Uber Freight?! What is this madness?!?!

Nothing new. Swift has been doing this for years...

 

I work for a carrier but we broker out loads when we're too busy. I'm paying for a service, they handle all of the checking in and making appointments... I simply send what I need to a broker, they give me a rate and we get it done. Sometimes the rates are very low, in the $1.50 range. After the broker takes their cut, I know the driver couldn't have made any money. But what do I do? tell them I want to pay more? The fact is the drivers who will accept such a horrible rate are the reason rates get so low.

 

From what I've been able to find, Uber is planning to use us to develop their freight base until their driverless truck fleet becomes a reality. once their driverless trucks hit the road then we would only be needed to handle their excess freight. Kind of like the big carriers do now.

 

Nope. Uber just today fired the head engineer (Anthony Levandowski) they got from Google. They are not only back to square one, they are at square negative five Not only do they have to scrap everything he touched, they have to start over in such a way that Google cannot say they got the technology that Levandowski stole when he left Google.
He took over 14,000 documents when he left Google (or at least accused of anyway, it's currently in the courts.) so it's a bit of a legal hurdle for Uber to get over.

 

Comon driver how long have you been driving? You never get detention pay? Never seen $100 an hour on any of it? Not going to say I get that every time but yeah it happens. You need to look in the mirror for your problem. It's not the brokers.

And if you can't price your labor on the spot you really have no business even trying to book ad hoc loads. A price tag on a load? Are you kidding me? This ain't shopping at Wal Mart. Learn your trade driver. You want somebody to give it to you because you have $100,000 of equipment and that makes you special?

 

It astonishes me the lack of thought/effort people put into their business.

If load board freight is really that bad, why even bother with it? The same people that complain about brokers probably have never knocked on a single door to try and sell their services directly to a customer. Go and try that for a day or two. Cut the middleman out, because it's so easy apparently.

I have two direct customers, it's more stressful to find loads getting me back to them than it is to just run around with no worries hauling brokered freight. My average revenue per mile would be better this year if I told my customers to piss off and worked the load boards exclusively instead.

 

Personally, I have no plans to sign up with Uber. l might with Amazon but that remains to be seen.

 

Amazon's carrier packet is screwed up. I've got it in my email somewhere. Never did get past the questionaire... Probably need to take the time to do that. This was to be set up for running brokered random freight out here from them. It wasn't any direct contract working exclusively amazon DC only freight. Amazon is not just about covering their own freight anymore. They're into brokering for any shipper/receiver out here and have been for a while.

 

apparently, If the load was booked via the app(no actual call to book) then the detention is automatic and calculated via geofencing and app POD submittal.

I think since this is essentially still in beta- those who get on the app and try it out stand to make out well in the beginning- kinda like uber rideshare drivers. in the early days with incentives, it was quite lucrative to be an early adopter.

 

Did a run with Uber and this is how it went.
Saw a run posted on Dat for $1150, for the lane I usually run for 900-1000. Called on it and it was an easy run without anything crazy. It was posted by 4front logistics. Never heard of them before, did a credit check with my factoring company and they were declined. To what broker responded that they are actually the Uber Freight.
Checked the app and this load was posted in there for $825. The rep changed the price and I booked it via the app for 1150.
Ended up sitting at the shipper for 5 hours. During that time got a couple calls from Uber checking on me, I guess because the app was showing that I am not moving.
They advised to get in and out times and that they will pay the detention based on that and they did, $75hr after 2 hours. Everything else went smooth.
Couple of days ago got another call from them offering a load for my truck posted on Dat. It was a typical broker-carrier call, they did not like my price and we finished the conversation.
So it seems like Uber Freight is no different compare to other brokers who have their own loadboards, except the ability to instantly book the load. Uber still gotta have live agents to take care of the loads based on the market conditions.
I don't see it as a major competitor to other brokers, it's just another regular broker in the game