The U.S. trucking industry faces an alarming inefficiency: despite a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers, trucks spend 35% of their journeys empty (known as deadhead miles). This is significant economic drag driving outsized environmental repercussions. The resultant 150m tons of CO2 emissions and the staggering $7 trillion in undelivered goods highlight the immediate need for intervention. This inefficiency is exacerbated by the fragmented nature of the freight market, which consists of 4M trucks spread out over 500,000 carriers growing at 10% annually. Unfortunately, due to the widespread data silos across these fleets, no one has successfully aggregated real-time freight data across all operators that would allow one to begin to address these growing problems.
In September 2021, freight prices reached an all-time high of $10,400 according to the global container freight rate index [source] (up 466% from 2020). US trucking rates specifically have since come crashing down, then up, then down again, then up again. As you can see below, volatility has indisputably increased.
GenLogs offers a foundational freight intelligence platform that boasts real-time tracking of all truck and trailer traffic. Using a combination of proprietary technology and data, their advanced AI systems provides an unparalleled view into the real-time movements of the American supply chain via commercial trucks. The potential applications of their data span a wide range of sectors, from freight brokers and shippers to governmental bodies. Importantly, solving these problems will make the US supply chain more resilient by unlocking new capacity, better visibility for planning / crisis response, and novel financial products for hedging long-haul freight prices.
Their goal is to become an integral component of the $1T ground freight industry, mirroring the role of the Multiple Listing Service in the real estate sector ($1B in annual recurring revenue). By establishing themselves as the primary data platform for the industry, GenLogs will spur the creation of a multitude of product suites and tools that will leverage their invaluable data that bring resilience and efficiency to the fragmented trucking landscape.