With each passing year, technology continues to evolve. More and more industries are embracing enhanced automation and technology to manage their assets. The freight industry, too, has seen a shift to automation in a lot of different ways.
Jeremy Reymer sits down with Timothy Henry, CEO and co-founder of Haul, to discuss his company and its effect on the industry.
Haul is working to help relieve the driver shortage by providing flexible assignments to CDL drivers without a truck. CDL drivers can fill in their information via the website and find jobs around them that work around their schedule, without having to own their own truck.
“Haul is really playing into the overarching problem that everyone is seeing in the supply chain, which is the workforce,” Henry said. Whether it be drivers, forklift operators or materials handlers, the bottlenecks in the industry have to do with a labor shortage.
The industry is seeing a lot of drivers moving toward the gig economy for more flexible opportunities. Henry used this as an opportunity to bring that same amenity to the CDL driver.
“In a world where the CDL is the most scarce resource, they don’t really get to choose their work from an assignment level,” he said.
The purpose of Haul is to be a staffing model to bring more CDL drivers back into the workforce without pushing them toward freelance opportunities.
Building the technology that is Haul’s trademark has its challenges. Aside from working around the COVID-19 pandemic, Haul’s biggest challenge has been credentializing the drivers. Haul has since developed a unique, automated system to address this challenge.
“That’s the secret sauce — allowing us to credentialize the driver in an automated way, so they can essentially find value off the platform,” Henry said.
The value lies with the driver’s ability to utilize and manage the platform, which is completely mobile and found via the user-friendly app for both the carriers and the drivers.
About our sponsor
Netradyne creates solutions for real-world problems using computer vision and deep learning technologies. Its mission is to transform road and fleet safety through advanced vision technology to change the way drivers interact with the road around them, creating safer roadways in the process.
Click for more FreightWaves content by Britni Chisenall.
More from Taking the Hire Road:
