Innovating the Trucking Industry with Technology

Since we founded Transfix five years ago, we have had a singular goal: to leverage cutting-edge technology that makes the lives of truck drivers better and to improve the efficiency of our customers’ supply chains. Trucking is essential to helping the nation’s largest enterprises move freight and deliver products to customers. Yet, each year, there are 65 billion empty miles driven. Some attribute this to a shortage of drivers, but we believe the real issue is the inefficient, manual processes that are still used to book and manage freight.

We’ve never been satisfied with this status quo, and together, with our joint roots in trucking and technology, we set out to solve the real problems plaguing the industry. Our tech development has focused on improving execution; we allow shippers to book loads much more effectively while driving increased ROI to our carriers by eliminating wasted time and wasted miles. By doing this, we are improving the lives and experiences of thousands of truck drivers across the country.

Since those early days, we’ve learned a lot about how to serve the needs of today’s shippers, carriers, and truckers — and have made tremendous strides towards disrupting the ineffective, staid industry. Here are five milestones that demonstrate the progress we’ve made together:

1. Our First Client — In August 2013, Barnes & Noble became our first customer when their VP of Global Logistics, Angelo Ventrone, saw a LinkedIn update that our CEO, Drew McElroy had started a new transportation technology company. Angelo reached out to Drew and was immediately drawn to the company’s idea and vision. He had been working in logistics for years and his team was experiencing a lot of the inefficiencies that Transfix could solve. He was excited to see how Transfix’s technology could help elevate their real-time tracking and visibility capabilities.
2. Seed Funding — Although we’ve received significant Series A, B, and C funding since our seed round in July 2014, including from our trusted partner, Canvas Ventures, the initial investment from Lerer Hippeau and Bowery Capital gave us a big confidence boost. We believed the problems we sought to fix had the ability to disrupt the industry.
3. Our Company’s Growth — In January 2017, Inc Magazine named Transfix a “Top 10 NYC Startup to Watch in 2017”. Alongside Oscar Health, Casper, Thrive Global, WeWork, and Warby Parker, our team has worked hard and grown tremendously to support some of the largest Fortune 500 companies, including Anheuser-Busch, Unilever, Target, and more.
4. Algorithmic Pricing Technology — In April 2018, we released our best-in-class pricing engine which leverages millions of data points to produce fair, transparent pricing quotes in a matter of seconds. We knew this would be a game-changer for today’s enterprise shippers, who are grappling with highly inefficient day-to-day processes for shipping FTL freight.
5. Named to Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups — Forbes recently recognized Transfix as one of the 25 Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups. As business owners and leaders, this is not only a proud moment, but it’s also a resounding indication that we are headed in the right direction: reimagining the trucking industry forever. We have our marching orders and we can’t wait to make an even greater impact over the next 5 years.

We’ve come a long way since our 2013 founding, when we decided that an industry veteran (Drew) and seasoned technology executive (Jonathan) could together solve the biggest, most pressing challenges in trucking. With our innovative pricing technology and best-in-class service, we are committed to making even greater progress in the coming months and years.

Check back to our Medium page, as we’ll be sharing employee experiences, stories from the road from carriers, ideas for empowering shippers, and our learnings as we continue innovating the freight and transportation industry. In the meantime, visit us at www.transfix.io to learn more!