MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 04, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- From the heart of Silicon Valley, Cargo Chief has emerged with an integrated technology platform designed to revolutionize a booming transportation industry that appears to be at 100 percent capacity. Trucking industry revenue set a record in 2014, reaching $700.4 billion*, and trucking accounted for 80.3 percent of all transportation (*source: American Trucking Association). But this increased demand, combined with lower fuel prices and a growing shortage of available drivers has left shippers on a daily hunt for affordable hauling capacity to source their shipments.
Enter Cargo Chief—its proprietary technology leverages its vast network of 500,000 available trucks/carriers to locate hard-to-source capacity for shippers from an aggregated carrier search on www.cargochief.com. Cargo Chief provides options well beyond the capabilities of a typical broker’s network and unmatchable by an individual shipper.
“Our technology and network enables us to find capacity for loads that most brokers either can’t—
or won’t—source,” says Cargo Chief President and Co-Founder Russell Jones. “Every load we source, every solution we find for a complicated, hard-to-source load makes our platform smarter and helps us deliver better service to our customers.”
Though industry perception is that transportation capacity is shrinking, the fact is that freight volume has continued to increase and every carrier segment has grown along with it—the number of for-hire carriers in the United States has increased to 36 percent since 2011 (*source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration).
“The capacity is out there,” says Cargo Chief Vice-President and Co-Founder Abtin Hamidi. “Cargo Chief works within our always-growing network to find and exploit inefficiencies that crack the code on the transportation capacity crunch.”
Cargo Chief’s patented technology accurately identifies the optimal carrier for each specific load and determines capacity opportunities for truckload, less-than-truckload, flatbed, intermodal, and refrigerated freight. As well, Cargo Chief locates cost-saving empty—or partially empty—available backhaul from in-service carriers.
“Nearly 30 percent of trucks are running empty at some point in a trip, so our goal is to make finding available capacity as easy as searching for vacancy in a hotel,” continued Hamidi. “Our carrier search is designed like Kayak—whether it’s a full truckload or just a pallet, we give shippers the three lowest priced options ranked by premium, preferred and value carriers, instantly. After the load is picked up, we can track the shipment in progress, showing its location on a map within our application.”
Shipment tracking is one of a number of tools being developed by Cargo Chief to reduce inefficiencies and improve the transportation and logistics process for customers:
- Cargo Locate®:
When booking a load, shippers can request Cargo Locate—free real-time, 24/7 on-map location tracking of the load via smartphone or computer, to provide constant status and prevent potential shipment issues.
- Cargo Safe™:
Before the shipment deal is executed, Cargo Chief automatically verifies drivers for safety rating authority status, then confirms the carrier’s cargo and automotive insurance just before that specific carrier dispatches the scheduled truck.
“Our transportation experience has helped us in developing technology solutions designed to reduce, and sometimes eliminate, the most common logistics issues,” concluded Jones. “Our business is predicated on a ‘win-win’ concept—shippers have loads, carriers have space and when we get the two together, everybody saves money and drivers are more productive.”
Cargo Chief features a unique combination of experienced transportation industry experts with Silicon Valley “disruptors” working to develop patented technology. The company is backed by venture capital partners, private equity investors and CEOs from a $2B logistics company and the largest regional railroad.
For more information on Cargo Chief, please visit www.cargochief.com.