Let’s accept this painful fact that managing a trucking company is messy and inefficient. Most trucking owners still manage their operations using multiple phone calls and heavy paperwork resulting in complex workflows, poor business performance, and lower profits. There are numerous other challenges that the trucking businesses face today that we will discuss in more detail in this article.
As a testament to this very fact that trucking industry is still living in the dark ages and needs a technology overhaul, Uber recently launched a trucking app called Uber Freight in the US that aims to seamlessly connect trucking companies and their drivers with shippers on tap of a button. Uber is not the first company to launch a trucking app. Startups like Cargomatic and Convoy in the U.S have already made a splash to transform the trucking and logistics operations. However, the entry of Uber is pretty significant for the entire industry.
Just like Uber for taxi apps, we are confident that the launch of Uber Freight app will spur demand for a new category of apps in the market popularly known as “Uber For Trucking” apps.
Now let’s dive deeper into some of the serious challenges faced by the trucking and freight industry and how adopting Uber for trucking apps can solve them.
Challenges Faced By The Trucking Industry
- Cumbersome operations
Trucking business owners or carriers can easily get overwhelmed by the number of tasks that they have to perform to get a shipment right. Taking new load orders, assigning them to the right drivers, ensuring timely deliveries, managing emergencies and what not. The majority of the businesses still use to and fro phone calls from brokers to get new business, wasting a lot of valuable time that can be allocated to other crucial business functions. - Empty trucks – Lost revenue opportunities
Underutilization of available load capacity is another serious challenge faced by the carriers. Trucks often move with less than target load and many return fully empty on their return leg of their trip, basically burning much higher fuel per unit load. Getting freight trucks to be fully loaded on return trips has become a hefty task which if properly executed can unlock new revenue opportunities and better resource utilization overall. - High brokerage fees
The middleman or the broker in the trucking industry usually takes hefty commission fees for bringing new business. Because of the heavy dependence of carriers on these brokers for getting them new shipment requests, they usually agree to their demands resulting in lower profit margins or higher shipping costs for customers if they decide to put the load on them. There are many industries which can do better with a digital marketplace and the trucking industry is surely in need of one.
Benefits of an Uber Freight Like App For The Trucking Industry
A trucking business has three key stakeholders. The carriers or the trucking business owners, the drivers and finally the customers. Let’s see how an Uber for trucking platform can benefit everybody.Benefits For Carriers
- A smarter middle man to work with
No more wasting time taking phone calls from brokers. No more haggling over commission rates. Carriers get a digital mobile channel to receive new load requests from their customers and automatically or manually assign them to the write driver. Everything can be managed through a browser-based admin panel, simplifying workflows and overall making lives much simpler for business owners.
Benefits For Drivers
- Get new requests from an app
Drivers get a dedicated app to get new load pickup and drop requests from their owners or carriers. This gives them much more flexibility and simplicity. They get a new request, have the choice to accept or reject and get on the trip as per the schedule. No frills experience.
Benefits For Shippers
- Seamless bookings
Read More About Uber Freight Like Apps.
