The US trucking industry has been growing tremendously for the last few years, although it firmly stays one of the most old-school in terms of operation and organization methods. On one hand there’s nothing wrong with it, but on the other hand such old-school business management is very time consuming, and as the result not as much cost-effective as it can be.
When Uber launched its cab service, a lot of startups rushed into the trucking niche with their uber-like ideas thinking that it would disrupt the industry right away. Cargomatic was among the first companies that took an effort to create an “Uber for trucking”. However, it didn’t happen, and there’s still no leader today, despite the fact that Uber eventually launched its own Uber Freight this year, but for the past few months it seems more dead than alive. Perhaps, the uber model isn’t the panacea for all trucking ills.
When we think of a new logistics’ era, we imagine a free to use, simple, user-friendly solution suitable for every type of business which is involved in the logistics chain. And certainly, the solution should make business processes much easier and quicker, yet without breaking the habits of industry professionals who do the job daily.
The trucking startups which adopted the uber-like model, try to reinvent the way the US trucking operates today, so they basically work “undercover “. These startups pack old-school stuff into a high-tech cover in fact being whether an ordinary load-board or a broker. Nevertheless, there must be a complex solution suitable for every transportation party – equally valuable for a shipper, a broker and a carrier.
The startup which is close to the truth in trucking is called
Doft. Their business model is not only about their uber-like on-demand software. It’s about universality and value for every type of business. Whether you are a carrier, a broker, a trucker or a dispatcher, you’ll find potency as Doft covers all necessary vertical services in transportation. And the best part of Doft is its freemium strategy – a customer pays fees only for some additional features and services, such as motor carrier vetting which includes FMCSA safety ratings, insurance verification, authority validation and etc. All the basic functionality necessary for daily usage is free, and this fact helps to save money.
Now let’s take a look at some current problems in trucking which Doft tries to solve.
We all know that truckers usually drive empty about 30% of their time or waste hours waiting for a next load. Doft helps to reduce the dead head mileage through its prediction algorithm. The service will provide a driver with the information about freight available near the destination point.
There’s a payment problem which still exists. Normally a motor carrier receives a payment during 14-60 days after a load is delivered. It may be OK for some big fleets with big monthly turnover but it’s absolutely undesirable for owner operators when every dollar counts. To resolve this problem Doft introduced its own crypto currency which is used as service money with nice benefits. Shippers who pay in Doftcoins get a discount. Drivers get an opportunity to mine Doftcoins and pay for the goods and services in the Doft store.
