The ‘Drive XPO’ app for freight
New numbers from the XPO Logistics broker/3PL show that, as of May, roughly 22,000 carriers were using its new Drive XPO smartphone app to search for loads and transact on XPO Connect, the company digital freight platform. The platform launched just mo…
A gold rush for ELD data
A major insurer offers to effectively buy your data, but it’s not clear if other insurers, not to mention ELD vendors and their partners, will follow. As the trucking industry reckons with the value of information spewing from millions of trucks, issue…
Runaway recounted down Sandstone Mountain, and: Revisiting a quite accurate spot rate prediction pre-ELDs
Podcast: Lee Epling urges caution pointing the finger at this or that cause, or piling on the driver, before all the facts are known in the Colo. crash case, sharing his own brake-failure story on Sandstone Mountain in W.Va./Va. on I-64; Also: Monte Wi…
Rates hack: The spot market 3 o’clock hustle
Though it’s certainly lost some of its luster now that mandated electronic logging devices are putting more value on planning loads for maximizing time efficiency, this scheduling hack from independent Chad Boblett is simple enough. It hinges on an old…
BigRoad’s freight platform being extended to fleets and their dispatchers
BigRoad Freight is expanding its initial program for owner-operators using DashLink ELD data to optimize freight matching. Now, fleet dispatchers at companies on BigRoad’s logs system will be able to manage load assignments and help drivers avoid deadh…
KeepTruckin to leverage ELD data for freight matching, detention pressure
A new tool is on the near-term horizon for KeepTruckin users offering insights into shipper/receiver facilities, also a “Smart Load Board.” KT also has expanded a small brokerage it bought last year, putting the company in a position of competition wit…
Truckstop.com to use investment funds to expand carrier and broker product suite
The company doesn’t plan to pivot away from its core business of connecting brokers and carriers, said CEO Paris Cole. Rather, the investment will allow Truckstop.com to grow its product development team in the short term, says Cole, and, longer term, …
Why pick a fight with the air? And: Downtime for the spot market 3 o’clock hustle
This edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast comes as MATS continues in Louisville, with conversations with two owner-ops showing commonality between them in a willingness to be the contrarian in this loud age, on a variety of things — Chad Boblett and…
Detention, parking, app overload: Hot-button issues for owner-ops explored in the context of tech’s sometime salve
Prasad Gollapalli, the founder and CEO of Trucker Tools, joined two owner-operators Thursday at MATS — Greenmiles small fleet owner-operator Shain Ferris and owner-operator Tamara Brock — for a lively discussion of these tough issues for owner-ops.
Communication, staying up on rates trends are key in negotiating with brokers
Building connections with brokers, in addition to stronger rates, often leads to steadier lanes and routes and access to more loads and more favorable loads, said Brent Hutto of Truckstop.com and Tyler Johnston, a broker for Mercer.