M obility Matters AP: You have the Consumer marketplace, the PRO marketplace, what’s next in the product roadmap?
be able to account for every possibility. One thing we’ve done recently is launch a product called MyRates to enable the smaller providers to add their services and rates on uSHip. If you’re not a LTL or FTL carrier it’d be hard for you to approach a million dollar transportation management system or any other companies. What we’ve done is create a tool for trucking companies to come to our site and upload their pricing model and keep it updated as often as desired. Someone can come in and say “We haul boats”. Boats are not LTL. “We go from Illinois down to Florida”. There are lots of boat shipments down to Florida in the fall. They can come and set their price, then uShip brings these carriers business. Shippers will see that carrier’s quote instantly and they can then choose to use that carrier based on an instant quote instead of putting their shipment request into auction. We’re making it a lot easier for these different scale trucking companies to work with uSHip instead of monitoring auctions. So while dynamic pricing is a market economy ideal, occasionally a static pricing model works better.
TE: Earlier this year we launched an LTL instant rates product. Booking a shipment should be as easy booking travel arrangements on PriceLine. If you look back in time people would have to call or visit a travel agent. Nowadays they’ve been replaced by online marketplaces. So we believe shipping your product should be as simple as booking your flight. Businesses want to save time and money. The auction format works so long as the shipper has time. In those cases though where a shipper needs to ship today, however, at uShip what we’ve done is integrate with several regional and national LTL carriers. We make it easy for our shippers to get dynamic price quotes in real-time. Based on the demand of where that carrier has available open space, they can provide a good price. Over time, the LTL carrier has started to lose market share to thirdparty logistics providers (3PL) on a contract or wholesale basis. Some 35% of our business is now enterprise shipping so we can essentially help facilitate that connection for those small to medium sized businesses (SMB) for whom a direct LTL carrier sale is cost prohibitive because the SMB doesn’t have the shipping volume necessary to make the potential profit for LTL carrier worthwhile to acquire with their existing salesforce. For the first time there is a spot market for LTL carrier rates, and uShip has provided that market disruption.
AP: Who would you say is your main direct competition and how do you differentiate yourself? TE: There have been some knockoff sites in Europe and Latin America, but we have first-mover advantage, especially when you consider our name and brand recognition. If you’re going to talk about competition though, we should consider any alternative option that our customers have to facilitate their shipment. For example, there are still DIY options where people can rent their own trucks. Our data shows that it’s not cost efficient to do it yourself. You don’t really save that much by renting your own truck to move household goods. The same goes for car shipping. Someone who thinks they can take time off work, fly to where they bought their car, rent a truck and trailer putting their car on the trailer bed, drive it all the way back across 3 time zones because of the great deal you got on eBay. Why do that when you can get a similar or better price by using uShip? Sometimes you think you can save a buck yourself, but with a competitive marketplace that information asymmetry is removed and you can get a better price for using professionals.
AP: What do you believe is the ultimate impact of uShip’s marketplace on the size or number of carrier providers? Do you foresee proliferation, consolidation, etc.? Who are the winners and losers in the next few years? TE: We’ve been at this for 9 years by bringing value to both sides of the shipping marketplace. Our belief is that in 10 years the model of picking up the phone to call somebody to schedule a pickup will go away. Everything will be done online via web or mobile device. On the expansion side, just bringing on these LTL carriers into a dynamic priced marketplace to compete on a national level, these LTL carriers coming to the marketplace will provide a new service to shippers they didn’t have before. The carriers like it because we bring them customers that would be too cost-prohibitive to acquire on their own. We allow them to keep more of their revenue rather than allowing a 3PL or broker to take a roughly 30% markup on their LTL shipping service. One question we have is how do we make this one product fit all? There are all kinds of shipments out there. LTL is just one mode, mostly for pallet type freight, something that can be moved easily with a forklift and minimal manual handling. We need to
AP: Are there any features that users keep asking for that technically aren’t feasible yet? TE: We’re going in an interesting direction with mobile. For example, Uber makes it easy for you to make a real time request for transportation service and provide a slick integrated experience. We are expanding into mobile possibilities that are now becoming available. Imagine that you’re at an antique market and have just picked up a new
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