Uber Freight Debuts Shipping Platform

Uber Freight is expanding its services, announcing in a blog post on Tuesday (Aug. 21) that it is rolling out a platform to enable shippers to tap into the company’s network and manage shipments from a personal computer.

In the blog post, Uber Freight said the platform gives shippers of all sizes a direct connection to its carrier network, enabling them to see instant upfront load pricing, tender a load with a few clicks and track shipments from start to finish. What’s more, Uber Freight said the platform was developed in close collaboration with shippers to help them reduce the time it would take to complete the process.

“At Uber Freight, we want to reshape the trucking industry by helping carriers and shippers succeed at all levels. Companies like American Tile & Stone and Premier Packaging have already begun using Uber Freight to improve their shipping operations, and we’re excited to now roll out the platform widely to our freight community,” the company wrote in the blog post.

In May, Uber Freight launched its autonomous truck deliveries, with the first hauls driven in tandem with both human drivers and self-driving trucks completed in Arizona. According to a report at the time, Uber loads the freight onto a human-driven truck, which collects the load from the shipper and then does a short haul run to a transfer hub. Once there, the load is transferred to a long-haul freight for autonomous transport. That self-driving truck takes on the highway driving portion of the trip before handing it off again to a human driver for the last leg, which is a short haul to the final destination.

In August, the company announced it was expanding Uber Freight into new markets across the country, as well as introducing personalized load matching. In addition to Texas, its first launch market, Uber Freight moved its load matching service to major metros across California, Arizona, the Chicago-Midwest region, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.