Craig Fuller, CEO and founder of FreightWaves, has joined the board of directors of Repowr, a Chattanooga-based FreightTech company pioneering the largest commercial trailer marketplace in North America.
With Repowr, asset-based fleets, brokers, shippers and owner-operators can tap into the Universal Trailer Network (UTN) to seamlessly exchange trailer capacity. The Repowr platform supplements existing fleet management tools and empowers logistics companies to fully leverage the benefits of a trailers-as-a-service model. Fleets supplying trailers to the network are able to optimize trailer utilization, maximize revenue per trailer and reduce empty mileage. Fleets also accrue a variety of other efficiency gains by leveraging Repowr’s streamlined interchange experience — certificate of insurance verification, dynamic trailer pricing and digital chains of custody. Simultaneously, logistics companies seeking trailers can scale with ease and efficiency as the UTN offers on-demand access to trailers under a flexible pay-per-use model. Sharing trailers creates a win-win experience, helping both parties mitigate risks associated with market volatility.
“We are thrilled to have Craig join Repowr’s board of directors,” said Spencer Ware, co-founder and CEO of Repowr. “He brings a very deep knowledge of the trucking industry to the company and is one of the most respected and influential visionaries in our space. His expertise aligns perfectly with Repowr’s strategic objectives. ”
Fuller has been around trucking his entire life, having grown up as the son of the founder of U.S. Xpress. During his tenure with the company, he started Xpress Direct, which became one of the largest providers of on-demand trucking services in North America, and eventually served as president of Xpress Global Systems, a less-than-truckload and logistics provider for the building materials industry.
Fuller left the family trucking business in 2005 and helped to develop Transcard, a fleet payment provider that was sold to U.S. Bank seven years later. In 2016, Fuller started FreightWaves, the largest provider of news and high-frequency data to the global logistics industry.
“Trailers are the most underutilized asset in the trucking industry and Repowr has developed a solution for this. By matching fleets that have too much trailer capacity, with fleets that need trailers for popup fleets or short-term project needs, Repowr is helping to optimize the national trailer fleet,” Fuller stated.
Repowr’s co-founders Patrick Visintainer and Ware launched the company in 2021, during the pandemic, when trailers were a scarcity. The two saw a massive opportunity to unlock stagnant trailer pool capacity, an efficiency gain for the entire supply chain.
“The pandemic really magnified the importance of trailer optimization. Since then, we’ve seen fleets, brokers and shippers invest heavily into becoming more trailer-centric. The UTN complements those investments and enables a more dynamic use of trailers, removing limitations that exist with individual, isolated trailer pools. As the network scales, it becomes easier for participants to rapidly adapt to market changes without being limited by the capacity of their own fleets,” said Ware.
In joining the Repowr board, Fuller stated, “I tell friends that Repowr is the Airbnb of the trucking industry, helping fleets with underutilized trailers generate incremental revenue when those assets are not being optimally utilized. Repowr is building a market-defining platform.”