4 ms·
Uber for railroad shipping? LCL (Less-than-container-load) freight forwarding has been an industry since God-knows-when, and you'd think this includes intermoda
by HarryHirsch 8y ago
Uber for railroad shipping? LCL (Less-than-container-load) freight forwarding has been an industry since God-knows-when, and you'd think this includes intermodal. You learn all this when you've done a few international moves.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- shiftpgdn 8y agoIf you've done an international move surely you saw how horribly the industry is run. It's ripe for "disruption." Most of the pages of companies doing the work look straight out of 2004.
- HarryHirsch 8y agoTo be honest, I can't complain about the state of the industry. You find someone (through recommendations), they give you a quote, you drop off the goods, and the stuff arrives 6 weeks later. It's miraculous, there must be so much informal knowledge to make it all work. The disruption is these "moving pods". They are more expensive, but they are well advertised, and one fears that the established small players will be driven out of business.
- toasterlovin 8y agoThere is a YC company doing this: Flexport.
- HarryHirsch 8y agoTheir website is full of fluff, and you have to sign up for an account. With your average freight forwarder you just pick up the phone for a quote, and if the quote is outside their area of expertise they'll refer you to someone who can perform. What is their niche, exactly?
- toasterlovin 8y agoTheir "niche" is that you can actually track your shipments on their website, rather than having to harass your dinosaur freight forwarder via phone & email and hope that they deign to get back to you. Oh, and you can also request quotes via their website! Seriously, though, you should give them a shot. They were a game changer for a former employer. And there's a phone number in the website footer.