Nick Ashley
Nick Ashley
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LoadBoard

An automated freight load matching system that found profitable round-trip routes for truck drivers by monitoring the Schneider Freight PowerCarrier network.

No Longer Online

About

Built for a family member in the trucking industry who was losing money on empty return trips. Truck drivers constantly refresh load boards to find freight, but finding a profitable round-trip is especially tedious - it requires tracking two separate searches and mentally validating that the timing works.

LoadBoard automated the entire process. Users defined their search criteria once, and the system continuously monitored the Schneider Freight PowerCarrier network every 10 minutes. The killer feature was automatic round-trip detection - it would find an outbound load, then immediately search for a second load that picked up near the delivery location with feasible timing, calculating the combined economics.

How It Worked

1

User Creates Search

Define origin city/state with search radius, optional destination, minimum rate per mile, and days to look ahead.

2

Automated API Calls

Every 10 minutes, the system authenticated with Schneider's Azure B2C login and queried their GraphQL API for matching loads.

3

Round-Trip Detection

For open-destination searches, the system found the first leg, then searched for a second load starting from the delivery location with feasible timing.

4

Dashboard Display

Results shown as Round Trips or One Way Routes, with profitability metrics like total miles, deadhead miles, and rate per mile.

Technical Implementation

The most challenging aspect was integrating with Schneider's load board. Their system used Azure B2C for authentication, requiring manual handling of the OAuth flow - extracting CSRF tokens from login pages, submitting credentials, and parsing access tokens from redirect fragments.

The round-trip matching algorithm validated that the second leg's pickup time was at least 1 hour after the first leg's delivery window, then linked matched routes in the database. Routes older than 3 days were auto-pruned to keep things lean.

Tech Stack

Laravel Livewire MySQL GraphQL Azure B2C Twilio SMS

Why It's Offline

The application relied on reverse-engineering Schneider's authentication flow and API. While it worked well, maintaining compatibility with a third-party system that could change at any time wasn't sustainable. The project served its purpose - helping a family member find better loads.