Doft is a freight-matching platform built to help America's freelance and owner-operator truckers find work. Doft, which stands for "do freight transportation," connects trucks and shippers directly, applying an on-demand model to the freight and logistics industry.
Similar to how ride-hailing apps connect riders and drivers, Doft matches trucks and shippers quickly. The platform cuts out the layers of brokers and dispatchers that traditionally sit between a load and a driver, which addresses two persistent problems in freight: inefficiency and a lack of transparency. The result is a process that works better for truck drivers who want to spend their time on the road, not on the phone.
A market that overlooks owner-operators
In the United States, millions of big-rig trucks are in operation, moving the majority of domestic freight tonnage every year. Freelance and owner-operator truck drivers make up a significant share of that workforce and generate billions of dollars in economic activity, yet they are too often overlooked in favor of larger haulage companies.
Cutting empty miles
One of the biggest problems Doft set out to solve is deadhead: studies estimate that trucks run empty roughly 15 to 25 percent of the time. Empty miles are bad for the environment because they cause needless emissions, and they're bad for drivers because they represent lost income, up to a quarter of a driver's potential earnings.
By matching loads intelligently, Doft aims to keep truckers loaded with freight heading both to and from a destination, so more of every mile driven is a paid mile.
Help for small shippers
On the other side of the marketplace, Doft helps small shippers who often don't realize they need transportation until the last minute. When something is sold, a business needs to clear its warehouse and get back to its core work instead of spending hours searching for a truck. With on-demand matching, small and mid-sized businesses can solve last-minute shipment problems even when orders arrive late.
The underlying idea is straightforward: connect two groups that the traditional system underserves, independent truckers and smaller shippers, and make moving freight faster, cheaper, and more transparent for both.
This article is adapted from coverage originally published by WorkTruck.
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