The long beach California startup, Dray Alliance, announced the launch of DrayageTMS, and for those that don’t know, this is big news.
It’s easy to forget the essential role our ports play in the global transportation of goods, even when lucky enough to be within sight of the silhouettes of large cargo ships looming on the ocean horizon.
Containerized cargo deliveries represent a massive industry. And despite the current complicated global trade environment of growing protectionism and political instability, the industry is expected to increase by 4.7% by 2019.
Serving the growing industry, Dray Alliance recognized the importance of always striving for increased efficiency and keeping the industry up to date with the latest available technologies. Dray Alliance’s mission was to create a user-friendly drayage transportation management system (Drayage is the shipping and Logistics industries term for the transport of goods over a short distance usually from a ship to a warehouse).
With the launch of DrayageTMS, the B2B platform will help drayage/intermodal trucking companies to be more efficient while connecting these companies with shippers seamlessly on a single web-based platform.
The platform gathers data and learns from the dispatcher as it is being used. The goal is to help drayage/intermodal trucking companies to be more efficient, while connecting these companies with shippers seamlessly on a single web-based platform to enable exporters to find the best drayage to the port, at the best price.
Currently, most logistics companies still use spreadsheets, whiteboards or even paper to manage their deliveries, leading to time waste, inefficiency, and valuable data loss — something Dray Alliance hopes to prevent with the launch of its new platform. Uber launched a similar service, Uber Freight, back in May 2017 for long-haul shipments, but has expressed no interest in entering the drayage market specifically, leaving the entire sector unattended.
Using the platform is simple. Dispatchers first quickly enter the container order information, which can even be duplicated from previous orders if a similar order was already made. Once the order is entered, DrayageTMS checks the availability/status of the container, after which the dispatcher can make an appointment to pick up the container at the port. DrayageTMS also calculates average wait time at the port terminal, and can assign a driver for the job.
“We are proud to be pioneering this new technology, which will help the container delivery process become simpler and more efficient. By streamlining and making drayage companies’ container deliveries easier, we could see a rise in small drayage companies, a lower container drayage cost, and an Uber-like future in the drayage industry,” stated Steve Wen, Co-Founder and CEO of Dray Alliance.
The introduction of this technology is likely to have a profound impact on the industry as a whole, saving businesses both time and money, and making the process more efficient for everyone involved.
