U-HAUL TRUCK RESERVATION · LIVE PROJECT
Redesigning self-serve truck pickup and return
© U-Haul Truck Reservation
ROLE
Lead Designer
TIMELINE
Ongoing
TEAM
12-person cross-functional team
SKILLS
Service Design
UX Research
Interaction Design
Prototyping
PROBLEM
The pickup experience was broken and it was costing the business.
Users arriving on-site had no real-time visibility into truck availability, no clear directions to their vehicle, and no way to complete verification without staff help. On busy Saturday mornings, this created 30+ minute wait times and significant operational burden on store staff. That user frustration had a direct business consequence: conversion dropped, and support costs rose.
Pickup Flow Mapping
Mapped the end-to-end pickup and return journey to identify where customers got stuck or gave up.
On-Location Observation
Watched customers attempt pickup at real locations to see firsthand where confusion and delays occurred.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Partnered with ops and store teams to validate that proposed changes were feasible within existing rental hardware and staffing constraints.
CORE FLOWS
A guided path through pickup and return
The core insight from research: users didn't fail because the product was hard to use. They failed because they didn't know what to expect at each step. So I designed the flow around clarity at every transition. What's happening now, what's coming next, and what to do if something goes wrong. Each micro-flow was mapped independently: mobile reservation, background verification, truck location, accessories, and return. The goal was that no step would require staff intervention.
Mobile Reservation
Let customers reserve and pay for their truck ahead of time, so pickup becomes a formality instead of a transaction.
Remote Verification
Move license and identity verification into the app, removing the front-desk bottleneck during peak hours.
Self-Serve Pickup
Give customers a way to unlock and inspect the truck on their own, so staff are only needed for exceptions.
Showing Availability That Doesn't Exist Yet
Time-based availability, showing upcoming truck return windows so users can see what's coming back soon, not just what's available right now
Breaking the Verification Loop
Background verification + push notification that users submit their driver's license and exit the verification loop entirely. When verification completes, a push notification brings them back at exactly the right moment
RESEARCH
I went to the stores. Here’s what I found.
I didn't design from assumptions. I visited pickup locations and walked six customers through the full rental journey in real time. Watching them on-site, especially during peak Saturday mornings, revealed something data alone couldn't surface: the friction wasn't just logistical. It was emotional. Users were stressed, uncertain, and felt abandoned by the product at the moment it mattered most. Those observations directly shaped every design decision that followed.
Final designs
We prioritized a simple, familiar, and clean interface.
The final designs kept the interaction simple and familiar: clear entry points, guided verification, and a lot-finding map that customers could follow without a second thought.
reflections
Key Takeaways
Testing in the Real World
Testing with real customers at an actual pickup location surfaced friction a clickable prototype would never have caught.
Design and Build
Rapid prototyping let me test multiple entry patterns with real customers before committing engineering resources, collapsing the gap between design and validation.
Clarity Over Convenience
Showing customers what to expect before pickup outperformed adding more automation, a reminder that trust is built through clarity, not just speed.
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