There's an App for That: Trucking in the App Era

There really is an app for that

There is no shortage of apps competing for a trucker's attention. You can find hundreds of trucker-oriented apps on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Truckers use them to find parking, find the lowest priced fuel, check weigh-station status, find freight, and more.

The term "app" gets used loosely. It can mean a desktop-style application, access to a web platform, or a true mobile app built for phones and tablets. Mobile apps tend to be task-specific: finding a parking spot, checking the weather, or matching a load.

Market research firm Frost & Sullivan grouped widely used trucking apps into three categories:

• Apps focused on the driver (truck stop locators, directions, social media)
• Apps that deal with freight (load matching and load boards)
• Apps focused on fleet needs (dispatching, tracking and tracing)

Why are apps the buzz?

Trucking's growing use of smartphones and tablets is generating a bumper crop of apps. Most truck drivers carry at least one mobile device, and the share of carriers accessing services from a phone keeps climbing.

DAT Solutions, a longtime player in the freight-matching business, has watched technology evolve from truck stop load boards (its original name was Dial-A-Truck) to internet products to mobile apps. As marketing director Ken Harper put it, "There has been this seismic shift. We adapted to try to address that."

Established fleet-management and telematics vendors have responded too, adding companion apps that let drivers stay connected to dispatch, let parts rooms scan inventory by phone, and let managers track vehicles in the field.

And then there are the driver-focused apps. Trucker Path, for example, helps drivers plan routes with updated information on parking availability, weigh-station status, and fuel prices, and a big part of its success is that the information is crowdsourced and updated by users in real time.

"Uber for trucking?"

The most buzz centers on apps nicknamed "Uber for trucking," and this is where many newer players focus. The idea is to match carriers with shippers the way ride-hailing matches drivers with passengers.

The analogy only goes so far. The freight market is nothing like the taxi market. The regulatory, contractual, and operational issues involved in moving freight are very different, which is why research firm Armstrong & Associates suggested it makes more sense to call these products "digital freight matching" apps.

Armstrong categorized these offerings as:

• Uber-like: Cutting out the middleman, with GPS alerts, track and trace, and automated payments
• Load board plus: Mobile extensions of existing load boards
• Broker plus: Proprietary apps brokers make available to their customers
• Specialty apps: Focusing on specialized freight
• Last mile: Used for e-commerce fulfillment and local delivery

It is worth noting that freight-matching services deal mostly with spot freight. The majority of freight moves under contract, but the spot market accounts for roughly 15 to 25% of all freight, and that number can spike with seasonal changes or weather disruptions.

A real example

Doft bills itself as an Uber for trucking. The app matches freight with trucks the way ride-hailing matches passengers with cars, and it is designed to make those matches in less than 60 seconds, instead of leaving a load to sit on a board.

Others focus on pushing the right freight to the right carrier. Loadsmart built a free fleet management platform and uses how carriers operate to send them only relevant business, while letting carriers bid a load up or down rather than feeling forced to accept it. Trucker Path's Truckloads connects shippers and carriers through both web and mobile with custom searches.

Easier said than done

Some in the industry are skeptical that outsiders can master the complexity of matching freight and trucks, even with large amounts of funding. There is plenty of room in the market, but the lack of commonality across truck freight makes it hard for any single app to do it all, and established brokers and 3PLs are already technology adopters.

The likely outcome, according to analysts, is consolidation: some companies acquiring others, established vendors partnering with new entrants, and new entrants working closely with fleets. Whether from a startup or a long-time provider, in trucking there is definitely an app for that.