Uber trucking?

[ATeam]

Regardless of the pros and cons of Qualcomm and mobile apps, it remains true that the Uber approach is a potentially disruptive force in trucking.

There are millions of loads that do not require the high-end features Qualcomm can provide. There are millions of shippers who would happily use an Uber-style app to move their freight as long as their safety, quality and scheduling needs are met. There are thousands of truckers who would happily use an Uber-style app to find backhaul freight or double up a load where they have the space in their truck and the legal ability to do so.

How cool would it be to take a lucrative, expedited load to a remote Canada location and have an Uber-style app with which to find one or more loads that will help you get back? No more surfing load boards and dealing with brokers whose purpose in life is to exploit your backhaul need by skimming money for themselves. Instead, work directly with shippers to find available freight and negotiate your price. Better still, be available for shippers (and brokers) to use the app to find and directly communicate with you when your availability is posted.

Looking at this from an agent's or broker's point of view, I'm not sure if this presents a crisis or an opportunity.

 

[JohnWC]

Cops still use Qualcomm right? Where I am currently dispatching, we do use the Sylectus mobile app, but it only works about half of the time. My trucks are supposed to track automatically overnight, but they don't. I have to call my drivers often and have them reload the app because tracking updates have stopped. With the Qualcomm, this would not be an issue. Also, the drivers can turn off their mobile app if they don't want to be tracked/found. This gives the driver too much control over the load. With the Qualcomm, it is much harder to disconnect and disappear off the radar. I like to have transparency with all of my trucks, so do my customers. With satellite tracking carriers can't lie about having trucks closer to the pick up location than they actually are, and drivers can't lie about being late because you can see if they stopped and took a nap on a deliver direct load. I would prefer the Qualcomm over any mobile application, unless it is Macropoint. The Macropoint system is a very reliable system and it is hard to get around it.

Hey QC always had fuses or a steel 5 gallon bucket worked great

 

[rollincoal]

The last Qualcomm I used about 4 years ago was the latest greatest. It basically reminded me of windows on a small lap top. It even had a scanner for POD's and the antenna was very small unlike earlier systems with the goofy plastic dome. I believe it was a cellular based system at that point, but could be wrong on that one. I know it was much more and had capabilities beyond just a message service back and forth.

I don't miss it. I have had zero issues ever with sylectus mobile. I would never turn off tracking on a load that it was required. Around here if a guy goes off the deep end like that on an expedited load they will get cut off so quickly their head spins. You have to have trustworthy drivers. If they aren't they never see any of the good stuff.

I would love to see something disrupt the current system if it meant more money in my pocket. If Uber trucking can do that I will be embracing it. I have never used u-ship before. I had used freightquote many times before CHR bought them out. Not sure if Freightquote was really any much different than any other brokerage though. They were always bid loads when they called me I would set the rate. I never called them. They were usually off the wall u-ship type of loads that I charged a premium on.

 

[Mailer]

Looking at this from an agent's or broker's point of view, I'm not sure if this presents a crisis or an opportunity.

Well, I would say more opportunity. It certainly ain't going to take 3 hours to match up the shipper and the truck. I think it will benefit all parties.

 

[tknight]

Why is it most brokers take hrs to finally make a deal there are so many steps to each bid it seems I once counted almost 8 people tapping a few bucks off a shipment it was almost silly if it wasn't so simple and we shall wait again and again I'd love a deal to take place with minimum hassle I'd welcome an uber type of legit operation , the day will come I reckon! Post a load have a bid and process the paper in real time almost..... Almost

 

[crich]

Didn't uber Drivers get banned from doing airport pick ups
In CA because of the types of Drivers they was using? Somthing about dhs finding 3 drivers that were disqualified from getting a taxi licence.
All it will do is create more competition from under qualified
Drivers driving freight prices down.

 

[Opel2010]

Dinasour mentality, some still rather invest in Qualcoms and other outdated technology , even knowing all drivers these days have smart phones, app etc.

Maybe years ago Qualcomm was a good thing, but nowadays not that much. Yet they're still using it for their own profit, since the service provider is charging around $40/mo, while most of the carriers that are still using it, are charging $30-$35 per week. That's why they won't give up on these QC's since they are a small but permanent gold mine for the carriers.

 

[ATeam]

Well, I would say more opportunity. It certainly ain't going to take 3 hours to match up the shipper and the truck. I think it will benefit all parties.

That's one side of the coin. The other might be that if Uber-style apps are used to directly connect shippers and trucks, the pool of trucks available to brokers would decline. One of the services, if not the main service, brokers provide to their customers is finding trucks. If a customer can use an app to find the same trucks brokers can deliver, who needs a broker?

 

[Mailer]

That's one side of the coin. The other might be that if Uber-style apps are used to directly connect shippers and trucks, the pool of trucks available to brokers would decline. One of the services, if not the main service, brokers provide to their customers is finding trucks. If a customer can use an app to find the same trucks brokers can deliver, who needs a broker?

It's happening now, slowly in a smaller scale and it's expanding. Yup ! Human broker will now be replaced by the Robo platform.

Who needs a broker?
Currently, there are about 400,000 truck driver shortages. Lol.

 

[blizzard2014]

It might be the future of UShip, but it won't be the future of expedite. Some small shops and individuals might adopt the technology, but I can't see it getting through legal at any of the large manufacturers that drive our industry.

I changed my mind on this one. I don't think all drivers are ready for this type of technology. It would have to be professional drivers who have been thoroughly vetted to work. It's like giving the kids the keys to the candy store. I can see drivers doing all kinds of crazy stuff lol. Plus there are many more moving parts in the shipping world than there is in just picking up drunks in the middle of the night.

 

[davekc]

It could work but would require some type of vetting process for it to work correctly. I do agree a "free for all" would result in instant failure. Maybe something like Sylectus when it first started. Now it has evolved into a bunch of silliness.

 

[Dynamite 1]

Shippers use to call carriers direct, or they only had one broker they used and they had a list of preferred carriers they had to use. Then it seems all went crazy. Don't know why shippers just can't call carriers themselves. Then you get back to the true service providers and the shippers are still paying the same as when using a broker. This calling a broker all stems from the shippers not thinking its cost effective to have someone under their employment scheduling their freight.

 

[ATeam]

Shippers don't want carriers, brokers, drivers or even trucks. They want to move their goods from point A to point B as easily, safely, reliably and inexpensively as possible. If there was a way to do that without carriers, brokers, drivers or trucks (think Star Trek transporters), shippers would adopt it in an instant and the other stuff would be left behind.

Just as people abandoned their cassette tapes when music became available by download (they want the music, not the tapes), shippers will abandon anything and everything that stands between what they have now and what they really want.

Diane and I own a passenger van that we use for trips to Sam's Club to pick up supplies for our fitness center and goods to be sold. It is also used to transport exhibit materials when we present at a community event. We also have smart phones. Fridays are usually slow days in the gym, giving us free time. As former expediters, we sometimes miss the road and think it might be fun to run a load now and again.

If an Uber-style app existed that enabled us to find short-run loads leaving our area and others coming back, it might be fun to go for it from time to time. If we developed an urge to see the Grand Canyon, it would be fun to "Uber-up" a load that takes us there so the trip costs us less. We have a convention to attend in Upstate New York later this year. It would be nice to make some money on a trip we would be taking anyway.

But what about carrier branding, insurance, liability, commercial vehicle definition and licensing, logging, compliance, reputation, load tracking, and everything else involved in today's transportation world?

As use of such apps becomes more widespread, solutions to all of these will be developed. Notice that taxis are highly regulated and notice how Uber is transforming that industry.

In cargo transport, insurance companies may respond to apps by developing products that only insure the driver and van when it is under load. Responding to shipper and public demand, regulators may ease the rules to allow any credible person or company with a truck to enter the game. Where logging is required, technology already exists for that. Drivers might even use technology to take it up a notch by voluntarily wearing devices that certify they are not tired. "Fully awake" might become an effective marketing differentiator.

You've seen them. There are thousands of small trucks that sit idle in shopping center parking lots and industrial parks. These are owned by small businesses and used for deliveries. But they are used only on occasion. If these Uber-style cargo apps continue to grow, an enterprising person could work out a deal with a truck-owning small business to meet that business's delivery needs while also using a cargo app to improve that company's return on capital. Many of those trucks are already licensed as commercial vehicles.

The more widespread these apps become, the greater the supply of available drivers and equipment will be.

Changing the subject a little, it is interesting to see Volvo investing in these apps. Why would a truck maker do so? Notice that Volvo is also investing heavily in self-driving truck technology.

What business are they in really? Do they manufacture and sell trucks, or do they provide transportation solutions? When self-driving trucks become legal on the roads and if apps are developed to easily find freight, the balance of power shifts to the truck manufacturers. Drivers and brokers are replaced by machines but a truck is not easily produced.

In the self-driving truck, app-rich future, instead of building a truck to sell at a profit, why not build a truck to retain and use to provide transportation solutions. Instead of selling a truck at a certain markup one time, why not run that truck and make back its cost at least once a year for many years?

 

[Moot]

Just as people abandoned their cassette tapes when music became available by download (they want the music, not the tapes), shippers will abandon anything and everything that stands between what they have now and what they really want.

You omitted the compact disc (CD), an important link in the evolutionary chain of recorded music.

 

[T270_Dreamin]

So it looks like the fleet owner is the new carrier or carriers become fleet owners...

About Us | Who is Cargomatic?

https://convoy.com/about.html

 

[Moot]

Convoy might be the old Convoy car hauler reincarnated, again. They were based in Washington.

 

[Opel2010]

So it looks like the fleet owner is the new carrier or carriers become fleet owners...

About Us | Who is Cargomatic?

https://convoy.com/about.html

Did anyone actually get a load/paid from them? Just asking, 'cause I saw lots of fake load boards...

 

[T270_Dreamin]

Did anyone actually get a load/paid from them? Just asking, 'cause I saw lots of fake load boards...

It's in the works, change is what is needed in this industry. Put the dollars back in the hands of the owner operators. The apps have already shaken the taxi industry. The greedy uber is coming to the trucking industry all we can hope for is for the lesser of the two evils to be there competing aka lyft.

 

[ATeam]

... Put the dollars back in the hands of the owner operators. The apps have already shaken the taxi industry. The greedy uber is coming to the trucking industry all we can hope for is for the lesser of the two evils to be there competing aka lyft.

Who WANTS to pay owner/operators or drivers more money? Who sees benefits in doing so?

Carriers see their peers paying a certain percentage of the gross to trucks. Do any of them say, let's pay five percent more and benefit from the advantages that will then come our way?

Shippers obtain trucks in a variety of ways. Do any of them say let's offer drivers five percent more and then benefit from the advantages the will then come our way?

Fleet owners pay more-or-less the same to drivers that contract with them. Do any fleet owners say let's pay five percent more and benefit from the advantages that will then come our way?

What about brokers? How many of them say let's pay trucks more and benefit from the advantages that will then come our way?

When soliciting business, how many carriers say to their prospective customers, "Choose us because we pay our drivers more?"

When Diane and I were in the business, we, like most expediters, were proud of our record and ways (on-time, zero freight damage claims, great safety record, excellent customer service, highly professional, great equipment, etc.). Never once did a dispatcher or agent suggest to a customer that he or she should pay five percent more because they got us on this load. We got paid the same as the old-truck, food-stained-shirt, foul-smelling, semi-conscious, parking-lot-peeing, outspoken industry expert who picked up that customer's freight the day before.

Put dollars back in the hands of the owner/operators? In two decades of expediting history, the prevailing thought by those who pay the money has been opposite. Uber-style dispatching will not change that. Nobody uses Uber because Uber puts the dollars back in the hands of the taxi drivers. Nobody will use Uber-style apps to ship freight for that reason either.