Startups

Fleet Complete is the latest company to join the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA) as a service charter member. BiTA is a consortium for the adoption, education and development of a standard framework around blockchain in the trucking industry.

To solve inefficiencies in the supply chain, project44’s goal since day one has been to focus on the automation, optimization, and visibility of the freight movements by replacing legacy technologies with its “one-to-many” connectivity.

Trucking venture funding continues to pick up steam. One fund, backed by the largest grouping of Fortune 1000 companies in the world and a top engineering school, makes an investment in two trucking startups for its initial set of investments. 

Talk about disruptive companies. Every startup in the transportation space these days is touting itself as a disruptive company. A few will become just that. Many, if not most, will not. But few are also introducing a technology, let alone a service, that is disruptive.

KeepTruckin has partnered with Foley, a leader in FMCSA compliance solutions, to offer KeepTruckin’s electronic logging device to fleets. Any size fleet will have access to the KeepTruckin’s ELD and IFTA solution.

Many people don’t realize it, but construction firms have many of the same problems with truck visibility and tracking that less-than-truckload and truckload carriers have. And a truck arriving late can throw off an entire project’s schedule. That’s why Truck IT has introduce an app to help.

The latest craze in logistics is the “uberization of trucking,” i.e. digital freight brokers (DFM). In reality, though, DFMs are not new, with the first iteration of them appearing in the early 2000s with companies such as Power2Ship and TransMarkets. They have gained steam lately thanks to technological advances, but there is still some question about whether they are here to stay this time.

An industry that has a reputation of being behind the curve on technology may be at the forefront of one of the most important technological developments in decades. Yes, the trucking industry is poised to lead the blockchain way, and BiTA plans to help it get there.

Money is flowing into trucking tech startups, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. According to CB Insights, the industry is on pace for its first billion-dollar year in cumulative funding. But the question remains, how much of this windfall of funds will end up in companies that truly make a difference in the trucking space?

Uber threw its hat into the trucking industry with its own app earlier this year, but now it is upping the stakes with new features, The Verge reports.

Former Thomson Reuters Senior Executive Eric Frank has joined TransRisk’s Board of Advisors.

Hyperloop One completed a high-speed test of its pod on its Nevada track test at the end of July, moving it closer to its target speed for its planned pilot in Dubai.

One of the early entries in the “Uber for trucking” movement, Convoy found immediate big-name backers with the likes of Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff and Henry Kravis when it launched in 2015. Since then, hundreds of companies have tried to enter the field of digital freight matching, but Convoy has remained near the top of the class.

A successful test of Hyperloop One’s technology has given rise the possibility that intermodal freight may someday be moved using the technology.

Embark Trucks has announced a $15 million round of fundraising and a collaboration with Peterbilt Motors. The funding was a collective effort spearheaded by Data Collective, reported TechCrunch.

Plenty of load boards and brokers exist for trucking companies looking for freight. There are nearly 600 found on a basic web listing – and likely many, many more. But there are few, if any, like Sleek Fleet.