I’ve been around trucking for awhile now. Not as long as some, but I’ve seen more than most. What got me into trucking was a discovery I made on a Craigslist ad. That was uShip and I haven’t really looked back since.
While Shipping Wars production takes a lot of my time today, I had some success in my time on uShip. I made some good money. Mostly heavy haul, construction equipment on my flatbed behind my Kenworth.
Squeaky Wheel
I remember calling uShip’s customer support team in Austin. I can assure you I was the squeakiest wheel of their day, lobbing one complaint…I mean, suggestion…after another.
But what impressed me about uShip was that they always listened to what I had to say and even made some of the changes I had suggested.
After awhile, I thought, ‘They are going to change the industry. They are going to be a factor in the trucking industry that hasn’t really ever changed in forever.’
The New uShip
Today, uShip took another step in this journey toward changing this industry. It’s a new approach to uShip that’s really pretty cool. The next generation of uShip is all about getting and going mobile, and that is where trucking is headed.
Sure, smartphones and tablets are everywhere today — I couldn’t survive without my iPhone — but how do they truly help today’s trucker in an industry that’s been slow to change.
uShip makes it possible to run your business right from the palm of your hand. You couldn’t do that 15 years ago. You couldn’t do that 10 years ago. These [smartphones] aren’t going away.
Driving Forward, Not In Reverse
When I first started going to truck shows and I would get up to talk to people, there was always that guy in the back yelling ‘Hey Marc, that’s cheap freight, blah, blah, blah. How are you able make money and I can’t?’
Here’s that guy’s problem. He is looking behind, through his side view mirrors, because that’s the way his dad did it, how his grandad did it. It requires some updated perspective. I believe I got going in truck successfully because I looked forward, not in the past.
I don’t see how you can make money looking backwards. It’s really hard to drive like that. So I look out ahead and I see what’s coming up in front of me and see how i’m going to make money in the future. What can I do to keep up with the things that are going on?
uShip has allowed me to do that. They allowed me to start a small business and have success. And from that I got on Shipping Wars. It was lucky that it went that way.
But the truth is, if I had not stumbled upon uShip and figured out how to put stuff on my truck, which was just a pickup when I started, I would still be looking backwards. Running my business from my phone is what I see when I look forward. uShip allows me to do that.
Let uShip Do The Heavy Lifting
uShip is a way to make some good money. I would first find a big load, what I call my “anchor load.” Then I would start filling the holes with uShip. I didn’t always find the first load on uShip. I would find it however I could. But once I had my anchor load, I would use uShip to fill the rest. I would add additional small loads to keep my truck full. I went from making $2-3 per mile to $5, $6, $7 per mile. It’s easy!
The app uShip has created is what I am talking about when I say run your business from your phone. The app is able to find you shipments that are on your route to pop up on your phone to tell you what’s available based on the categories you are looking for. I used to have to pull over at night and spend extra hours planning my route before going to sleep. It was a lot of work. I’d rather let uShip do that work for me.
This is an exciting time to be in the trucking industry. For the first time, it is really changing, changing for the better. I’m excited about what’s ahead, and looking forward, I am running my business in the palm of my hand.
Marc Springer on A&E’s Shipping Wars. He uses uShip’s mobile app to find, book and manage his shipments — whether he’s planning out his route ahead of time or when nearby shipments pop up. If you’re interested in the future of trucking, download our mobile app on iOs or Android.
