Ridesharing giant Uber is taking aim at the trucking industry. It has just announced that Uber Freight is rolling out nationwide.
Uber has been testing out their trucking experiment in Texas since late last year, and now it’s being rolled out across the country. The company is hoping to have as big an impact on the trucking industry as it did on taxis. And they’re trying to bill their service as a way to liberate drivers from a broken system.
In their announcement, titled “Uber Freight – Leveling the Playing Field for America’s Truck Drivers,” Uber seems to be focusing on trying to tackle some common owner-operator complaints. Uber promises upfront pricing, payment “within a few days” of load delivery, fast confirmation of loads, and pay for “when things don’t go as planned” which includes detention time and layover pay.
But while Uber Freight may be new to the market, there are already apps that act as ‘the Uber for trucking.’ Uber Freight is missing some features that those apps already have. And it currently only supports full truckload freight, saying that LTL loads may come in the future.
Critics of Uber Freight point out that while they may seem to be championing drivers, they are currently developing driverless technology. They own Otto, a company that develops technology for autonomous trucks.
Others question whether on-demand freight services could ever take off in the same way that on-demand passenger services did. Uber’s success relied in part on a huge untapped labor market; people who owned cars and were willing to drive people around for extra cash. The barrier to entry was incredibly low: have a driver’s license, have a car, have some free time. For Uber Freight, finding drivers might not be quite so simple.
Launching Uber Freight is a big leap for the company. They’ve had a series of tough breaks including scandals involving their CEO as well as a lawsuit brought against them by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, who claim that Otto’s founder stole proprietary technology related to their self-driving systems.
A judge just recently ruled that Uber can continue developing their autonomous driving tech even while the lawsuit is ongoing as long as the alleged thief is not involved.
Source: trucks, medium, wired, cnet, theverge, qz, techportal, medium
Photo: Uber
Sounds Good,Truckers are sick of getting screwed,So it’s good Uber is shaking things up,The pay is low,the fuel is high,all expenses keep going up with the compensation keeps going down,that’s a horrible investment
You need to do a little research on what you are commenting about, or decide if you are big enough to admit how wrong you were. Uber’s, entire effort, is to make money for Uber. They have several law suits going that are going to decide their very existence. The most important one to me, being in the trucking business for 45 yrs., is the requirement of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, that any driver, driving for hire, shall be licensed Commercially, and required to be physically certified, to do so.
“Uber’s, entire effort, is to make money for Uber.” What’s your effort geared to?
You do realize uber’s purpose for doing this is to get a customer base for when they do finally have automated trucks? You’ll be out of a job as will millions of truck drivers if you give in. Look at what’s happening to the trucking industry.
Uber does not care about truckers. I Carey about money and becoming huge. I is working on fully autonomous trucks. As soon as they have them and a permission to use them, the truckers will be expendable. Uber wants to replace us. Don’t let them.
Its called progress.
Good for some sucks for others.
Hate to tell you, but nobody cares about truck drivers.
I drive a truck part-time and the only people that care about me are my family. You’re right, no one gives flip about truckers, but we certainly depend on them. I say bring on technology and let the old school trucker go to the house or find a way fit in the new program.
There are 3 million truckers in the US alone. They support a huge part of our economy. You should care.
3.5 million
Think again. Look around your office, home, or apartment. EVERYTHING was brought in by a trucker. Including your Doritos lunch.
They really don’t, After driving for a week i stopped, To much risk for little reward.
Seriously, a week? Please say that was a typo, what could you have experienced in a week to comment about trucking?
I drove for 9yrs. Texas has working on trucks moving without drivers for long time. I35 to Canada. It will happen. This country wants to replace many human jobs.
“Uber does not care about truckers.” Who cares about truckers, beside truckers, most of whom care only about themselves?
autonomous …As of today , I doubt ..80,000 lbs going down the road with no human in it ??? geez……1 or 2 major accident and there goes “autonomous ”
Maybe in 30-50 years …
This would never be a career.
This is rediculous. With uber ride share, people just sat in their cars waiting for a pickup. With them moving freight, they aren’t going to get drivers to respond that quick, and if you do breakdown or something happens, you risk a lot because Uber doesn’t like to talk to employees. Aside from that they will want 25% of the gross and give you the rest but when it comes time to do taxes, they report that they gave you 100%. They are a scandal and fraud company that only says “oops, sorry” when they get caught!
That’s how a 1099 works. You deduct their cut, if you don’t know how to report on a schedule C you probably shouldn’t be do IC work.
the trucker does not care if no one cares about him…he just wants to make money…he has to with house payment truck payment car payment etc. If trucker would exclude big payments he would have more time to chose a good paying load…the more cheap loads more truckers accept the more greedy brokers and shippers.
Can the Uber truck install chains on the side of the road and tell what speed and gear it needs to be in while going through deer infested snowy mountain canyons, hills , and roads at night in a snow storm?
Can it drop and hook the current type of trailers without human assistance?
Can it adjust chains, straps, binders and tarps enroute between shipper and Consignee’s? What happens when it cannot get a satellite signal to find its way? If it pulls into a weigh station and fails a D.O.T. inspection or is over weight, who gets the blame? What if a marker light goes out in the trip?
If it breaks down on the side or in the middle of the road? Does it call Uber’s Robo Towing? How does it direct traffic around itself if it breaks down? What if Uber truck and Uber’s robo-tow truck driver mis communicate something in process and separate something on way to the garage?
Too many issues that auto pilots cannot handle.
I’m have a Rigging HotShot Service, you are absolutely right on every point. These tech companies have no world experience, I believe that automated trucks are dangerous and stupid. It like giving a 3 year old a loaded gun. No computer can replace a human being and common sense. Worked with Hyperloop One, so believe me when I say (No Common Sense).
And that is the problem. Without us, the truck doesn’t roll. The truck doesn’t roll, nothing gets delivered. The supply lines get cut and it won’t matter if anyone cares about truck drivers. They starve. Bring on the autonomous trucks and prices will soar, economic depression, outrageous unemployment rates. No one cares about truck drivers. Give it a few years.
I agree, look what happened to the market when they started pulling doubles. How many drivers lost a job over that? Every time I see a set of doubles or triples it makes me sick. 1-2 drivers out of work.
Dog ear dog world. Truckers are the last of the independent world. Companies helped many own a truck and let them feel they are independent, but we’re not. This will help. independent s . If it goes. Auto driving is a robotic and it has been in factories for years. When robotics take the majority of jobs. There will be riots on the street. As people do when starving.
Good luck with this one UBER. You will never replace the human driver.
Yes they will because they have enough money to buy enough Congressmen.
I use to drive for uber and lyft, If they introduce a new product for drivers expect to get paid minimum wage, Dont expect to make much driving for any of these lousy ridesharing companies. If rates are low for driving your own car imagine how much they will pay for moving freight? From experience run far away from anything uber touch.
Be mindful that Uber has a hrrible track record for driver service and payments. Since they insisted they were not a taxi service bur a “ride sharing ” service I guess this is “freight sharing”. They love to operate illegally and will sell you south to DOT.
Get rid if the dispatchers.
Your threat is not the dispatcher, they are quite necessary, the so called Brokers is what need some kind of control. The congress in their own stupidity passed legislation to require certification of brokers due to an immense amount of negative feed back from the public, and put out and a white page to the effect that their commissions were commiserate with the extra expense and time involved in the new requirements.! To those of you that do not have any experience in this industry, you need to understand how utterly outrageous this is, The only expense a broker has is their phone and insurance bill, those expenses have been constant for the last 50 years so nothing new in the financial side, the only new it appears is in the license and registration side, those requirements that congress decided were the same requirements that each owner , or, leaser of equipment used to transport goods or services, shall have a US DOT number, and a MC number. Which can be applied for,(both applications), on the internet at the FMCSA website, at no cost. So, there you go , now they have congressional approval to charge the Owner Operator what ever they want for making two phone calls. And the real slap in the face, congress passed an amendment to the rule that you cannot act as a broker, and a carrier, of the same freight. This prohibits O/O’s from brokering their own loads, in order to eliminate the unfair brokerages. This was done by a Liberal Committee, by the way
When we wake up and take control of our government, we can enjoy the leisure afforded by automation. Only a brainwashed mass of idiots would let the abundance of our resources be hoarded by a few greedy people while everyone else lives in poverty.
But our government consists almost entirely of the few greedy people.
This will not affect owner ops.
We,the Owner Operators,have 2 big business enemies:Large Trucking Companies and Brokers.
Time will tell if Uber adds to the list or help Us.
Definitely right, large companies that are behind the ELD… ??
I’ll think company drivers if this uber go thru they getting hit they will fire and here robotic trucks to put more money on they pocket
I retired from trucking in 2006. I had 10 years experience.
Uber has been screwing the tiny owner operators for many years. Now they’re going for the big owner operators.
Randy I think you have been misinformed, Uber has only been around for a couple of years.
It’s just going to drive down prices just like it’s done for taxis.
Yes sir it will.
What I find funny is Uber wants a heck of a lot of information so that you can see their rates.!!!!
Uber drivers do not have to get a traditional livery/chauffeur/taxi driver licence from their jurisdiction because Uber supposedly does the background/licence/insurance checks like the jurisdiction would for the licence, Uber also claims they check the vehicle out. I don’t know how true that is.
Now…trucking is a whole new world…the CDL must be for the correct vehicle, there must be a DOT medical card, a pre-employment drug test, employment verification for 10 years. Who is going to do this?
Just asking…
Owner ops are scavengers, fighting for scraps. Accept the fact you are at the bottom of the food chain..
Hauling for Uber Freight is slitting our own throats. Just like they are doing in cars/taxis the plan is to replace drivers and, as their D-bag of a CEO said, telling drivers “Look, this is the way of the world and the world isn’t always great.”
See article: https://www.theverge.com/2014/5/28/5758734/uber-will-eventually-replace-all-its-drivers-with-self-driving-cars
Their app gives data on our lanes, routes and driving..any guess what they will use that for? If dispatch gives me one of their runs it will not be making delivery.
Thank you! I pray enough drivers think as you do, God bless and be safe
Uber is going to pretend to care to attempt to monopolize trucking. Once the monopolize the boards they will drive the rates down further then they are. Don’t think they can? I am sure a large part of their profits will go into automated trucks. By supporting them at all you are putting one more nail in the coffin of the trucking industry. This spells death.
One thing not mentioned, no matter how well developed the programs that run the “driverless” car, it still cannot “think”. As a truck driver or for that matter “any driver” you constantly have to be aware of all possibilities at all times. Wait until a family gets killed by a truck and the company is sued for millions. Total driverless trucks may be coming but I don’t see it taking completely over for a fee decades. To many variables.
There was an owner operator and I waiting in line to check in at the shipper and chatting, he said “man I love my job,I make good money and I’m my own boss” Ten minutes later the shipping clerk told him to take sit and wait because he got there 2 hours early. Im like how’s that “boss” thing working out for you?
I use uber ride sometimes And there was a uber driver once told me he loves the freedom of being he’s own boss and do whatever he wants, I told him turn left on the next light.
As a OO, I personally tried Uber Freight for about a month and a half. The rates are low and non-negotiatable. The customer service is terrible if you have an issue. There is always an issue if you call them directly. They are awful at giving direct and accurate information. They post loads without all of the pick up information. Once I had a night load for delivery and they failed to provide the correct delivery #. I cakes dispatch and was told that I had to wait overnight for someone to come into the office the following morning to provide me with the correct delivery #. On top of that, I had to fight for detention, which they were reluctant to give, even though it was their error. Very incompetent!
As far as getting reimbursed, VERY inconsistent. When you call you get different answers from different people. They change the pay dates weekly without communucation. Very much a headache and very time comsuming.
Overall, I give Uber Freight a F. Uber is totally inexperienced with moving freight. They need to stay in the lane they are in and leave freight alone.
/Has anyone used the Uber app yet and have an honest review
Well I have not seen any of there rates but what do you think that broker percentage is?If your making 1.50 a mile the broker is probably making 1.50 a mile so you gave 50 percent to someone anyway .
Humans!!automation has been with us for many years,look around most truckers drive automatic (ultra shift) so they call it.this self driving trucks are already here,this tech pple will push it,and you’ll be sharing the road with this trucks.i don’t agree with it at all.stop complaining ask yourself in 5-10 yrs when this self driving trucks will be everywhere.whats ur plan driver?remember a bird with no feet sleeps in the wind.#keeptrucking