Expedited freight shippers are accustomed to paying top dollar to get their goods where they need to be — and quickly. But Alex Winston said that need not be the standard.
“We’re trying to change it to, yes, it’s going to be fast, but it’s not that expensive,” he told FreightWaves.
Winston is president of Expedite All, a new national expedited freight service that officially launched Monday. Saying that some shippers have not been able to receive expedited freight services “at an affordable cost that makes sense to them,” Winston said Expedite All will “allow competition to drive down the price of [transportation] across the country.
“It’s been a work in progress for a long time,” he added. “Some of our stakeholders have been thinking about doing this for a long time. They have seen the expedite market grow and grow and the number of Sprinter vans out there delivering grow.”
The backers of the company have chosen to remain private at this time, but Winston, who has a legal background and experience in the logistics industry, including as a board member of the Reefer Van Network, said the stakeholders have experience in the industry. The privately owned company has not sought any outside funding.
“Our goal, and this is strange in the tech world, is to build a good business, provide a good service and make a profit,” Winston said.
When given a choice, most businesses would not choose expedited shipping. But, when an item absolutely needs to arrive on time and intact, the service is often the best option, regardless of price. Most often associated with medical and pharmaceutical shipping, or automotive parts, expedited shipping is designed primarily for speed.
Price competition
Expedite All, though, believes price can be an option for shippers if they can access a larger network of smaller fleets and owner-operators competing for the business. That is the goal of Expedite All. Launching with about 1,000 carriers running roughly 5,000 vehicles, the company aims to connect these smaller firms with major shippers needing service, believing the competition for business will help drive down prices.
“There is this perception in the market that expedited is going to be really expensive, but we have seen it move into the mainstream,” Winston said. “We think it will be lower by up to 10% [compared to traditional expedited services]. You can go on the [website] yourself and see a Sprinter van from Atlanta to Cleveland and see what it will cost you.
“Our goal is to eventually have every Sprinter van and box truck on our platform competing for that load,” he added. “And we have a lot already. If you go to any major city, you will see [dozens] of trucks on there competing for the load.”
Shippers can visit the company website and input where their load is and where it is going. Expedite All will then provide an estimated rate based on historical datasets along that route, Winston said. If the shipper wishes to proceed, they click the “get quote” button and generally within 15 minutes an official quote is received. Winston said the goal of the company is to provide a final rate within 5% of the quoted one. In many cases, the rate will be lower as carriers bid for the business, but it could be more.
In some instances, there may not be enough data to generate a projected rate. In those cases, the carrier can still proceed with the quote request; they just won’t receive an initial projected rate.
Real-time visibility
Expedite All uses a map-based user interface that provides shippers with real-time visibility to available vehicles.
Winston acknowledged that the service is quite similar to a freight brokerage but maintained Expedite All’s network of carriers and ease of use will help it stand out.
“It is a large network that is just expedited [shipping] focused,” he said. “A lot of shippers will work with brokers that rarely deal with expedite. And a lot of brokers are going to get on our platform. It is the size of the network along with the ease of use to see what this is going to cost before you put in any information.”
Carriers interested in joining the platform can do so, but Expedite All must vet them first. Winston said ensuring safety scores are sufficient, insurance is up to date and appropriate, and the business is viable are important attributes that must be verified manually.
“[We have to make sure] that you are a good fit for our customers,” he said. “The worst thing that can happen to us is a shipper starts using us and the carrier they get is dangerous.”
At company launch, Expedite All’s carrier network is national and includes Sprinter vans, traditional cargo vans and straight box trucks. Winston noted that for environmentally conscious shippers, a Sprinter van moving two pallets of items is as much as two-and-a-half times as sustainable as a 53-foot tractor trailer.
“By providing shippers with access to a large network of small vehicles, Expedite All is on the front lines of delivering greener, more efficient transportation solutions,” he said.