INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Trucking is currently the most popular mode of transporting freight in the United States , accounting for around $12.5 billion of the $17
billion freight market, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
of the most inefficient.Now there are signs that this is changing
A startup out of Phoenix, Ariz
called Emerge, which has built a platform for shippers and brokers to find and allocate truck freight more effectively across the long tail
Since being founded in 2018 by brothers Andrew and Michael Leto, the company has processed more than $1 billion in freight with 1,500%
year-over-year growth between 2018 and 2019
traction so far is down to the founders
Both are vets of the trucking industry whose previous company, a multimodal shipment visibility/supply chain solutions platform called 10-4,
How shipments are booked on trucks today is quite inefficient, with orders often leaving empty spaces on truck beds that could be filled
with goods going in the same direction; and in about 20% of all journeys carrying no load at all.Part of the reason for this is the
antiquated way that shippers book space on trucks, and part of the reason is because there is just simply too much fragmentation in the
of them particularly efficient when it comes to truck occupancy
something of a stick-and-carrot approach that reminds me a little also of how advertising exchanges work.A shipper that wants to use the
Emerge platform essentially activates/lists its entire inventory of truck providers on the platform to get started
That list and inventory, in turn, become part of a bigger database of other providers: and again, this is a long-tail approach, with
typically the trucking companies on the platform having no more than 200 trucks (and often fewer) in their fleets.Then, when a shipper goes
to Emerge to book a shipment, options are provided that might include previous truckers, but might also include others
The idea is that this provides a more efficient picture, and that in turn gets passed on as cost savings to the customers, who can typically
reduce shipping costs by as much as 20% using the platform.If the cost savings and expanded choice are the carrots, the stick comes in the
opportunity in providing a better and more updated platform to communicate and book space in the fragmented truck market
It, however, seems to have less of an emphasis on encouraging shippers to take the lead in expanding that network effect that Leto
describes.Others that are tackling the wider shipping and logistics market and trying to improve how it runs include Sendy out of Kenya,
contracts and carriers together to create new capacity
