Uber Freight announces it has expanded its services into the LTL market

San Francisco-based Uber Freight a subsidiary of the ubiquitous, ride-sharing service Uber, whose proprietary app matches trucking companies with loads to haul, said today it is officially expanding into the LTL (less-than-truckload) market, in a move geared towards providing shippers with a single platform to support their full truckload and LTL needs.

Company officials said in a blog posting this move is aligned with its objective of “becoming a one-stop shop solution for shippers.”

“After a year of unprecedented volatility, choice and flexibility are more important than ever to shippers,” said Lior Ron, Head of Uber Freight, in the blog posting. “Just as we did with the full truckload market, we’re using all our marketplace technology and data science expertise to bring much-needed transformation and new opportunities to LTL. It’s a segment of the industry that is not only in high demand but also furthers our journey to support shippers across first-to-final-mile logistics.”

Uber Freight Product Manager Michael Bailey, whom heads up the company’s Leading Shipper Platform services, told LM that the company has heard from its shipper base for some time that having a single platform to manage both full truckload and LTL freight would be a game changer.

“[S]o we’ve been exploring the best ways to expand our services for a little while now,” said Bailey. “The market changes in the last year-plus, due to the pandemic really accelerated the process for us as we recognized that shippers needed more options and more flexibility than ever before.”

As for the main benefits of expanding into LTL, for shipper customers, Bailey explained that the LTL offering will be integrated into Uber Freight’s shipper platform, which is primarily utilized by small to medium sized shippers. And he added that by opening up the platform to support LTL, shippers will have the ease of managing all their full truckload and LTL freight needs through a single platform. He also noted that in order to bring an LTL solution to market quickly and reliably, Uber Freight leveraged technology infrastructure and from BlueGrace Logistics, one of the largest third-party logistics providers with significant scale and experience in the space.

“Shippers with early access to the product today have already seen a range of benefits, including access to competitive pricing and greater access to a larger LTL carrier base,” he said. “We’ve seen early success so far with our offering—shippers that have been moving LTL loads through the platform over the last month and we are seeing volumes increase daily. Over the coming months, we’ll continue to enhance the product to deliver shippers an even more seamless experience on the platform.”

When asked what the main competitive advantages of this offering are from an Uber Freight perspective, Bailey highlighted the following:

• Rapidly compare quotes across FTL and LTL within a single platform;
• Receive quotes based on item details, pickup and delivery locations, and dates;
• Select from a list of LTL carriers directly within the platform;
• Schedule pickups and deliveries;l
• Manage LTL billings; and
• Track shipments end to end

“With our LTL solution shippers have more choice and flexibility than ever, something that has become increasingly important after a turbulent year,” said Bailey.