Zerobroker

Looks like they're still in the early stages. They just raised 6.5 mil in funding. Not sure I see how viable the model will be; it's been tried before. The only difference is that now it's "AI POWERED!" as if that actually means anything in this context.

Their so-called "New Standard for Carrier Vetting" on their home page is... basically what we've all been doing for years now.

What I'd like to know is two things:

How are they legally different from brokers (IE: are they billing themselves as a load board, etc because I can't find a brokerage MC and they're performing functions as a brokerage - carrier vetting, facilitating shipping, etc) and what their subscription model looks like. Because that's how they're billing themselves on this. They're also doing some pretty creative marketing with the, "Eliminate brokerage fees!" What they aren't saying is, "save money on your freight!" Because, honestly, who the hell knows if you will or won't?

 

They read to me like Uber Freight. And we all saw how successful Uber was doing this in the freight market (hell, their "disruption" to the Taxi market still isn't profitable)

 

If I was a shipper my biggest concern would be payables, tracking, and carrier vetting. They talk a mean game about the vetting portion but scammers have gotten sophisticated and I'm not sure their "tech enabled solution" will catch everything.

 

Sounds like another startup from somebody outside the industry that knows buzzword speak well enough to swindle gullible investors.

 

That's the read I got as well.

 

Well, those chocolate dipped thingies look pretty good. That's about all that moved the needle for me.

 

U-Ship had the potential to be a good service, but they were lazy and greedy. They took a very hands off, buyer beware sort of mentality when they should have tried to understand everything from GVWR on vehicles, to FMCSA regulations. They should not be allowing people to tow 15k lbs with a Chevy Tahoe and without DOT numbers. I would even argue that they should have needed a broker authority, similar to how Uber and Lyft should follow the same laws as taxi companies. Pretty much all of their processes were automated through the app, but they would still take like 16.5% from the shipper and 16.5% from the carrier.

But the quick pay, the direct communication between shipper and carrier, and especially the review system were good. Shippers can choose to book a carrier based on rating, price, or some combination of the two. Carriers don't have to worry about needing to file on a bond, or even paying extra for quick pay.

Even if you could get some sort of combination of DAT and U-Ship, and you could find people that take it seriously enough to put ethics over profits(which is tough when you rely on investors), it would be disruptive to the current multi billion dollar industry. Zerobroker is facing an uphill battle, and that's if they're not just another cash grab scam where the executives get paid and move to the next scheme when it doesn't take off. Or even worse, it takes off and gets bought out by TQL.