New Load-MatchingLandscape
Free services indicate shift in online load-finding markets.
JOHN BENDEL
TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
There's a new load-matching site on the web called Truckbuzz.com (www.truckbuzz.com). It's exclusively for freight brokers and absolutely free.
That might not interest fleets but for one thing: Truckbuzz.com is the latest indication of a shift in Internet load-matching markets and a bitter competition among commercial load-matching services.
These days there are essentially two kinds of load-matching sites, or load boards as they often refer to themselves. Commercial load-matching sites make money by charging users, usually a monthly subscription fee. This differs from load-matching sites maintained by companies who make money in other businesses, most often as brokers or carriers. These boards are normally available free of charge.
The new load board for brokers, Truckbuzz.com, was launched by Darren Brewer who also owns NetTrans.com (www.nettrans.com), a commercial Internet load board in business since 1996. According to Brewer, Truckbuzz.com is a response to the changing market led by free load-matching sites, which he said are increasing in number.
"There's Transplace.com, of course, and companies like Mercer Transportation and InTransit," said Brewer.
Those three and others like them offer loads on the web free of charge as an adjunct to their transportation and logistics businesses. Web services like these, Brewer explained, make it more and more difficult for commercial load boards that charge for subscriptions.
But there is still a viable market for commercial load boards that can reach what he called "critical mass," a volume of listings that make a subscriptions worthwhile, particularly for carriers and drivers.
So why give the service away to brokers?
The answer requires a bit of history.
Brewer said the biggest commercial load board players these days are DAT Services, Internet Truckstop, Getloaded.com and his own NetTrans.com. DAT Services began the load matching business after deregulation in 1980 led to a vast expansion of the truckload industry.
But industry inventor DAT missed the first wave of the Internet revolution. Internet Truckstop was the first Internet-based load matching service when it debuted in 1995. Brewer's NetTrans opened for business the following year. Early in 2001, DAT Services was bought by Transcore, Inc., which has migrated DAT to the internet and expanded its products.
But, according to Brewer, the commercial load matching business had already been shaken anew. In 1999 a service called Getloaded.com launched with a new twist on the accepted business model, he said.
Getloaded.com didn't charge everyone. Carriers and drivers paid, said Brewer, but Getloaded.com offered free accounts to brokers. As a result, Getloaded.com attracted lots of loads — the critical mass that commercial load boards need.
Free Accounts vs. Paying Customers
"What it comes down to is the number of loads you have available, the number of truck postings and the traffic that your site gets. It's critical mass that makes a service work for customers," said Brewer.
In other words, truckers will only pay for commercial load matching services that offer lots of loads. And the way to keep attracting those loads, he explained, is to adopt the Getloaded.com philosophy.
"Getloaded.com has changed the landscape of Internet freight matching. Getloaded.com started giving away free accounts to brokers. That gets them 10,000 or 15,000 brokers who sign up for their service. Whether they use it or not, I really don't know. But they're getting a lot of load postings and the truckers follow," Brewer said.
Brewer decided not to simply offer free broker accounts on NetTrans. Instead he launched the new Truckbuzz.com site. But Brewer merges the loads posted there into the same database available on NetTrans and elsewhere.
"NetTrans powers about half-a-dozen Internet load matching sites out there. We have affiliate partners who remarket and sell our services," Brewer explained, though he declined to name any affiliates citing business reasons.
Of course Truckbuzz.com feeds loads onto the NetTrans database that fleets and drivers pay for.
"It's unfortunate that the truckers have to pay. It really should be the other way around. But that's the precedent," said Brewer.
The launch of Truckbuzz.com draws a clear line in the sand between the four major services Brewer named. Getloaded.com and Truckbuzz.com — linked with NetTrans — offer free broker accounts. DAT Services and Internet Truckstop do not.
Free broker accounts may or may not be involved in a lawsuit filed by Internet Truckstop owner Scott Moscrip against Getloaded.com. The case, being be heard in U.S. District Court in Utah, is sealed.
Both Moscrip and Getloaded.com owner Pat Hull would only confirm that there was indeed a lawsuit in progress. Both declined to discuss the case, citing the court seal.
It isn't the first lawsuit between major commercial load boards. Prior to its purchase by Transcore, DAT Services sued Brewer's NetTrans.
According to Brewer, the suit was settled.
Marc Cameron, DAT's CEO, recalled the suit being settled also, but said he wasn't aware of the details.
"NetTrans? I didn't even know they were even in the business anymore," said Cameron, adding that DAT is still larger than its nearest rival "by a factor of 10."
