Uber Freight on Friday announced on Thursday a host of upgrades to the freight platform that, among other things, should help to stamp out freight fraud and annoying detention times at shippers, according to CEO Lior Ron.
Ron discussed a series of updates made to the network, which he said includes more than 5,000 shippers and two million truck owners and drivers, after the company's big presentation to shippers. The updates read like fairly standard tech talk to big businesses: An "Insights AI" tool to surface relevant data to decision makers; a new procurement platform for shippers to speed up the bidding process, even on freight that's not on the network; and finally an "Uberized" transportation management software suite.
Basically, fancy new tech tools for shippers. What does it mean to the average owner-operator or small fleet?
Essentially, carriers may get the long-desired "Yelp for shippers" feature that everyone from individual owner-operators to scientists testifying to Congress have called for.
The Insights AI tool, aimed at decision makers at big shippers, will track every part of a load's movement, and tell the shipper if anything goes wrong or takes too long.
"Hey, shipper, this one facility is 4.1 stars because you suck, you don't have a bathroom and the gate takes 15 minutes instead of five minutes," Lior Ron gave as a somewhat informal summary of what the AI tool might tell a shipper. "This is the kind of analysis and coordination" shippers can't, or won't, do on their own, he said.
For any trucker who's ever had a bad experience detained at a shipper, the idea of getting that complaint straight to the top of the organization may appeal. Indeed, that's Uber Freight's pitch to the small carriers of the world.
