Startups

At the Future of Transportation World Conference, ZapGo described its carbon ion battery solution that has the potential to charge an electric vehicle to full capacity in five minutes, while a Lithium ion battery takes hours to do the same.

The founder of an industry startup with lots of buzz tells an industry conference how it happened.

Shippabo is a cloud-based supply chain management startup that is helping businesses connect with freight forwarders and carriers, while consolidating their data in one place.

Geotab, a global leader in IoT and connected transportation, today announced the acquisition of clean-tech solution provider, FleetCarma.

FreightWaves raises $13 million from venture capital investors from San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, and New York to continue scaling the freight market analytics platform.

Plug Power in association with Workhorse Group has developed a hydrogen-powered delivery van that is one of the first of its kind to be deployed on a standard delivery route for the FedEx facility.

Uber Freight has introduced a new tool called “fleet mode” that helps small fleet owners to manage all their drivers under a single account on the app.

Schneider National’s Shaleen Devgun joins San Francisco-based venture capital firm 8VC as an advisor. FreightWaves spoke to Devgun and 8VC co-founder and partner Jake Medwell by phone.

Given just 3 minutes to make their pitch and an additional 2 minutes to answer judges’ questions, 15 startup companies did their best to show judges at the Movin’ On conference why their solutions will change the market.

Shippo has launched a new workflow feature that help customers optimize their operations and thereby reduce time spent on deciding their shipping options.

Investors are flocking to the freight industry with million-dollar investments for startups, but what do those investors look for in companies before making an investment?

Demo day session 3 are digital companies providing real solutions in the logistics space.

Startups and incumbents at the demos today are building transparency into their products. Historically freight has been very opaque. The change is emerging here and now.

CoLoadX is a shipping marketplace that helps freight forwarders and NVOCCs in finding better quotes, routing options, and in executing transactions faster.

There’s nothing done at large scale today. That’s just not reality. There’s still more questions than answers. But what is being done, and how?

Shipa Freight, a spinoff from Agility, has created a platform that makes it easier for SMEs to book air and ocean freight online.

Learning Machine has developed an application for issuing and verifying official records using the blockchain as a secure encrypt of trust, which could help reduce driver identity fraud and loss of freight to theft.

Convoy revealed Monday morning that U2’s Bono and The Edge quietly invested in the company last year.

Brokerage firms struggle with finding carriers for loads and real visibility in the industry is still a concern. Trucker Tools is providing a solution to this predicament through its Smart Capacity feature.

Passenger and freight coming to a hub near you—sooner than you may think.

Signs of movement over to rails, OOIDA sounds off on younger drivers, U2 puts its money into trucking.

Regardless of technology, the transportation industry is still built on relationships.

Lanehub is developing a social network where mostly shippers and carriers come together to identify long term efficiencies by aligning their networks—and they just lined up another round of seed funding.

Virgin Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies are competing in UAE to build the first hyperloop network in the region.

Stord is a software-enabled network of warehouses & distribution centers, which helps businesses improve their operational efficiency by helping them move products swiftly and cost-effectively.

Stord is a software-enabled network of warehouses & distribution centers, which helps businesses improve their operational efficiency by helping them move products swiftly and cost-effectively.

Luminar’s sensing platform that is scaling to a capacity possible of equipping every self-driving test vehicle globally by year’s end.

The words ‘realtime’ and ‘visibility’ get thrown around a lot, but most companies offering visibility solutions don’t actually define what they mean by the terms, which confuses the market.

Dolly is a last-mile delivery startup that is providing consumers the power to dictate their delivery processes, by determining when their product needs to be loaded, transported, and delivered.

Drivewyze is a connected truck solutions company which uses vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) technology to provide a SaaS solution that lets drivers bypass weigh stations quickly and efficiently. 

Transportation is increasing its usage of technology in many areas, but apparently relationships still drive the small to mid-size carrier market when it comes to load generation. Freight brokers could also be blind to an untapped resource…until now. 

Motiv is producing an all-electric chassis that offers the same performance and functionality as a diesel or gasoline equipped equivalent.

Another aspect of Uber’s legacy that persists: secrecy.

Flexport is modernizing global trade through a combination of software and human expertise, bringing in greater visibility and transparency to the freight forwarding industry. 

KeepTruckin raises $50M in a Series C financing. Plans to have 400,000 subscribers by the end of the year

Shippo’s latest feature lets retailers engage with their customers during the post-purchase period to build loyalty and increase repeat purchases.

One year after launch, FreightWaves takes the top spot for news in the freight and logistics industry according to Amazon’s Alexa.

Shippers move more freight into the contract market to avoid higher spot market rates

LoadDocs uses machine learning to digitize paperwork of fleets, thus helping them reduce operational friction and increase workflow efficiency.

Energy and financial markets economist joins the FreightWaves data-science team. 

Loadsmart is changing the traditional freight brokerage business by using data analytics to provide instantaneous quotes to shippers for freight hauling.

Starsky Robotics recently tested its unmanned fully autonomous truck on the U.S. highways, a milestone across the autonomous segment. 

Shipwell makes it possible for any business to do freight shipping like Amazon via an easy-to-use online platform.

iCanDeliver is hoping to capture European market share with its digital freight platform.

OnTruck creates a digital freight marketplace which brings shippers and carriers together and provides real-time visibility and transparency on freight logistics.  

Driver recruiting, media, data application expert, Ken Smith, joins the FreightWaves team as CTO. 

Loadtap automates freight brokerage operations and also makes track and trace easier, all with the help of artificial intelligence. 

Leading commodities, markets-data news, and blockchain expert joins FreightWaves as Executive Editor and BiTA’s Head of Member Engagement.

Konexial uses its ELD device to leverage its dynamic load matching solution, which can act as a one-stop solution for both carriers and shippers.

FourKites will use the funds to double its headcount, accelerate product development, and expand internationally.

With blockchain-based credentials, or Blockcerts (an open source standard developed by Learning Machine and the MIT Media Lab), risk management can now extend to the driver level.

Flowspace is an on-demand warehousing startup that is helping businesses access warehouses faster and with lesser integration hassles.

The recent Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas gave Virgin Hyperloop One the opportunity to promote its vision and potential of hyperloop technology.

what3words has created a unique three word addressing system which can accurately pinpoint any location on earth, without the need for local street addressing. 

Senior UPS Economist, Ibrahiim Bayaan joins the FreightWaves team as Chief Economist. 

Transparency18 Sponsored article An estimated 17M ocean shipping containers make approximately 200M trips globally on an annual basis. A typical international shipping container is interchanged between 8-10 parties before the load is delivered. Transparency18 Demo Day Presenter To be considered for one of the 40 available Demo Day spots, register online at: https://transparency18.com/participate/apply-to-demo/ At each […]

The Nuro is a self-driving vehicle designed to run your errands for you. It is poised to change the way that businesses interact with their local customers.

Sabrewing’s battery-less, gas-electric hybrid can fly anytime, anywhere, over and around weather –- and can carry up to 3,000 lbs. of cargo up to 5,000 miles.

A quote by Oren Harari sums up a lot of how CEO Trevor Milton feels about Nikola has achieve with the hydrogen fuel-cell electric semi: “The electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles.”

Two-year-old startup NEXT Trucking has secured $21 million in a Series B round of financing, led by Sequoia Capital, as it seeks to stand out in a crowded field of competitors looking to match available truck capacity with freight.

Call it the Internet of Things, the Sharing Economy, a result of the ELD mandate, or the emergence of blockchain-style applications, but we are witnessing a digital gold rush when it comes to developing technologies bent on improving supply chains.

Tropos Technologies’ electric vehicles are capable of hauling over 1,000 pounds and can be configured for cargo and last-mile delivery, perhaps making them an ideal alternative for local delivery.

RoadLaunch, a startup based out of Ontario, Canada, has developed a solution that digitizes the available capacity of trucks and trailers to make the process of getting freight quotes and managing fleets a seamless process.

Mangbang CEO Wang Gang believes there is plenty of available opportunity in the Chinese freight market for his company develop technological solutions to solve freight issues.

The popular parking and roadside amenities app Trucker Path changed ownership last week. Here is why Renren made the purchase. 

“The main objective was to develop a solution that was able to help the customer gain a competitive advantage by getting more out of their assets,” says Victor Perez, president & CEO, of Alchemy IoT on its asset intelligence solutions.

The China Aerospace Science and Industrial Corporation (CASIC) has begun development of a Supersonic transportation technology, which would shatter Musk’s initially proposed 745 mph design should it come to fruition. Advantage China.

Block Array LLC, a Chattanooga, TN-based startup, today announced its membership to BiTA – the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.

The sharing economy is generally organized around a technology platform that facilitates the exchange of goods, assets, and services between people across a varied and dynamic collection of sectors.

SureFly re-invents the helicopter, making it safer, easier to fly and much more affordable than a conventional helicopter. Like a drone, its redundant design includes four propeller arms, two fixed contra-rotating propellers on each arm; and a backup lithium battery pack to drive the electric motors in the event of engine failure.

WABCO and Nikola will accelerate the development of industry-leading safety technologies specifically designed for electric commercial vehicles, including electronic braking, traction control, and stability control. Nikola anticipates offering its fully electric Nikola Two day-cab truck (pictured here) for sale in the U.S. by 2021.

TIRPORT, a startup from Istanbul, understands the Turkish freight market potential and believes it can bring change to a system that urgently needs a revamp to stay ahead of the times.

As Dubai has started positioning itself in the global marketplace as “the metropolis of the long term,” Moeco has secured a tech partnership with UAE-based Yzerchat to test its blockchain-enabled router.

Virgin Hyperloop One has established a new record for hyperloop technology, appointed Richard Branson chairman, and secured $50 million in new funding.

Chattanooga, TN-based BlockArray is one of the companies working to develop blockchain-enabled solutions, and it is looking for companies to participate in pilot studies.

L.A. is a hotbed for EV talent, and electric truck startup, Thor, is ready to take advantage. Last week they announced plans to bring a heavy-duty electric vehicle to market before the Tesla Semi hits in 2019.

Go99, a digital freight-matching marketplace based out of Vancouver, Canada, has achieved a major revenue milestone and now it is setting its sights on expansion with the rest of Canada and busy lanes in the U.S. on its target. 

One of the questions many ask as the electric and autonomous vehicles are introduced to market is: What happens with the “last mile” delivery? It can be the most expensive leg of deliveries, especially in rural areas.

ZED Connect offers an ELD device that comes with a one-time purchase fee and no monthly charges. COO Chris Harlow offered up some last-minute thoughts as the deadline quickly to implement ELDs quickly approaches.

TuSimple, a Chinese autonomous truck technology startup that is backed by Nvidia with offices in San Diego, has raised an additional $55 million in venture capital.

George Abernathy, an industry veteran, joins TransRisk as the company accelerates growth

Natilus, a startup based out of California, is looking to provide a drone solution that allows it to transport freight multiple times faster than when it is shipped across the ocean, at half the price of regular air freight.

The French freight industry is one of the largest markets in the world. But like its North American counterpart, the industry suffers from considerable fragmentation, with 90% of the fleet companies owning fewer than 10 trucks. Convargo is working to solve this by connecting shippers and carriers in real-time.

British startup Tevva Motors was one of the companies that took advantage of the exposure afforded transportation companies at the recent Freight in the City 2017 event in London. The company introduced its greenest truck ever, Trucking TV reports.

Nikola Motors, a leading startup that is building the next generation of truck tweeted out that Elon Musk was full of it and his claims on performance and range were invalid 

NetraDyne, a company based out of San Diego, is using artificial intelligence and computer vision to track drivers through intelligent and situationally aware cameras on deck.

Fullbay, a startup based out of Phoenix, AZ, has created a heavy duty shop management software that helps shop owners create instant invoices, attract technicians, and truly satisfy customers.

FrAIght, a startup based out of Chicago is looking to introduce an artificial intelligence powered freight broker service into the market, hoping to make a difference. The company works at the intersection of connectivity and technology by intelligently automating and mimicking existing workflows including email, fax, and EDI.

A Brazilian trucking startup, CargoX, has successfully secured $20 million in a Series C funding backed by banking behemoth Goldman Sachs, TechCrunch reports.

TransRisk, the developer of the first trucking futures contract, raises a venture capital round led by Bill Ford’s mobility venture investment fund. Seven other venture investors participated in the capital raise. 

Uber plans to roll-out air-taxis by 2020 and has targeted Dallas Fort-Worth, Dubai, and Los Angeles for pilots. 

Cargo and vehicles can become damaged en route, and often carriers are on the hook for those damages. But a new startup, PEIR, is providing photographic proof of conditions to help protect carriers.

Fuel theft and fuel card abuse is a constant problem, but finding $300 worth of abuse on a $5,000 monthly fuel bill is not easy. That’s where Fueloyal believes it can help.

Jeff Mason joins FreightWaves as Managing Director. Jeff was previously with ATA, where he ran Transport Topics and TIA where he served as Chief of Staff. Prior to joining industry associations, Jeff ran the trucking content and media businesses of Randall Reilly. 

“Uberization” has become a huge buzzword in the 3PL industry, but the business models of the digital brokers using apps is unlikely to have an impact on the way the industry operates. The technology of smart contracts, however, is a game-changer. 

The on-demand trucking service trend has hit France, as Convargo is now seeking to become that country’s “Uber of trucking,” TechCrunch reports. The company, which pitched itself as “a marketplace for shippers and carriers,” has raised $19 million in a Series A round of funding.

Unlike in the United States or Europe, shipping across Brazil is a hassle since there aren’t a lot of comprehensive cross-country providers with transparent processes for pricing, standards and tracking mechanisms. Intelipost is set to change that by providing SaaS solutions for managing logistics providers under one roof.

FleetPal is looking to help smaller businesses with a comprehensive directory for truck maintenance solutions. “The idea of FleetPal is to bring everyone together on a single platform – the truck repair vendors, truck parts vendors, fleet owners, and the drivers themselves,” says Milko Valnev, co-founder.

The future of transportation is not found in Silicon Valley or Detroit. Singapore will lead the next century of transportation innovation. 

The process of matching freight is complicated – with many parameters involved in exploring thousands of different possible combinations in real time and in identifying the best possible match to the parties involved. TGMatrix, a startup based out of Oxford in the United Kingdom, is working on creating an intermodal freight matching engine.