Oracle Sets Its Sights on Small Trucking Companies

Roughly 90 percent of the trucking companies in the United States have 10 trucks or fewer. Many of those small trucking companies are able to service areas that larger carriers do not. However, making the connection between smaller carriers and shippers, or even direct companies, can be cumbersome. Oracle, one of the largest data and logistics firms, hopes to make load matching easier for smaller trucking companies and independent drivers.

Load Matching

Load matching has been a hurdle for sippers, the trucking industry, and independent drivers. Making phone calls, sending faxes, and sending emails and hoping they don’t end up in spam folders are all inefficient methods that only slow down supply chains.

When companies like Amazon and Uber entered the arena for load matching, the initial launches were rough, to say the least.

The number of shipments was low due to limited partnership agreements, and truckers complained about very low rates as the load matching companies were taking too large of a cut to make the model viable.

Years later, some of these companies are having a soft reboot where the process is still the same, but there are more available jobs and the rates are slightly better. Even still, there are a number of wrinkles to be ironed out before load matching catches on in a truly competitive way.

Oracle Takes a Different Approach

Data giant Oracle is entering the freight arena to bring trucking companies and load matching up to speed to make supply chains more efficient while removing some of the stress and burdens felt by fleet owners and drivers alike. Oracle is aiming for real-time visibility for shippers, truckers, and, perhaps most importantly, rates.

This would give everyone an advantage in the freight load matching game, and Oracle has logistics applications that can sort shipments by box size and weight, so take advantage of capacity and reduce the number of drivers who are burning fuel with only a few items in the trailer.

With mobile technology becoming more ubiquitous and as more small carriers popping up all over the country, Oracle may provide the technology the trucking industry needs for shippers, carriers, and drivers to all get on the same page.