Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/833076
Business 24 | Overdrive | June 2017 "Uber for trucking," a descriptor long touted by app-based load-match- ing services, has taken a literal form now that the ride-sharing giant last month unveiled its Uber Freight app. It's aimed at the owner-operator market, with a focus on dry van and reefer loads. Uber Freight Senior Product Manager Eric Berdinis says the company leaned on its passenger market expertise in match- ing supply and demand, and building pricing algo- rithms, to develop the app. The service matches freight with owner-operators and small fleets, he says. "We're technically a brokerage," Berdinis says. "We do that so we can take ownership of the freight and pay our drivers and carriers quickly," which he says will differentiate the company from similar services already in the mar- ketplace. "Regardless of when the shipper pays us, we'll pay out for any load that is taken out on our app within a couple days, no questions asked." The app enables search- es for nearby loads based on a user's current location, and likewise in origin/des- tination pairs, making some advanced load planning possible. Uber says load planning functionality will become more sophisticated as use of the app grows. Launched in beta mode last year, Uber Freight part- nered mostly with Texas- based owner-operators and small fleets to refine the platform ahead of May's public debut. Caty, Texas-based Minnie Gilmore, owner-operator with her husband, Edwin, of Gilmore and Long Enterprises, came to Uber Freight via load boards she commonly used to book loads to fill their dry van, pulled by a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia. They got a call from an Uber Freight sales rep early on, then "saw a load on a board, and it turned out it was an Uber load," Minnie Gilmore says. Since, she and Edwin have relied on the Uber Freight app for a lot of their loads outbound from the Houston area, using other brokers or load boards to get back. Minnie says that rates on Uber loads seem to average a little higher than what she's been seeing from other brokers. – Todd Dills and Jason Cannon Uber enters freight-matching market Uber Freight capitalizes on much of the same expertise developed for Uber's passenger ride-sharing service. The freight version inks contract rates with shippers, but it delivers more dynamic market- based pricing to carriers and will provide faster payments than its competitors, the company says. Per-mile spot market rates for all three major truckload segments rose in April from March, according to data from Truckstop.com. The gains are in line with seasonal trends, but they also could reflect the beginning of a rate swell predicted by trucking analysts to occur this year. Spot market load availability by mid-May was up more than 60 percent from the same week in 2016. Reefer, van and flatbed rates, according to Truckstop.com, were up about 11 percent each year-over- year in the third week in May, sig- naling that rates likely will continue to gain steam from their strong April showing. The per-mile rate gains come amid lingering uncertainty in the freight market, with April seeing a dip from March, according to DAT Solutions. Overall, however, freight was up 60 percent in April from the same month a year ago, albeit that could say more about 2016's poor performance than 2017's growth. – James Jaillet Rates gain momentum despite recent freight lull SPOT MARKET RATES VAN: $1.88 FLATBED: $2.22 REEFER: $2.02 Averages of verified rates paid to carriers by brokers in April for loads posted through Truckstop.com.