Ryder System Inc.
Transforming enterprise workflows: enabling self-service for
national accounts and equipping admins with tools to manage
fulfillment.
My role: Lead Product Designer
Scope: Self-Service · Automation · Admin Tools
Duration: June 2024- Ongoing
Results at a Glance
80% faster onboarding & order processing
95% of account management tasks automated
Customers can self-onboard without Ryder admins
Admins gained full visibility into approvals
Context
Ryder is a leader in logistics and transportation solutions, serving enterprise clients with complex rental and fleet needs. Previously, Ryder’s rental operations for national accounts were handled through manual processes and outdated legacy systems.
The result was an experience filled with bottlenecks, delayed fulfillment, and limited visibility for both customers and employees.
The Phoenix platform was created to modernize this ecosystem- designing a bridge between rentals, billing, organizational management, and credit applications into one experience layer.
Challenge
Before Phoenix, Ryder’s workflows ran on decades-old green screens. Customers couldn’t access them directly, so every simple task- adding team members, checking credit, tracking orders- all required manual intervention.
"Every time we needed to add a new driver, we had to call Ryder support and wait days for approval. It slowed down our whole operation.”
- Karen, Fleet Manager at a National Rental Account
This led to:
Outdated systems with rigid, text-heavy screens not built for customer use.
Limited transparency where customers couldn’t easily track documents or billing profile connections.
High support burden since account managers were spending time on manual updates rather than strategic support.
Design Challenge: How can we create a single, cohesive platform that puts customers in control of their accounts while keeping enterprise compliance intact?
Opportunity
Phoenix wasn’t just a portal- it was an opportunity to transform Ryder’s relationship with customers.
Our goal was to:
Enable self-service for national accounts to create and manage organizations for rental orders.
Automate order decisioning with a rules-driven decision engine.
Provide admins with a unified tool to review, fulfill, or intervene when necessary.
This required system-wide design: aligning customer-facing flows, backend decisioning, and internal admin tools into one ecosystem.
Approach
Designing Phoenix started with understanding Ryder’s legacy green-screen systems to see how outdated tools shaped workflows.
These outdated systems defined how data flowed (or didn’t), and any modern solution needed to integrate with them.
My first step was mapping dependencies, surfacing where data broke down, and identifying where manual work was unavoidable.
My approach combined systems thinking, legacy analysis, user research, and agile delivery to modernize enterprise rental operations.
Designing the dual experience
Phoenix had to support two sides of the workflow
Customers: Submit an order → system evaluates it.
Admins: Step in when automation isn’t enough.
The logic worked in the follow way:
Customer submits an order.
Decision engine evaluates it:
If compliant → auto-approved and fulfilled.
If flagged → routed to manual queue.
Admin tool enables employees to review, approve, or reject, with full audit history.
This balance of automation + human oversight allowed Ryder to scale while maintaining compliance.
Customer Onboarding
Automates approvals previously handled manually.
Rental Order Decision Engine
Built-in exception handling → reduces compliance risk.
Navigating constraints
Working with data architects was critical. The legacy systems weren’t built for clean integrations, and we faced some blockers:
Legacy limitations | Data architects flagged missing or inconsistent data across billing profiles. To adapt, I designed flows with progressive verification- allowing customers to move forward while surfacing issues for admins.
Scalability | National accounts can manage organizations and orders independently.
Visibility | Both customers and admins have clear status tracking, improving trust and reducing support calls.
Iteration & Validation
Through prototyping and usability testing, we refined flows for both customers and admins. Iterations focused on:
Simplifying billing profile selection.
Clarifying rejection messages with actionable next steps (e.g., call a rep).
Making the admin dashboard intuitive for high-volume processing.
Design
The release of Phoenix unified what used to be siloed workflows into a single, scalable platform. Both customers and employees now experience a streamlined rental process:
A.I Integration Process
After establishing self-service workflows, we introduced RyderGyde, which is an AI assistant that transforms fleet data into actionable recommendations.
Utilization Optimization
Fleet Manager analyzes weekly utilization data and discovers underutilized trucks. AI identifies underutilized vehicles and suggests relocation strategies to improve fleet efficiency.
Fuel Efficiency & Cost Analysis
Fleet Manager asks about fuel costs for a specific location. AI identifies cost overruns, pinpoints the cause, and recommends optimized fuel sourcing with projected savings
Vehicle Location
Fleet Manager needs available trucks near a specific location for an urgent pickup. AI displays real-time vehicle locations with actionable options to contact drivers and coordinate the pickup.
Customers Experience
1.Self-service Invite & Role Management
A modern self-service portal where national accounts can create organizations, place rental orders, and track reservations without relying on phone calls or emails.
Invite, remove, and manage team members with role-based permissions, ensuring the right people have the right access.
Role-specific access minimizes risk and improves internal accountability.
2.Reservations and Rental Orders Visibility
Clear view into order and reservation status, billing profiles, and application progress, reducing frustration and increasing trust.
3.Onboarding with Smart Defaults
Customers can now join organizations without relying on Ryder support. They simply enter an account number, trigger admin approval, and gain access.
Admin Experience
1.Centralized Control for Admins
Admins can monitor every application in one place, with clear status indicators (received, under review, approved, rejected). This reduces manual tracking, speeds up reviews, and ensures compliance by keeping all actions transparent and logged.
2.Exception Handling Made Simple
When an order can’t be auto-approved, admins can review customer details and select critical requirements like insurance or liability coverage before approving. This ensures exceptions are handled quickly and consistently while keeping compliance intact.
Reflection
This project showed me how enterprise UX is about balancing automation with oversight. By redesigning Ryder’s legacy onboarding into a self-service system, we accelerated rentals, empowered admins, and reduced operational dependency. It reinforced my approach: designing systems that scale without losing control.
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