18 DC VELOCITY MAY 2019 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
Uber Freight, the freight brokerage arm
of ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies
Inc., plans to extend its operations into
Europe, beginning with a launch in the
Netherlands and expanding to additional
countries in the near future, the company
said in a recent blog post. The move by
the San Francisco-based Uber Freight
follows its parent company’s 2018 pledge
to double its investment in the division.
The company says it plans to follow the
same business strategy in Europe that it
used in the U.S. “As we did during Uber
Freight’s early days in the U.S., we will
operate as a manual freight forwarder
and increase app adoption over time,”
the firm said in a “frequently asked ques-
tions” addendum to its blog post. “Using
the platform comes at no cost to shippers
and carriers. There are no fixed prices or
fixed service fees. Uber keeps the differ-
ence between the buy and sell price.”
In addition, the European market is
highly fragmented, with small to medi-
um-sized carriers making up more than
85 percent of the total carrier pool and
struggling to meet the needs of shippers
without the aid of technology, the com-
pany said. To address those challenges,
Uber Freight will operate under Dutch
law as a freight forwarder (expediteur),
connecting shippers that want to ship
their goods to carriers that comply with
applicable rules, the company said.
Uber Freight expands
brokerage service to
Europe
Lift truck manufacturer Yale Materials Handling Corp. has honored its top-performing independent dealers with its 25th annual Dealer of Excellence awards. This year’s recipients include
Alta Equipment, Black Equipment, Burns Industrial Equipment,
Eastern Lift Truck Co., Fairchild Equipment, Gregory Poole,
Papé, Wheeler Material Handling, Berry Material Handling,
Fitzgerald Equipment, Hilo Equipment Services, Medley Material
Handling, Nitco, Riekes Equipment, and
Tynan Equipment Co. … Freight brokerage
firm Logistics Plus Inc. has recognized two
of its less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers for
superior results and performance in 2018.
The honorees are Estes Express, which was
named “Logistics Plus National LTL Carrier
of the Year,” and Dayton Freight, which was
named “Logistics Plus Regional LTL Carrier of the Year.” This is the
third consecutive year Dayton has received the award.
accolades
Third-party logistics service provider (3PL) Quiet Logistics Inc. has been
acquired by a pair of real-estate developers in an effort to capture
a greater slice of the expanding e-commerce market for both digital
native and brick-and-mortar brands, the company said in March.
Devens, Mass.-based Quiet Logistics was purchased in a joint acquisition
by Related Cos. LP, a New York real-estate and lifestyle company known
for large-scale neighborhood developments, and Greenfield Partners, a
Westport, Conn.-based property investment and logistics specialist.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a Quiet Logistics spokesman
said the arrangement will provide several hundred million dollars of cap-
ital to drive future growth, following an “owned-facilities growth plan”
to expand its position in providing e-commerce fulfillment services. The
company currently operates several fulfillment centers on the East Coast
and in the Midwest, and is now looking to expand that network to the
West Coast and Southwest, with eventual plans to go global.
Quiet Logistics Founder and CEO Bruce Welty will continue to work
with the existing management team to grow the business. Welty recently returned to the company as chief executive officer, after working in
the executive suite at its sister firm, Locus Robotics, the Wilmington,
Mass.-based warehouse automation vendor that he also co-founded.
Quiet Logistics has been a user of Locus’s autonomous mobile robots
(AMRs) since its inception, deploying a combination of robotic technology, proprietary software systems, and a human touch.
According to Related Cos., that recipe is a good match for its business
model. “Related has developed some of the most successful retail developments in the U.S., and we are acutely aware of the challenges and
opportunities presented by omnichannel e-commerce,” Michael Winston,
managing director of Related Fund Management, said in a release.
Quiet Logistics acquired by pair of real-estate
developers
DAYTON FREIGHT
