Âé¶¹Éçs Are Working to Uber-fy the Trucking Industry.

By Catherine Clifford | Jan 29, 2015
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Cargomatic | Facebook

Opinions expressed by Âé¶¹Éç contributors are their own.

There’s the , the , the Uber of grocery shopping and the Uber of just about everything these days.

And now there’s (more than one) Uber of trucking. While not as sexy as say, the , trucking is a big business. The industry does .

Related: ‘We’re the Uber of X!’

Today, Venice, Calif.-based Cargomatic, a mobile app that connects local shippers with local truckers, announced that it has raised $8 million in venture capital. The Series A round was led by and included funding from , , , , and , among others.

Âé¶¹Éçs Are Working to Uber-fy the Trucking Industry.

The Cargomatic platform allows local shippers and truckers to coordinate schedules and routes.
Image credit: Cargomatic

Cargomatic is focused on maximizing utilization and efficiency in the local shipping industry. The platform is designed to ensure that no truck drives anywhere empty and that a business that needs a load delivered can piggyback on a load already in transit, thereby getting its goods delivered more cheaply than hiring a truck to make a separate run. (Check out the handy little animated video embedded at the bottom of this post for a visual.)

Related: The Future of the Sharing Economy Is a World Built Like Bitcoin

“Trucking has long been an essential part of how business gets done, and the Cargomatic platform provides a win-win scenario for businesses who need to ship goods locally, and for truckers who have available capacity,” says Hrach Simonian of the lead investing house , according to a statement announcing the funding raise released today. Simonian will join the Cargomatic board.

Cargomatic is not the first startup to have the idea to Uber-fy the trucking industry. Another tech company, , is helping shippers and truckers automatically locate each other, minimizing waste and ideally, preventing truckers from driving with half-empty cargos.

Related: Zappos Is Bringing Uber-Like Surge Pay to the Workplace

There’s the , the , the Uber of grocery shopping and the Uber of just about everything these days.

And now there’s (more than one) Uber of trucking. While not as sexy as say, the , trucking is a big business. The industry does .

Related: ‘We’re the Uber of X!’

Catherine Clifford • Senior Âé¶¹Éçship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at... Read more
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