Can Uber Help Truck Drivers and Shippers?

The convergence of three groundbreaking technologies—AI, Starlink, and robotics—will revolutionize the practice of transportation, logistics, and supply chain management, as I wrote last month. Another convergent trend that benefits logistics management is on the rise: The mashup of consumer technology woven into business operations.

Just about anyone who drives uses Google Maps and Waze. There’s no doubt those apps optimize personal efficiency. But when converging with enterprise operations, business transformation begins.

Uber ridesharing is an example of that convergence and underpins Uber Freight’s success in the transportation sector. Uber Freight provides “a relational logistics” solution to move shipments, the company says. Now Uber has a new offering impacting transportation: Uber for Business. You might think of Uber for Business as a line extension of Uber Freight, but it is not directly about moving boxes. It’s a company-wide way to move the people who move the boxes.

Why Uber for Business? “We’re continuously looking for new ways that our people, technology, and capacity can be leveraged,” says Brandon Stanley, senior director of procurement for J.B. Hunt, the first carrier to utilize the solution. Drivers move tractors, but a team of operations managers monitors and arranges driver movements. This includes transportation to get drivers to and from customers and terminal facilities, or when a breakdown happens. That’s a lot to manage in near real time if you have 20,000+ drivers across the United States.

Today, J.B. Hunt uses Uber for Business to provide transportation to drivers and to provide corporate ground transportation. Among the benefits:

• Ease of use, as most drivers use Uber in their real lives.
• Drivers spend more time in truck cabs instead of taxi cabs.
• Faster driver deployment to where they need to be, easing driver shortages.
• Cost control with easy and thorough management oversight.
• Fewer driver complaints about unavailable rides.
• Enhanced program compliance.
• Simplified IRS expense reporting.

Best of all, the app was adaptive. The J.B. Hunt team provided feedback to implement changes in the Uber management dashboard. “They’re willing to take our feedback to the developers and push for platform improvements,” Stanley says. “That’s a real game changer.”

More consumer tech mashed up with business logistics management? Anyone using U.S. trucking services will benefit.