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Yeah, that was my thought as well. Logistics companies have been operating computerized dispatch systems for decades: it just never made sense in the taxi busin

by exelius 11y ago

Yeah, that was my thought as well. Logistics companies have been operating computerized dispatch systems for decades: it just never made sense in the taxi business because prior to widespread smartphone adoption, the systems were too expensive relative to the amount of money a single taxi makes. This might be attractive to small shippers, but yeah, anyone who does any volume of shipping by truck likely already has a computerized dispatch system that's probably integrated into their warehouse management software (so they don't even have to order the truck - the warehouse just does it for them when a shipment is entered into the system).

ropman76 11y ago
That is correct. The hard part of the logistics industry is getting the integration between warehouse, trucking and operations correct. I worked as a programmer in this space and most of the time and money in this space is not going towards apps and websites (most logistics companies have that or have easy ability to get those things up and running) but integration between interested parties.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  Something something EDI something something kill me. I too worked in that space. Super not fun. You're absolutely right that there is tons of money to be made by interconnecting interested parties with incompatible systems. It is a massive industry but yet still there is room for new competition. I agree with you and above, nobody is going to replace their warehouse system's automatically generated requests with this Uber clone, they want deep integration and this doesn't get them closer to that. Companies are already competing with this but not by copying Uber but by acting as a data intermediary making it easy to connect logistics companies with their end users. Data compatibility is the "hard problem" not connecting two companies together.
ryanmarsh 11y ago
The trucking business has several models within it, some more likely targets for this than others. LTL would be a good one, as would intermodal.

by exelius 11y ago

ropman76 11y ago

That is correct. The hard part of the logistics industry is getting the integration between warehouse, trucking and operations correct. I worked as a programmer in this space and most of the time and money in this space is not going towards apps and websites (most logistics companies have that or have easy ability to get those things up and running) but integration between interested parties.

Someone1234 11y ago
Something something EDI something something kill me. I too worked in that space. Super not fun. You're absolutely right that there is tons of money to be made by interconnecting interested parties with incompatible systems. It is a massive industry but yet still there is room for new competition. I agree with you and above, nobody is going to replace their warehouse system's automatically generated requests with this Uber clone, they want deep integration and this doesn't get them closer to that. Companies are already competing with this but not by copying Uber but by acting as a data intermediary making it easy to connect logistics companies with their end users. Data compatibility is the "hard problem" not connecting two companies together.

ryanmarsh 11y ago

The trucking business has several models within it, some more likely targets for this than others. LTL would be a good one, as would intermodal.