Uber hopes to upend the cargo shipment industry with Uber Freight

[Shawn Knight]

Uber has launched a new service that pairs semi-truck drivers and companies with cargo loads to haul. The app, Uber says, is designed to take the guesswork out of finding and booking freight which it describes as often being the most stressful part of a trucker’s day.

With Uber Freight, the transportation company is hoping to do to the cargo shipment industry what it did to taxi services – decimate their business model.

As TechCrunch highlights, vetted and approved drivers can use the app – which looks a lot like the main Uber app – to view load details, examine destination information, check the distance they’ll have to travel if they accept the haul and of course, view payment information.

Should a driver decide a load is for them, a simple tap is all that’s needed to book it.

Uber says that it typically can take 30 days or longer for a traditional trucking company / driver to get paid and that it’s not uncommon for a driver to have to wait several hours to get loaded without compensation.

Uber Freights, on the other hand, is committed to paying within a few days and will do so fee-free. What’s more, if something goes awry and a driver has to wait longer than expected, Uber will compensate them for their lost time.

Given the expertise it already has with transportation in general, Uber has a serious shot at really disrupting an established industry here (that is, until self-driving semis put truckers out of business).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69383-uber-hopes-upend-cargo-shipment-industry-uber-freight.html

 

[EClyde]

Late freight? It will doom this idea but some will give it a whirl

 

[Kibaruk]

Please do the same for small carry overs, like... moving, or needing to get that one big behind piece of Ikea furniture, I'm not going to spend $100 for a freaking delivery, but would gladly pay for my way back along with my furniture. Uber Pick-up, please make it happen.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Interesting... this could be really awesome if it is as slick and reasonably priced as regular Uber is.

A couple years ago I was trying to buy a car hood some 700 miles away. All the freight quotes were around $450, which was way more than I was willing to spend. I wonder if Uber Freight could arrange a much cheaper solution...

 

[Sergey G Koleda]

Uber came to the freight transportation. But it seems to me that nothing will change for the drivers. Or rates may even go down. Still the cost of the transportation can lower for the shippers. But it will happen if Uber can eliminate the 3rd parties and lower the commissions.
BTW the market is hot now, and there are a lot of competitors. Doft, Convoy, Trucker Path, Amazon. The whole list is mile long.
Logistics is a business where the margins are very tight. So it will be pretty hard to disrupt the industry.