* Washington - A new startup Convoy raises $2.5M from Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff, others for new on-demand trucking startup
-- A new Seattle startup has raised $2.5 million from an impressive group of investors to change how shippers connect with trucking companies... Convoy today announced the funding round, which was led by Code.org founders Hadi and Ali Partovi. Other participating investors include Bezos Expeditions — the investment arm of Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos — Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, former Starbucks President Howard Behar, KKR CEO Henry Kravis, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar via Omidyar Technology Ventures, and several others... Founded in April, Convoy is using technology to create more efficiency in a $800 billion U.S. trucking industry that has largely remained unchanged for decades, explained Convoy CEO Dan Lewis. “The problem we are solving is around local and regional access to trucks on demand” ... Convoy’s on-demand service matches trucking companies with shippers that need to move freight...
... The startup has built a smartphone-based, Uber-like system that lets truckers find jobs in a matter of minutes without the traditional legwork — and monetary cut — required when using a broker... On the shipper side, Convoy’s online portal offers immediate access to pricing information — which is calculated instantly based on distance, weight, and other variables — and available trucks, all of which are pre-approved by Convoy, licensed by the government, and carry cargo insurance. The company also provides customer service to ensure that shipments are completed... Convoy essentially automates broker’s labor with technology, which it says helps both shippers and truckers save time and money. The company itself makes money by taking a percentage of each transaction... For now, Convoy is launching its service in Washington state...
(Photo via Shutterstock) -- Seattle, WASH, USA - Geek Wire, by TAYLOR SOPER - October 26, 2015
** California - Uber for trucking
-- The arrival of Uber for trucking or mobile-based freight brokering is ushering in a new era in the North American trucking and freight logistics market. Currently, inefficiency plagues the freight movement and logistics market, with approximately 20 billion empty miles travelled per year in the trucking industry. Mobile-based freight brokering will enable drivers and fleets to mitigate these inefficiencies in their trucking operations. In addition to reducing the empty miles travelled, mobile-based freight brokering technology will help lower operating costs, improve fuel efficiency, boost asset utilization, and enhance resource productivity... New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Uber for Trucks: Executive Analysis of the North American Mobile-based Freight Brokerage Market, finds that 16 percent of third-party logistics will be enabled through mobile platforms by 2025... Despite these benefits, traditional freight brokers in North America presently command 99 percent of the market as they have already built a strong reputation and relationships with existing fleets. This, along with the saturation of competing freight brokerages, rise of on-demand delivery services, and lack of a vast shipper and carrier network, is proving to be the biggest hurdle to the mass adoption of mobile-based freight brokering...
Mountain View, CAL, USA - MarketWatch - 27 Oct 2015Labels: mobile-based brokering, trucking startup
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