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Uber Freight has successfully changed the way online load boards are accessed and utilized. By taking inspiration from their successful ride-sharing app and transitioning it to be trucker-centric, Uber has designed a way for drivers to find loads in a streamlined, easy-to-use way.
What is Uber Freight?
The Uber Freight website states the app is a freeway for truckers and carriers to communicate.
How Does It Work?
For Carrier
All you have to do is sign up on the Uber Freight app. If you’re a carrier, you’ll need to sign the contract, submit your insurance, provide your active DOT or MC number and give the app your banking information for payment purposes. *NOTE: Uber Freight currently only works with those driving 53’ Dry Van and Reefer trucks.
Once signed in, the app lists available loads that can be booked from your phone. From there, you choose one you want to carry. As long as the shipper agrees, you’re good to go. You will be paid within seven days of receiving proof of delivery.
Uber Freight also covers certain accessorial costs for loads booked on their app:
|
Accessorial |
Carrier Payment |
| Detention | $75 per hour |
| Layover | $300 per day |
| Truck Order Not Used | $200 +$2 per mile deadhead |
| Driver Assist | $75 per load |
For Shippers
Shippers must contact Uber to start using Uber Freight. The app will ask you to provide your Active Carrier Authority and insurance information.
Once signed up, you can tender a shipment same day or weeks in advance.
The Addition of Uber Freight Plus
The success brought on by Uber Freight helped launch an addition to the app called Uber Freight Plus. This is a discount program designed to help carriers that use the original app save money.
Those that use the plus account can save up to 20 cents per gallon at participating TA and Petro locations, up to $16,000 on a new international truck, up to 50 percent off truck parts and are eligible for monthly discounts on certain cell phone plans.
To qualify, carriers have to book and complete at least one load on the Uber Freight app and continue doing so for every 30 days while they’re enrolled. To sign up, just contact Uber Freight Plus.
The Development of Uber Freight
Eric Berdinis, the senior project manager of Uber Freight, said Uber used its experience with its widely successful passenger version as a building block for the new trucker-centric app. Development began when Uber purchased Otto, a startup aimed at designing self-driving vehicle technologies, for $650 million in July 2016. Otto had the idea before its acquisition by Uber, but when the company was overtaken, it’s projects and ideas came with it.
Although Uber Freight is technically a brokerage service, it differs from traditional freight brokers in its speed of action. While shipping middlemen employ workers who connect business with trucking companies and take a 15 to 20 percent fee, Uber uses automated technology to connect the two parties before taking its cut.
The Benefits and Dangers of Uber Freight
The Dangers
Uber Freight’s entrance into the world of trucking creates a more competitive modern market as well as poses a serious threat to the workers employed by the same transportation brokerage firms that they’re attempting to out-compete.
Uber Freight may also contribute to the decline of trucking jobs as well. Before being purchased by Uber, Otto was ahead of the self-driving car curve – even suing Google for taking their idea when they started testing automated vehicles in certain cities. Uber is pushing the boundaries when it comes to self-driving cars, meaning automated semi-trucks could be on the horizon.
The Benefits
The world is becoming more interconnected every single day thanks to the internet. It only makes sense that a job that requires connection – driving truck – would start to use internet enabled apps to its advantage. Uber Freight allows truckers to easily find and deliver loads without having to independently organize how they would get paid.
It also allows them the confidence of booking loads through a large online company instead of through load board websites. Truck drivers benefit from Uber’s success, enjoying a fast, easy to navigate app instead of something more complicated.
Truckers that use Uber Freight are able to rate the businesses they carry for. This is an added plus because then truckers can pick and choose who they deliver loads for based on the ratings of other truckers. Slow paying? Rude? Difficult to contact? Find out quickly and easily with the ratings system.
Stay Ahead of the Curve with Factoring
As the nature of the freight business continues to change, it only becomes more important that companies who want to stay ahead of their competitors take advantage of all the resources available to them.
Make sure your company is ahead by using transportation factoring. Transportation factoring keeps your business running at full speed by providing the capital you need to meet payroll, purchase gas and pay for any other business expense you may encounter.
Not sure if factoring is for you? Talk to us. We have factoring experts on the line waiting to answer your questions.
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