With the freight industry being one of the largest contributors to the U.S. economy, it is imperative that it makes way for technology infusion. San Diego-based startup LoadExpress is looking to disrupt the way logistics is handled in the industry right now.
LoadExpress is a digital freight matching and transportation execution platform, says Ken Liu, vice president of business development at LoadExpress. “We connect 3PLs, shippers, and carriers to post bids for their loads as well as execute on that transaction totally within one platform.”
The founders of the startup come in with decades of experience in the field of trucking and commercial fleet navigation solutions. “This helped us understand the problems that carriers and truckers have while doing business,” says Liu.
Though there are a lot of new companies mushrooming in the freight industry every day, Liu believes there is enough space for everyone, owing to the immense market potential. “There are so many ways to evolve as we go along. The market is not conducive to being dominated by a few players right now since it is very fragmented.”
LoadExpress works in a niche that is different from its competitors, regarding the technology developed. “Our platform is unique since we are load boards as well as a transport execution platform. A major part of these processes is offline and the limited technology that is used is all over the place,” says Liu. “We have put all that together in one place. They can bid on loads and execute everything on the same platform for free, without ever going off-board.”
What sets LoadExpress apart from its peers is the integration of all the services on a single platform. “Most of our competitors have put together a digital freight management matching system which primarily deals with the easy part of load bookings. Everything else is done in the background off-line. We believe we have the most comprehensive features on this at this point,” says Liu.
LoadExpress is testing in the market right now and is looking to create strategic partnerships with trucking companies. Ever since its launch last year, the startup has constantly been iterating on its software, with features being added every week based on user feedback.
“Since we are an SaaS platform, we get feedback from our customers nearly every day,” says Liu. “We’ve got users on both sides telling us what they like and don’t like. And we try to fit them into the platform as fast as possible.”
One of the biggest challenges that LoadExpress foresees is the adoption rates of the product. Since the industry has not seen much technology over the last decade, educating people on its significance could be demanding.
“A lot of it comes down to individual customer interaction,” says Liu. “The logistics trucking market is very people oriented, and computers are still a bit ahead for a lot of people for doing business. We realize that behavioral change takes time and that being patient is important to win them over.”
LoadExpress creates videos and aids for people to understand its solution and would assist them over the phone if they want to learn more about the product. The company is still fine-tuning its user interface to make it as user-friendly as possible.
The startup has come a long way since its inception last summer. It plans to keep adding features based on feedback, while simultaneously working on adapting the user’s mindset towards technology. Though it might take some time for the technology to penetrate fully into the market, Liu believes it is inevitable, and that success is right around the corner.