KlearNow aims to empower intermodal operators with new drayage marketplace

KlearNow announced Wednesday that it has launched KlearNow Drayage, a real-time marketplace to connect intermodal freight and carriers, allowing importers and drayage partners to negotiate and close drayage business on a single platform.

Officials for the Santa Clara, California-based logistics-as-a-service (LaaS) provider said creating a drayage marketplace has always been on the company’s road map.

“The challenge that most drayage companies have today is they’ve got a demand for service, but they don’t have the customers,” said Rick Tellez, co-founder of KlearNow.

“Small mom and pop local trucking companies, do they have money for Google ads? Do they have money for sales and marketing? Do they have a sales force that’s out there selling to all these importers, to the Nikes of the world, saying, ‘Hey, I can help you with 10 containers a day out of Los Angeles.’ There’s nothing in the market that can easily solve that problem for them.”

Drayage is often defined as shorter, local moves of intermodal cargo between ports and end destinations, such as warehouses or terminals, generally within a single geographic area, sometimes as part of a larger move.

KlearNow Drayage includes services such as visibility from origin port of lading to destination; digital documentation for electronic customs records compliance; and detailed information about pickup windows.

KlearNow, which was founded in 2018, introduced its initial marketplace, KlearNow Customs, to digitize documents and extract relevant information using AI to send customs brokers accurate, verified data for customs clearance.

“We are already clearing customs for these shipments that are entering into the country using KlearNow Customs; that’s something that your normal drayage company doesn’t,” Tellez said.

Tellez said when shipments arrive at a port, drayage and trucking companies often lack clear carrier and port visibility, making it challenging to coordinate pickup timing, leaving drivers waiting and unpaid and sometimes running up demurrage charges.

“From a visibility perspective, we can see that volume, and some containers might take four weeks, eight weeks, nine weeks to get here, packed out in the Port of Los Angeles, or they’re just sitting out there anchored in the ocean. Nobody knows when they’re going to get in or what’s going on,” Tellez said. “We can tell our customers, ‘We can now extend the drayage portion for all of your containers and all of your shipments. Would you like to participate?’ They click a button that says yes; all of a sudden, all of the mom and pop truckers now have visibility to all of these loads.”