Posted on 03/24/2016 3:49:10 PM PDT by Lorianne
New Technology Aims to Reduce Number of Empty Trucks on Roadways __ Handwritten notes on bulletin boards at truck stops were once a principal means that shippers with goods to haul and willing truck drivers found each other. Then in a groundbreaking move, Dial-A-Truck in 1978 installed television monitors in truck stops to post trucker and shipper notices.
Today, finding freight to haul – or truckers to move merchandise – is as easy as logging into one of many smartphone applications on the market. There are several companies offering so-called “Uber for trucking” applications that match drivers with available freight.
While there is a lot of variety and the applications differ widely, they all aim to do the same thing – reduce the number of mostly empty trucks travelling the roadways.
Dial-A-Truck, now DAT Solutions, used to make money by charging truck drivers a fee in exchange for the number of the company posted on its truck stop TV monitors looking to move its freight.
Now the company has replaced thousands of those monitors – known as load boards – with mobile applications that can pinpoint a driver’s location and offer a series of services.
“Now our technology uses the location in the phone to find them fuel, food and lodging and extract freight loads from our commercial load board,” said Greg Sikes, vice president of product management at DAT Solutions. “They can pursue one, two or three of those loads as they want. We may be old, but we’re not stodgy.”
DAT Solutions’ applications include TruckersEdge, which offers unlimited load searching and posting and also contains information about weather and road conditions; and MyDAT Trucker, which can find nearby lodging and truck scales among other services. And DAT Solutions isn’t alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at intransitionmag.org ...
I don’t know about all but some Uber drivers were claiming they were making about $3 an hour after expenses.
I’m sure there are areas where it’s different.
There’s a TON of load boards out there. We use Bulkloads.com.
Now we’re talking. This is where Uber can make a difference.
If this catches on--and if Uber doesn't, some other new app will--this will transform the shipping industry.
All industries are transformed from the outside if they don't transform from the inside.
Nice!
I’m relieved we no longer have to deal with this. Now with that said, I am curious how UBER will handle company credit ratings to weed out the riff raff that does not like to pay after having their load hauled at no expense to them. The way I see it, UBER would have set this up to be a “paid on delivery” service ONLY. Although we no longer run long haul, we still get daily updates on the deadbeats in case we would have to resume long haul in the future.
I recall a company trying to do this in 1999. I remember the name I’ll see if they are still around.
This is what Leonard’s Guide should have become. Told them that in 1998.
This is not Uber
Trucking is one of the most efficient industries ever!
I used a great company to ship a Triumph motorcycle from MA to SC, the drivers outbid each other for the best quote.
UShip dot com if you ever need cheap freight haulage, you can ship anything from live animals to a sailbot...
Good point.
Load boards have been in use since 1999 or earlier - I had a two-load shipment delivered to a jobsite then and the owner/operator driver showed me how he got all his loads on the internet.
He’d take a load from one coast to the other and not know what he was taking back or for who until he got to that coast and checked the boards.
My! Dat trucker!
That’s racist!
I drove a straight truck for a little less than a year and never knew where I was going until I got a call. I hauled from Rhode Island to San Diego. Unloaded, spent the night and the next day then got a load from Los Angeles to Casper, Wyoming. Then the next day picked up a load in SE Nebraska to Amarillo.
Sometimes I sit for a few days. Sometimes I’d have a load before I dropped off what I was hauling.
I was about to say the same thing - brokers and load boards are a dime a dozen. This is hardly a new or innovative idea.
The old only think about paying in 90 days MBA plan. I would assume this will be cash or credit card up front with the Uber taking a 30% cut off of the top and passing on what is left after delivery
A while back I was working Construction, building in-ground residential swimming pools, around the DC area.
When digging a typical 20 X 40 X 10 pool the amount of dirt that I needed to get rid of was nuts. Something like 20 or more double axle truck loads. Part of my job was to find someone that would take this “Fill” and it was always a challenge.
I had the idea (this was before smartphones) to set up a 1 800 phone system that would match the guys that had fill with those that needed it based on distance.
1-800-GOT-DIRT !!!
I just see a whole lot of cans of nasty worms being opened up here. There are enough problems in the brokerage business without adding another to the pot.
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