“‘Rebooting’ is probably a great analogy,” says Matthew Kane, the founder of the MyRiteLoad shipper-to-carrier connection marketplace. MyRiteLoad hopes to fulfill the promise of what has been called the “elusive holy grail” of load matching, providing load-board-like spot market connections for independents and small fleets to direct shippers rather than brokers.
The “reboot” Kane references is the culmination of five years’ worth of work, a prior launch and subsequent hold put on the service, and four hired software development companies. Kane believes the current iteration of the MyRiteLoad marketplace, with new iPhone and Android apps in place, has truly gotten the technological backbone of the system right.
The new site, MyRiteLoad.com, has been done since the fourth week of May. The Android mobile app went live on Fourth of July weekend, the iPhone app several weeks ago. Over the years of dealing with “hurdle after hurdle,” Kane says, and amid the successes and failures, “there were times when I wanted to quit, but I feel like I made a promise to thousands of drivers that I actually met.”
Kane learned the business of trucking in the truck stops around the nation, talking to drivers he met along the way. Though he’s never been a trucker, “I went out and got in my car and lived in the truck stops for eight and a half months and asked a million questions.”
MyRiteLoad, he adds, “is really a derivative of all the questions that I asked.” The new system’s platform has made big strides in “in functionality and user-friendliness,” he says. Independent owner-operators pay membership fees to participate in the platform — “$180 up front when they sign up,” Kane says. “$80 is for a full background check, $100 a year is the fee” to participate in the matching service.
