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Case study · US logistics marketplace

AllShip AI

Three fragile apps became one marketplace the business can run.

AllShip AI is a US marketplace for moving, vehicle, freight and heavy-equipment shipping. Shippers post a load, FMCSA-verified carriers bid, and the shipper's money waits in escrow until delivery is confirmed. I rebuilt it from scratch, alone: product, design, website, payments, security and moving the old data across.

My role
Solo — from audit to launch
Budget
≈ $15,000
What I built
Website · marketplace · admin
Who uses it
Shippers, carriers, drivers
Visit the live siteBook a call about a similar projectRead the CV
allship-ai.vercel.app
AllShip AI home page with the quick quote starter

  • 3 → 1

    separate apps merged into one product

  • 23

    shipment types, each with its own form

  • 4

    workspaces: shipper, carrier, driver, admin

  • 17

    US states with verified carriers

  • 72 h

    longest a carrier waits for payout after delivery

  • 34,921

    fake sign-ups cleaned out before launch

01The product

A shipper needs something moved. A carrier wants work and to be paid on time. AllShip sits between them and holds the money until both are happy.

  1. Step 1

    Post a load

    23 categories, each with its own form. No sign-up needed to start — the account is created when the form is sent.

  2. Step 2

    Verified carriers bid

    Only FMCSA-verified carriers. Instant quotes come from each carrier's published rate card, not a guess.

  3. Step 3

    Pay into escrow

    The shipper pays the bid plus a 10% fee through Stripe Connect. The money waits until delivery.

  4. Step 4

    Drive & prove it

    The driver shares live GPS, photographs pickup and collects a signed proof of delivery on the phone.

  5. Step 5

    Carrier gets paid

    When the shipper confirms — or after 72 h automatically — the carrier receives 100% of the bid.

Where the money goesA real example — the carrier always gets 100% of the bid

  1. Shipper accepts a bid

    $940

    carrier's price

  2. Pays into escrow

    $1,034

    bid + 10% service fee

  3. Delivery confirmed

    $940

    transferred to the carrier

  4. AllShip keeps

    $94

    the 10% service fee

02Where it started

Before writing a line of the new app, I read the old database. The numbers decided the plan.

  • 34,921of 34,938

    accounts were bots

    Sign-up had no rate limit or captcha. A script created them in ~36 hours — most likely to email-bomb real inboxes through AllShip's own sender.

  • 117of 119

    bids were generated

    A script bid on every load automatically, the “best match” carrier was fixed in code, and some ratings were random numbers.

  • 3

    separate apps for one product

    A server, a dashboard and a marketing site, built separately. Every change had to be made three times.

  • 0

    payment protection

    “Payments” were just a paid flag, not money held until delivery — and the database stored full card numbers with CVV.

03How it was built

Each stage shipped something usable: first the foundation and the site, then the marketplace, operations, AI — and hardening before handover.

  1. Old database · read-only copy

    Users34,921 of 34,938 bot sign-ups

    Bids117 of 119 generated by a script

    Payments18 of 18 flags, not real money

    Moved across: 16 real customers and 5 carriers, old passwords still work

    01

    Audit: what is real?

    Before building anything new, I checked what the old system actually held.

    • Read a copy of the old database without touching the live one
    • Found 34,921 fake sign-ups, generated bids and stored card numbers
    • Moved the 16 real customers and 5 carriers — they log in with their old passwords
  2. Menu with a direct link to every load form
    02

    A website that brings in loads

    Keep what already worked, rebuild the rest properly.

    • Every old page address kept, so Google rankings carry over
    • 31 pages plus 23 service pages, each leading to its own load form
    • Sign-in by email, Google, magic link or passkey, with 2-step verification
  3. Shipper comparing carrier bids
    03

    Post, compare, pay safely

    The core of the marketplace.

    • A short step-by-step form for each of the 23 shipment types
    • Bids show carrier verification, real reviews and instant prices
    • Stripe holds the payment until delivery; the carrier is paid automatically
  4. Live trip with status steps and route
    04

    Everything after the payment

    Trips, drivers and proof — visible to the shipper in real time.

    • Carriers add drivers and assign them to loads
    • Drivers share live location, photograph the pickup and collect a signature
    • Chat, notifications, payouts and a fair way to settle disputes
  5. AI assistant answering from the user's loads
    05

    An assistant that saves time

    AI that does the paperwork — and never acts on its own.

    • Turns one sentence into a ready load or a bid draft
    • Answers from the user's own loads and bids, not general knowledge
    • Nothing is posted, bid or paid without the user's click; guided tours for new users

  6. Security review · 109 pages and actions

    Team and admin settings could be changed from outside — blocked

    A carrier could pose as a shipper and bid on own loads — fixed

    Carriers could see competitors' bid amounts — fixed

    A double click could pay or accept twice — fixed

    + 2-step verification for admins · error monitoring · privacy export & delete

    06

    Safe to run, ready to hand over

    Checked from the attacker's side, then documented.

    • Every page and action reviewed for who can see and change what
    • Admin actions need 2-step verification; error monitoring is on
    • Privacy export and delete for users, and full docs for the next developer

04Inside the product

Hover or tap the numbers. Every label on these screens comes from real data — that was the point of the rebuild.

allship-ai.vercel.app/app/loads/AS-DEM3BD
Shipper's load page with three carrier bids

Comparing bids

What a shipper sees once carriers have bid. Every label is earned from real data.

  1. 1Honest labels“Lowest price” and “Top rated” appear only when they're true. No paid “Best match”.
  2. 2Verified carriers onlyGovernment (FMCSA) check, completed loads and real reviews on every bid.
  3. 3Instant quoteCalculated from the carrier's own price list — distance, volume and extras. No waiting for a reply.
  4. 4Accept and payThe shipper pays the bid + 10%. Stripe holds the money until the delivery is confirmed.
  5. 5Ask AIThe assistant can compare these bids in plain language — it reads, the user decides.
allship-ai.vercel.app/app/loads/AS-DEM8TR
Load in transit with stepper, map and payment

Following a trip

The same load after the carrier assigned a driver. The shipper watches every step live.

  1. 1Clear statusEvery step is recorded with a time, so both sides always know where the load is.
  2. 2Signal lostIf the driver's phone stops reporting, the shipper sees it instead of a frozen dot.
  3. 3Live GPSThe driver's phone shares its position about every 20 seconds — visible only to people on this load.
  4. 4Money in escrowThe carrier is paid after delivery — confirmed by the shipper or automatically after 72 h.
  5. 5DisputesSomething wrong? A dispute freezes the payout until an admin releases, refunds or splits it.

05Marketing site

No stock screenshots: scripted demos built from the app's own components play right in the page — and load only near the viewport.

Scripted demo of posting a load
Product TheaterInstead of screenshots, the website plays short demos of the real app, so visitors see exactly what they'll use before signing up.
AI assistant demo with a synced step list
AI spotlightThe assistant demo, with its feature list synced to the step that is playing.
Animated escrow money flow
Escrow, explainedShipper → escrow → carrier, animated, right where the pricing question comes up.
Adaptive demo morphing from desktop to phone
One app, every screenThe same screen morphs from desktop to tablet to phone.

06Mobile

Drivers do their whole job on one screen: start the trip, share location, photograph the pickup, collect a signature.

  • AllShip AI home page on a phone

    Home

  • Vehicle load wizard on a phone

    Load wizard

  • Driver trip screen on a phone

    Driver trip

  • AI tools page on a phone

    AI tools

07Outcome

Project budget

≈ $15,000

For the full rebuild: architecture, design system, marketing site, four dashboards, admin console, payments, AI, security and the data migration.

allship-ai.vercel.app Discuss a similar project
  • One product instead of threeWebsite, workspaces for shippers, carriers and drivers, and the admin console — one place to change anything.
  • Payment protectionStripe holds the shipper's money until delivery, with refunds and disputes built in and every cent accounted for.
  • A website that sellsOld pages and rankings kept; 23 service pages, price calculators and landing pages ready for Google Ads.
  • Honest pricesInstant quotes from carriers' own price lists and real reviews only — and leads are saved even if a visitor leaves the form.
  • AI that helps, safelyIt drafts loads and bids and answers questions, but can't post, bid or pay without the user — and can't be talked into it.
  • Security you can show investors2-step verification for admins, a review of every page and action, safe file uploads and automated tests.
  • Clean dataReal users and carriers migrated with their passwords; bots, fake bids and card data left behind.
  • No lock-inFull documentation and a handover guide, so any developer can pick the project up.

Framework

  • Next.js 16
  • React 19
  • TypeScript strict
  • Tailwind v4

Data

  • Postgres
  • Drizzle ORM
  • Supabase Realtime
  • RLS

Money

  • Stripe Connect
  • Escrow ledger
  • Webhooks

AI

  • OpenAI Responses API
  • Function tools
  • Offline mode

Auth & security

  • Better Auth
  • Passkeys
  • TOTP 2FA
  • CSP nonces

Ops

  • Vercel crons
  • Sentry
  • Resend
  • Vitest
  • Playwright
allship-ai.vercel.app

Have a marketplace, a booking flow or a legacy app nobody wants to touch?

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