Uber Freight took the same matching model used for passenger rides and brought it to freight hauling. Commercial truck and van operators can use the mobile app to link up with shippers who need cargo moved, with the platform acting as the broker through its cloud-based technology.
After testing van deliveries in the Texas Triangle region between Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, the service expanded to win over independent operators and large carriers nationwide. The promise to drivers: a simplified booking process on a mobile app, with a guarantee of payment within seven days.
Why drivers pay attention
Interest from truckers comes down to a basic economic question: how do you best use your assets relative to market demand?
"Uber's disruptive impact has been almost entirely in its easy connection of underutilized assets with demand," said Michael Ramsey, an analyst at Gartner. "An Uber for hauling stuff is sensible and really builds on what trucking companies have tried to do in their own ecosystem to ensure that trucks are full as often as possible."
That insight still holds. A truck that's sitting empty or running deadhead is lost revenue, and the whole point of freight matching is to close that gap quickly.
A competitive field
The role of the digital, third-party broker became hotly contested, with on-demand services like Cargo Chief, Convoy, Doft, Flexport, HaulHound, Loadsmart, Transfix and others competing alongside Uber Freight. With fewer than 5 percent of U.S. trucking lines using on-demand freight services at the time, the market opportunity was, and remains, substantial.
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