US - Following on from the disruption caused by Hurricane Harvey, which has resulted in 44 fatalities, the Port of Houston has announced that all of its facilities will be resuming operations as of today. Mariners are reminded to proceed with extreme caution due to debris and other unmarked hazards and missing or off-station navigation aids.
Doft in Press
Uber Freight is in the process of radically disrupting the U.S. trucking industry by eliminating standard 30-90 day delayed payment terms with a guaranteed 7-day driver payment.
Uber Freight and its competitors like Doft, Convoy, and Transfix launched apps over the last eighteen months aimed at being more efficient than traditional logistics brokers in matching the 350,000 U.S. owner-operator truckers with shippers.
Dive Brief: Convoy Inc., a two-year-old Seattle creator of trucking transport software similar to Uber Freight, received fresh funding of $62 million from Bill Gates's Cascade Investment and other backers, Bloomberg Technology reported. Jeff Bezos of Amazon is a previous investor.
When one of Uber's self-driving trucks drove 200 kilometers from Fort Collins to Colorado Spring to deliver a shipment of Budweiser, it seemed Uber was primed to disrupt the estimated $800 billion trucking industry. Optimism was bolstered by Uber's acquisition of the self-driving trucking startup, OttoMotto, last year.
Forget Big Data or AI, fright brokering in India remains a game of phone calls, personal connections and paperwork.
Uber has entered the full-load freight trucking market with Uber Freight, an on-demand, service designed to streamline the way drivers connect to companies and businesses in need of shipping.
US - Doft, the Silicon Valley-based truck-sharing app company, has announced it is integrating with online load-posting platform PostEverywhere. Doft says that the integration will now give customers of both companies a more simplified freight posting process, with the company stating that instead of shippers and truckers spending upwards of four hours arranging matters via fax or phone, the new service will significantly speed up the process.
Freight matching services or 'freight exchanges' have become one of the hottest topics in Freight Transportation over the past few years. Venture capital funds, private investors and others have poured at least $200 million - and potentially substantially more - into dozens of on-demand freight start-ups, including Flexport, Transfix, Loadsmart, Convoy, Doft, Cargo Chief, TugForce, HaulHound, Parade, Ship Lync loadsurfer, freightcenter, freightfinder, Freightera, Freightcome, Pickmyload and others.
Instead of eating into profits using expensive air delivery services, how can retailers send cargo more cost effectively?
There are roughly 2,500 new apps added to the google play store daily. Of that figure there is really no telling what percentage of those are Farmville spin-offs, but the answer is definitely not low. Steep competition for many app categories is due to app designs aim for 'low hanging fruit,' targeting already techie industries that have obvious needs for which to provide solutions.