acceptance and closes after delivery + dispute window. Phone numbers stay masked (Twilio Proxy) — protects both sides and keeps transactions on-platform.

Disputes: a shipper flag within 24 hours of POD pauses escrow release. The evidence file (pickup photos, POD packet, GPS trail, chat log) is already assembled by design. Small claims resolved by support within 48 hours; cargo-damage claims route to the insurance path from Section 2. Every dispute state has a countdown clock so a driver's money can't sit frozen indefinitely.

Recommended Build Phases

The dashboards being designed next (driver, shipper, onboarding) are the front doors to Phase 1 scope.