Dive Brief:
- Uber Freight has launched a new digital platform specifically targeted at shippers, enabling them to obtain instant pricing, tender a load, track their shipments, and manage documents.
- "The platform was built in close collaboration with shippers to help transform a process that would typically take them hours to complete and often leave them in the dark on market prices and whether they were getting the right carrier," said the company's announcement article on Medium.
- Earlier this month, Uber told Supply Chain Dive it would spin out Uber Freight on its own and more than double it's investment over the next year.
Dive Insight:
In its initial stages since launching in May 2017, Uber Freight focused on building relationships and serving drivers. In light of a driver shortage, the company and several others within its competitive set sought to add more flexibility and transparency to the job of truck driver by allowing drivers to specify what kind of loads they wanted and what they wanted to be paid.
The driver experience offered by Uber Freight to date is very different than the traditional phone and email methods, but the experience for the shipper hadn't improved much until today.
"For small shippers we’ve been available over email and phone, for larger shippers we’ve plugged into their systems where possible, whatever it takes to deliver a great service. This is the first solution we’ve built from the ground-up just for shippers, re-imagining how a shipper can plan out their freight," a company spokesperson told Supply Chain Dive.
With this new platform, the Uber Freight shipper experience moves closer to Uber's user experience model for the taxi business, with more layers of visibility baked in from shipment tracking to documentation hand-offs. The shipper platform is currently only available as a desktop app.
