Amazon Is Secretly Building an 'Uber For Trucking' App, Setting Its Sights On a Massive $800 Billion Market (businessinsider.com)

Amazon is building an app that matches truck drivers with shippers, a new service that would deepen its presence in the $800 billion trucking industry, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Business Insider. From the report: The app, scheduled to launch next summer, is designed to make it easier for truck drivers to find shippers that need goods moved, much in the way Uber connects drivers with riders. It would also eliminate the need for a third-party broker, which typically charges a commission of about 15% for doing the middleman work. The app will offer real-time pricing and driving directions, as well as personalized features such as truck-stop recommendations and a suggested "tour" of loads to pick up and drop off. It could also have tracking and payment options to speed up the entire shipping process.

Comments

Re:So...free or less than 15%?

[ranton]

More importantly, does Amazon know what brokers are expected to do for that 15%? You can try to "appify" everything but unlike a taxi, trucking actually has some significant legwork done by "dispatch/brokers". Do customers and drivers really want to directly communicate with each other about arrival times, dock bays, etc. and if they do, are customers going to ignore the cost of the extra staff they will have to hire to communicate with the drivers?

I helped install and configure truck dispatching software in the late 90's / early 00's, and I am honestly surprised that profession still exists today. Lack of technology investment is the only answer I can come up with. There is nothing they did a decade ago that cannot be done by software.

They recommend the best routes for the drivers -> A large truck optimized version of Google maps could do this much better than any human
They keep track of fuel costs and other transportation costs to ensure each route is profitable -> Easily done by software
They know their driver's habits -> So would tracking software which would be far more objective
They look ahead for connecting loads -> Much better done by algorithms
They basically work 60-80 hours a week -> Algorithms work 168 hours a week
They negotiate load price -> As if Amazon couldn't do this in a more automated fashion. It's certainly in their core competency.

They have a friendly relationship with their drivers -> The one thing software would have trouble with, but virtually all communication could easily be moved to call centers.