Dubai: Load-Me, the first and only online transporter’s marketplace in the Middle East, is becoming the Uber for trucks by using the power of internet combined with GPS tracking and smartphones apps to connect efficiently load owners with available trucks in real time.
Sebastian Stefan, CEO of the company, told Gulf News that the goal is to build a B2B network that gives a real-time view of all the available trucks in your proximity, allowing shippers to book and track their shipments as well.
“Load boards are helping freight companies save millions of dollars all over the world, notably in Europe and America where most of the fares are booked online,” he said.
Load boards are online matching systems that allow shippers and freight brokers to post loads. They also allow carriers to post their free equipment. These systems allow shippers and carriers to find each other and enter into agreements to move freight.
It is basically an online tool where you can follow available trucks and loads in the entire transport marketplace, containing places of certain truck’s departure and arrival, available dates for the freight and of course, the vehicle details, type and cargo hold capacity.
Close contacts
He said that trucks are parked and just waiting for clients to come and book them from the designated parking areas like the ones in Awir or Jebel Ali or they have to return empty-handed. The GCC transports rely on close contacts and past experience to get business, this limits their services to certain routes or customers, the information about available truck or load is shared over the phone and travels only a link deep.
“We are offering a communication tool that brings benefits to all logistics professionals. Transporters post information about the availability of their trucks and other relevant data and freight owners can contact him directly,” he said.
“The idea is to ensure that transporters increase capacity utilisation and improve time management; they also increase the likelihood of finding loads for their return trip. This allows for proper and efficient use of the truck in an environmentally friendly way, no more empty trucks,” he said.
Load-Me is subscription based service. There are three types of users — transporters, load owners and brokers. Each type can choose between one of four available packages. The subscription fee starts from Dh239 per month and is billed once every six months.
Load-Me covers GCC and Jordan.
Waste of resources
When asked what made him start this concept, he said: “I was working in the logistics industry in Dubai in 2011, and I noticed that most of the trucks are going back empty from their destination, generating unnecessary pollution and traffic. All this waste of resources is just because they cannot find load fast enough on that location.”
“I looked for a solution and I found that everywhere else in the world they [transporters] have online marketplaces for trucks, but here in Dubai we don’t have it and the transportation market is highly fragmented,” he said.
Stefan is a graduate engineer in Mechatronics from Romania. He started his career in 2003 as a logistics coordinator for one of the dealerships of General Motors.
After settling in Dubai, he started the company with three partners — Sebastian Morar, the chief technology officer, and chief marketing officer Claudia Pacurar, all from Romania — two years ago.
Now, Stefan said there nine partners in the company and 16 full-time employees.
“We have invested $500,000 (Dh1.8 million) after we have raised funds from DP World, Prime Venture Partners but also from the founders. We are now actively raising our ‘Series A’ round of $2 million to expand our operations to GCC and to scale up our corporate accounts,” he said.
To finance its growth, LoadMe got a seed investment of $30,000 from TURN8 and a $360,000 from Prime Venture Partners.
Load-Me has 9,300 registered companies, out of which 7,000 are load owners and 2,300 transport service providers. The transport service providers have together a fleet of 15,000 trucks. About 70 per cent of the users is from the UAE, 25 per cent from Saudi Arabia and other five per cent from other countries.
Stefan said that the logistics industry has witnessed a double-digit growth in the past few years in the region.
According to Frost & Sullivan, in 2016, the logistics market in GCC is valued at $48 billion, out of which the land transportation accounts for $13 billion, this is the market that Load-Me is targeting directly.
Stefan does not want to sit on the laurels achieved so far, he wants to build a marketplace for whole supply chain such as sea cargo, air cargo, last-mile courier service and like Airbnb for warehousing, under the same umbrella.
“We want to launch new features such as express truck booking in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We have noticed that a lot of load owners need to deliver goods in emergency cases. It is bit expensive but the truck will come faster and deliver goods faster,” he said.
