Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/303000
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MAY 2014 27 technology I n the late 1990s, Jarret Hamstreet was working at his father's trucking company as a teenager when he took note of an office novelty: Internet-based load boards, which allowed small companies like his father's fleet to access a nationwide freight network. In 2008, as part of his master's of business administration program at the University of Arizona, Hamstreet had to create a business plan and decided to research online load boards. He said the basic structure of online load boards had stayed the same over the years, with most sites still using static postings of loads and trucks, and rate negotiations taking place offline with phone calls. He devised a business plan for a load board similar to an eBay or Priceline service that would have a dynamic auction environment to return real-time bids from carriers to brokers and shippers. The business plan received top honors in the MBA pro- gram. Just days after graduating in 2010, Hamstreet and class- mate Micky Thomp- son decided to launch the new venture called Post.Bid.Ship. The two funded the business themselves as they developed a prototype; later that year, they acquired more funding from friends, family and investors. One early investor was the dean of UA's business college, who also introduced Hamstreet to Herb Schmidt, who at the time was president of Joplin, Mo.-based Con-way Truckload; before that, he was chief executive officer of Contract Freighters Inc. before Con-way bought it in 2007. Schmidt said when he learned about Post.Bid.Ship in 2010, he wished the business had been around when CFI was operating between 400 and 500 trucks, with its biggest hurdle being asset utilization. With Post.Bid.Ship, CFI could have bid on more freight from its major customers and then auctioned off excess freight to its customers' core carriers in a real-time environment. "What intrigued me is that it is a dynamic tool," said Schmidt, who retired from Con-way in 2012 and joined the Post.Bid.Ship board of directors in March 2013. "It's like a spot market on ste- roids. It would allow me to maximize utilization and to overbook. It would be a win for the shipper, CFI and Post.Bid.Ship." Last year, Point B Capital invested more than $2 million in the company, and the State of Arizona added $400,000 in economic development grants for hiring state residents. About 500 shippers, 1,500 brokers and 2,100 trucking compa- nies currently have a monthly subscription with Post.Bid.Ship. About 60 percent of its shipper customers post loads weekly to the community as a whole, as well as their own private network of carriers within the site. Shippers and brokers can establish a maximum rate as well as list instant rates for booking freight. Once both parties agree on a rate, Post.Bid.Ship facilitates the exchange of contact information. The average time that loads are available for bidding on the site is three to four days. Rather than enter the site to search for loads, a Freight Alarm service allows carriers to receive emails for load postings that match load preferences such as freight type, equipment type and geography. The company is planning a mobile app to make its marketplace more accessible to smaller carriers and owner-operators. MAKING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS WORK FOR YOUR FLEET BY AARON HUFF technology AARON HUFF is Senior Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail ahuff@ccjmagazine.com or call (801) 754-4296. ONLINE BIDDING: The idea is similar to an eBay or Priceline service for selling available capacity. GROWING POPULARITY: About 500 shippers, 1,500 brokers and 2,100 fleets are Post.Bid.Ship members. MOBILE APP PLANS: The company wants to be more accessible to small- er carriers and owner-operators. A spot market on steroids Post.Bid.Ship takes old-fashioned load boards to the next level Post.Bid.Ship has a simple process for carriers to submit bids on loads. Once bids are accepted, the website facilitates exchange of contact information.