uShip Blog

Top Five uShip Tools Service Providers Need to Know

2009-11-05T20:12:00Z

Transporters are busy people with many places to go, people to see and things to do. In all your busy-ness, we thought it would be helpful to pull together a list of some of uShip’s coolest tools that you may not have discovered on the site – and how these can save you time, make more money and better service your customers. If you have any questions on how to use any of these tools, or have a suggestion for the next great uShip TSP tool, be sure to post it in the comments!

Abandoned listing report
One of transporters’ biggest frustrations is with unresponsive customers, those who don’t respond to questions about timing, dimensions and so forth. You may not realize it but if you think that a shipper has abandoned a listing, you can click the flag at the top of the listing letting uShip know that you think it’s abandoned or inactive. If a listing gets enough “abandoned’ flags, we’ll clear it from the marketplace to ensure only up-to-date and active shipments show up.

For more information on how the abandoned listings flag works, click here.

Saved Searches

We’ve found that many service providers start a new job search every time they log onto uShip. Saved Searches remembers what job types you are looking for, and then e-mails you with updates any time there are listings that meet your criteria. You can create a Saved Search alert for specific categories, price-ranges, along-a-route, or any of our other Find Shipments categories.

Just click the “Save This Search” button at the top right of the find shipments page and make finding jobs on uShip even easier.

Refer-a-load

Did you know you can earn money on uShip from jobs you don’t even touch? Here’s how: A customer is looking for a carrier, but you just don’t have the time or resources to help them. uShip’s Refer-a-Load program lets you refer them to uShip and get 30% of the match fee when their shipment is matched! This is a great way for you to earn some extra money on jobs that you otherwise would miss out on.

Have a load to refer right now? Click here!

Bid Valet

Our Bid valet tool allows you to bid on jobs without needing to be at your computer. When you find a listing you’re interested in, just let bid valet know what your lowest price is, and let it do the negotiating for you! You can set it up to automatically underbid other TSPs, or to reduce the price of your bid by a certain amount every few hours.

Bid valet will do the work for you whether you’re at the computer, on the road, or asleep at home, helping you to offer the most competitive price for the shipment.

Click here to learn more on how to set up the Bid Valet tool.

Group Bidding

Let’s say you’re driving from Austin, TX to New Orleans, LA, and you have two empty spots for cars in your trailer. After going through Find Shipments, you see that there are five cars along that route. By using our Group Bidding tool, you can bid on all five cars and, once two bids are accepted, we’ll automatically cancel the other bids.
The group bidding tool also works with bid valet, so you can increase the chances of booking a shipment.

For more information on how to set up the group bidding tool, click here.

This is just a selection of all of the great tools for uShip Service Providers. For a full list of uShip service provider tools click here. If you think there’s a tool we really should have, and you can’t find it in our list of uShip service provider tools, then please leave a suggestion in the comments!

Halloween Pet Costume Contest- Submit Your Photos!

2009-10-29T15:29:00Z

Thousands of pet owners and breeders have discovered that uShip is a safe and affordable option for transporting pets. In an effort to expose more pet lovers to the benefits of feedback-rated transporters, uShip is proud to announce our recent partnership with Animaroo.com – the World’s Online Animal Marketplace. In celebration of the new partnership, we thought it would be fun to give our new and existing users an opportunity to leave feedback on Halloween pet costumes. Welcome to the uShip Pet Costume Contest!

Are you taking your pooch Trick-Or-Treating this Halloween? Well, trick your pet into wearing a costume, and you could be treated with a $250 gift card to PetsMart.

To enter the contest send a picture of your pet(s) in costume to pets@uShip.com by November 6th at 5pm (CST) and your pretty pug princess or cute cat cupcake could win the prize! Once the submission deadline has passed, we will post the pictures and give you a chance to leave positive feedback for the costume you like the most. The pet with the most positive feedback will win a $250 gift card to PetSmart. (Click Here for Official Contest Rules)

If you don’t have a pet of your own, now is a great time to head over to Animaroo.com and check out their classifieds, where you can look through listings for dogs from Afghan Hounds to Yorkshire Terriers and then use uShip Pets to get your new pup sent to your home!
Watch a Quick Video about uShip Pets

How a Great uShip TSP Helped Deliver 500 books to the Troops

2009-10-20T21:11:00Z

We love hearing our users’ success stories about uShip, but it’s even more rewarding when we hear that our Highway to Help program is helping generous people and service providers to work together for a good cause.

Recently we heard from Paul Malmont, who runs Operation Warrior Library, a group of authors that donate copies of their bestselling books to the troops overseas. The Warrior Library had collected 500 books and was ready to be ship them off to Afghanistan.

How a horseman and uShip helped us deliver 500 books to the Troops:

“That's where my favorite company, uShip, comes in… Now, what makes this company truly cool, is that they have a charity option. When you click that, wonderful people offer to haul for next to nothing. Dave (EllenwoodEquestrianCenter) turned out to be the right guy in the right place at the right time. “

We’re glad to be of service, but it is really the great uShip Service Providers we have on our site that go out of their way to make the Highway to Help program work. We were incredibly happy to hear that the books were delivered to Fort McPherson and are already on their way to the 278th Heavy Brigade Combat team.

On behalf of all of us here at uShip we’d like to thank EllenwoodEquestrianCenter and WarriorLibrary for giving us the chance to bring them together to help out the troops. Keep up the good work!

Join us For Convoy for the Cure

2009-10-20T18:02:00Z

If you’re in the Central Texas area this weekend you should join us for the 1st annual Convoy for a Cure at Willie's Place. Convoy for the Cure is an event set up for truck drivers to come out in support of the fight against breast cancer. The convoy is driven exclusively by female drivers, but the rest of you shouldn’t feel left out- there will be a “support” convoy for all other participants.

The convoy rolls out at 11 am, but the festivities start at 8:00 am. There will be food and live music before and after the convoy.

While you’re there be on the lookout for uShip’s Big Green Bus – we’ll be out there all day so feel free to stop by and say hi!

Join us for the 1st Annual Convoy For A Cure Event!
October 24, 2009 at Willie's Place,
Carl's Corner, TX on 1-35E, Exit 374

Ever Transported One Million Fruit Pies?

2009-10-13T17:50:00Z

A canceled grocery store order has 1,090,000 million frozen mixed fruit pies up for sale on eBay UK. The fruit puffs have attracted nearly 150 bids and currently stands at over £125,000 (or about $200,000). Now that’s a lot of berries. In fact, if all the pastries were placed end to end, they would stretch from London to Bournemouth, a distance of about 125 miles. No word on how it would affect traffic going that direction.

Aside from how much the winning bidder will pay, naturally, the next question is how much will it cost to transport 13,000 cases containing 84 pies each, or about 130 total pallets? The listing indicates “local pickup only” and the job would probably take five articulated trucks or lorries.

What’s the most unusual shipment you’ve ever had to transport?

uShip Enhances Support for Users in Canada and UK

2009-10-12T17:06:00Z

Over the past five years, moving and transport jobs on uShip have gone into and out of nearly 100 countries and regions around the world. Although uShip in based in the U.S., we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to localize our services to support customers and transporters/hauliers in other popular regions. Today, uShip is announcing it has enhanced its support for users in Canada and the United Kingdom to better facilitate shipments traveling in, out or within those two countries.

For our Canadian and UK members, uShip will automatically detect your location and display your appropriate regional settings. You can also view and change your regional settings by clicking on the country flag in the upper part of any uShip page.

What does this mean for customers?

For customers in the UK and Canada, your uShip regional settings will now reflect:

Local currency -- Canadian Dollars (C$) and British Pounds (£)
Local time zone and date format settings for time-sensitive activity on uShip, such as listing expirations and voice alert preferences
Regional dimension/distance format for measuring items and distance in either English or Metric

What does this mean for transporters?

Service providers in Canada and UK can take advantage of a number of the same regional settings their customers now have, such as local currency, time zone and measurement format, in addition to:

Default Find Shipments settings to help you easily find shipments to, from and within your country
Enhanced support for Along-a-Route and Local searches in Canada and UK
UK Service Provider Directory so UK customers can easily find and request bids from you

Transporter Special – Waived Fees in the UK

To celebrate today’s news, we’re offering a special to service providers: For the next 90 days, all transporters qualify to have their uShip booking fees waived for the first 10 shipments booked to, from or within the UK.

Further, all members in the U.S. will now be able to set their own time zone, which will impact listing duration, bid expiration and some alerts preferences.

Top Truck Ads Selected in Germany

2009-09-30T17:11:00Z

As we were researching last week’s post on Truck Art, we stumbled upon the Rhino Awards for Truck Advertising. The Rhino awards celebrate the most creative trailer advertisements and are held every two years in Germany. All of the ads are submitted as mockups, and once the winners are selected, they get printed and displayed on actual trailers during the awards ceremony.

The goal of the awards is, at least partially, to help relieve boredom on Germany’s AutoBahn and capitalize on the tremendous potential for mobile advertising on trailers. Here are some of our favorite selections from last year’s awards, as well as some all-time favorites.

Before (Vorher) and After (Nachher) – Weight Watchers:

For A full list of the submissions for 2007/2008 click here.

Holy Guano, Batman!!

2009-09-24T19:40:00Z

At uShip, we've had our share of buzz-worthy shipments -- a life-sized Frank Sinatra figure, a real dinosaur skull, and a trailer full of caskets but we just came across one that may be difficult to touch: 4 pallets of bat guano, or excrement from the nocturnal creatures.

What you may not realize is that Guano is quite valuable, a modern-day black gold. Soil that is deficient in organic matter can be given a boost from guano's high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen. A Jamba Juice Energy Boost for your dirt, if you will. Best of all guano lacks of an offensive odor. So whichever service provider lands this job, they'll be right up there with psychiatrists and plumbers -- all people who help others deal with their crap.

Finding a Household Mover -- Better Online or Offline? Part II: Fraud and Moving Scams

2009-09-21T17:31:00Z

uShip CEO & Founder Matt Chasen takes a look under the hood of moving and shipping to see how it’s evolving and the innovations shaping how customers and transporters do business.

This series addresses the recent NPR Marketplace piece entitled, Online competitors move in on shippers, which posed the question, “Are consumers better off shopping online or offline for household movers?” In Part I, I attempted to distinguish uShip from other “online” ways to find a mover and also compared the 98% customer satisfaction ratings on uShip to those of the overall moving industry satisfaction rating of 80% according to a recent J.D. Power’s Study. In this post I discuss fraud and scams in the moving industry and explain why I believe that people are far better off using uShip to find a mover than any other on or offline alternative.

Unfortunately, fraud exists and the moving industry is not immune. The anonymity and lack of transparency make many places on the Internet especially vulnerable to fraud and scams. Phishing emails, fake cashier checks and money orders on craigslist, and spoofed and fake websites are common types of internet fraud according to the U.S. D.O.J. Last week, the FBI release an updated list of scams that are luring unwitting people. In addition to harming consumers, these scams also undermine consumer confidence in legitimate e-commerce and the Internet.

There are some websites out there where consumers can go to read and post reviews of movers –movingscam.com is probably the most well known. While these sites have undoubtedly help lots of people, they do have several important limitations when it comes to actually finding a mover.

First, the majority of posted “reviews” are from purportedly “scammed” customers and therefore negative (there is little incentive to seek out these websites and leave positive reviews) – so it is difficult for a person to get any sense for what percentage of a mover’s customers have negative experiences, which is ultimately what is useful.

The second drawback is that it is impossible to validate that these reviews are being left by legitimate customers. Anyone can leave one anonymously, and posts can be faked by competitors and others with ulterior motives.

Third, customers have to actively search for these reviews – they do not accompany quotes from these movers that customers might get from websites or offline.

What Makes uShip Different

One of our goals at uShip is to create not only the most efficient, but also the safest possible place online to find moving and transport companies. We’ve built a transparent, transactional marketplace where movers are rated by their actual, verified uShip customers. By comparison, the reviews site AngiesList.com, claims to verify reviews, but they actually charge a fee just to read reviews – something that is absolutely free on uShip.

In addition to real customer feedback, uShip has sophisticated fraud detection systems, detailed articles about how to avoid fraud and a dedicated Fraud Prevention and Support Team that works closely with government agencies and law enforcement to assist our users. All of these features make uShip one of the safest ways to find a mover, and almost certainly safer than Craigslist, directories or any alternatives, whether online or offline.

In fact, fraud is so rare on uShip that we are able to protect our users from most types of fraud with our “Ship with Confidence” Guarantee – which we actually just increased from $200 to $500, effective September 1st, 2009. Since launching our Guarantee two years ago, users have done over $70 million of business and we’ve only had 4 claims. Of course, as in any online transaction, it is critically important that users take basic steps to protect themselves (as outlined in our Fraud Prevention Guidelines).

Safe uShipping, everyone, and look for Part III of this series: Evaluating Moving Companies.

Transportation News for Sept 1st to Sept 18th

2009-09-18T19:13:00Z

A bit of good news for truck drivers in Maine next year:

Maine Turnpike Authority plans to develop 30 new parking spots and equip them with devices that provide air conditioning, heating and electricity, and possibly cable TV and Internet connections.

For drivers that often have do nothing but in their cab for 11 hours a day due to federal regulations, this could be a great money saver. Estimates are that truckers could save around $38 for every 10 hours previously spent idling because of reduced diesel costs and engine wear. Although there are already these types of devices in private truck stops in New England and California, Maine is one of the first states to begin installing them from EPA grants from the stimulus. They also come with a great environmental reward, each new electrical parking spot could save 2000 tons of CO2 emissions a year.

Tracking the Transportation Lobbyists

The Center for Public Integrity has begun releasing information on the lobbying efforts on the new Transportation Bill. Almost 1800 special interest groups are actively involved in lobbying for special concessions in the $500 billion bill. The center has released a map tracking 3500 lobbying events by location, and includes the amount spent by each company or organization.

The concern is that the bill will be so loaded with concessions and special projects that it will fail to achieve the goals of truly modernizing the US ground transportation infrastructure, and will include new rules and regulations that could hurt the transportation industry. (Hat Tip: eTrucker)

Featured Shipments:

The Ohio University band is using uShip to list their musical instruments for the Rose Bowl Parade from the University Campus in Athens, Ohio to the Rose Bowl in Buena Park California. If you’re interested in helping the university out with their very special (and fragile!) shipment, check their listing out here to make a bid! Congratulations to the Ohio University band on being selected for the parade and good luck!

Highway To Help

When we announced Highway-to-Help, uShip’s charitable shipments program, we hoped to match up generous shippers with Transportation providers looking to help people make a difference. We were happy to see this shipment by WarriorLibrary, who is sending 22 boxes of books to the Troops in Afghanistan matched so quickly with Dartagnansblade for a bid of $5. The books will complete the first 892 miles from New Jersey to Georgia via uShip, before making their 7,400 journey to Afghanistan. Thanks to both of them for lending a helping hand!

Trucks as Art - The Creative Side of Trucking

2009-09-15T21:48:00Z

In the past we’ve highlighted the creative spirit of truck drivers do a great job decorating their truck and taking pictures on the road. Today we’d like to present a different point of view – trucks used as art.

As pervasive as 18-wheelers and delivery trucks are in our way of life, we rarely get to see them transformed into art pieces. We scoured the internet to find you some of the ways artists are transforming the backbone of America to make it more beautiful, or at least more interesting.

This piece, called Big Rig Jig by Mike Ross, was constructed from two discarded tanker trucks and displayed at Burning Man, an art festival in the Nevada Desert, in 2007. The structure not only towers 42 feet in the air, but is also designed to allow a person to enter through the cab and climb through the tankers to emerge on a platform at the top. An incredible feat of art, engineering, and playground technology rolled into one.

This truck was designed by artist Vyal, an 18 year veteran of graffiti art, and founder of Graffiti Saved My Life a group that promotes Graffiti art as an alternative to drugs and violence. Though a respected gallery artist, Vyal often gets commissioned to do his work on public spaces, but always with permission taking the stance that “it’s art OR vandalism” not both.

Finally, while this isn’t necessarily a work of art in itself, it’s definitely a statement about art. Truck Art is a mobile gallery that tours around the U.K. and Europe presenting the art of an artist for a few hours before moving to a new artist in a new town. For larger pictures visit TruckArt.org and click on past exhibits.

World's Largest Truck Convoy Drives Donations

2009-09-10T16:01:00Z

The Special Olympics is once again hosting the World’s Largest Truck Convoy to help raise money for its events.

We’re always happy to hear about members of the transportation industry who go out of their way to help others. The Special Olympics has long realized the giving spirit of our industry and has been hosting the World’s Largest Truck Convoy since 2001, raising millions of dollars for their programs in the process.

The events are held locally with collaboration from local law enforcement, truck drivers, and trucking companies. For a donation of $100 drivers can register for the event and become eligible for special prizes for the participants that raise the most money, including the honor of being the lead truck in the convoy. The 2008 US Convoy’s featured over 1700 trucks and raised $643,000 for the Special Olympics, and the Canadian one had over 2000 truckers participating.

If you would like to find out more information about the Convoy in your area, you can look up the 2009 convoy contacts. If you do participate, make sure to send us your pictures and let us know how it went!

TXTing While Driving no LOLing matter

2009-09-03T20:40:00Z

Virginia Tech Study shows texting while driving 23 times more dangerous than regular driving, 3 times more dangerous than drunk driving.

The controversy over texting-while-driving has growing recently as “smart phones” get more popular and we send over 110 billion text messages a year in the US alone. Sure, texting gives truck drivers a quick way to check in with dispatch and keep in touch with family while on the road. But the message is quickly coming in that texting while driving, or Driving While Distracted (DWD) is far more dangerous than anyone originally thought.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) has released a report about the risks of various cell phone distractions while driving. The FMCSA - financed study tracked the eye glances of truck drivers as they performed various phone-related tasks while driving. Their results show that an average of 4.6 out of every 6 seconds are spent looking away from the road while texting, making the driver 23 times more likely to crash. Could you drive safely if you had your eyes closed for five seconds out of every six?

The results are even more surprising when you consider the risk involved in texting at the wheel are three times higher than driving above the legal BAC limit. Despite these findings, only 14 states ban texting while driving, although a national ban is supported by the Governors Highway Safety Association, a national group representing state highway safety officials. . The VTTI report said unequivocally, “Texting should be banned in moving vehicles for all drivers.” Causing a car crash while texting in Utah can lead to a 15 year prison sentence.

Although the risk in texting is very great , the study also shows that talking on a hands free device has very little increased risk. Texting may be a cheaper alternative to talking, but the long term costs can be much higher. If you absolutely have to send a text message the only safe way to do it is to wait until you can stop to do it. It may be inconvenient, but the risks highly outweigh the benefits. Do you text while driving? Do you think it should be illegal? Let us know in the comments.

Making Your Next Sailboat Move a Breeze

2009-09-01T16:12:00Z

see more Fail Blog

Maritime ventures need to be well played and wisely timed, especially during Hurricane Season. Erika, Fred, Grace and Henri and the rest of this season’s blowhards are sure to follow Danny, which is currently breathing down the neck of the Carolinas. No matter what time of year you make a seaward journey, make sure you are well prepared for the high winds, rough oceans, and have everything you need. And for Pete’s sake, look at a map.

For one couple, the voyage from Annapolis to Florida left them shaken and their broken boat beached in North Carolina – and later it was discovered they were unaware of a much safer route along the Intracoastal Waterway. Seaworthy magazine reported that during their trip (which was before Hurricane Season), the rough conditions caused the anchor to damage the prop and left the sails unusable, with the rough waves quickly propelling them to the sandy beaches. A surfer who saw the accident happen was surprised that the man had braved the ocean rather than using the Intracoastal Waterway, but the skipper had never even heard of it.

Crashing in to the shore can be one of the better scenarios. Not having the right communications equipment can leave you lost at sea for days, with the coast guard unable to track and find you. Two young boys learned the hard way, when they were stranded at sea for six days without food or water, and no way to contact the coast guard.

Of course, the safest way to get your ship to Florida from the North East is to ship your boat on uShip. With uShip tracking your boat will never get lost, and your carrier is unlikely to get stranded at sea. If you insist on making the journey, make sure you are well prepared for the high winds, rough oceans, and have everything you need to survive and get rescued, should the worst case scenario happen to you.

Finding a Household Mover -- Better Online or Offline? Part I: Customer Satisfaction

2009-08-28T21:36:00Z

uShip CEO & Founder Matt Chasen takes a look under the hood of moving and shipping to see how it’s evolving and the innovations shaping how customers and transporters do business.

On a recent NPR Marketplace piece, Online competitors move in on shippers, the question was posed, “Are consumers better off shopping online or offline for household movers?” It’s a great question and one I wanted to weigh in on with more uShip perspective beyond what was in the piece.

First, I think it is important to distinguish uShip from other “online” ways people find movers such as craigslist or other online directories and venues that do not have uShip’s unique model and tools, such as feedback, customer-reviews and fraud protection. Therefore, I think it’s important to reframe this question a bit to “Are customers better off shopping on uShip or offline for household movers?

Some quick background… A core part of our mission at uShip is to empower both consumers and transportation service providers by creating the first transparent marketplace in an industry that has historically lacked accountability and transparency. Our unbiased feedback system is unique in the industry and helps people find the very best movers while also incentivizing movers to provide the best customer service.

I would argue that customer satisfaction is the best metric to look at when evaluating if consumers are better off using uShip vs. offline alternatives. The fact is that over 98% of feedback left on uShip is positive and less than 1% is negative (remaining is neutral). Compare that to the J.D. Power’s 2009 Full Service Moving Company Customer Satisfaction Study, where they found that “overall satisfaction with moving companies averages 804 on a 1,000-point scale” (for those of us that are mathematically challenged, that’s 80.4%). “Mayflower Transit improves substantially from 2008 to rank highest in 2009 with a score of 831”. Not to take anything away from Mayflower's impressive win here (many of Mayflower's agents and affiliates are actually members of uShip), but an 83% positive rating would put them in the bottom 10% of movers on uShip.

I encourage everyone to check out the article as well as the related mover ratings, press release and video – there are some pretty interesting and relevant findings. “Satisfaction with shipping estimates is nearly equal among customers whose estimates are completed in-person and online-averaging 807 and 805, respectively. However, shipping estimate satisfaction among customers who receive their initial quote over the phone averages 12 to 14 points lower than that of customers whose estimates were completed using either of the other two methods.” So, even among customers of the same movers, online quoting beats the very common “offline” practice of quoting over the phone.

When it comes to customer satisfaction, I do not know of any other online or offline alternatives that even come close to uShip's 98+% positive overall rating. Of course, we at uShip cannot take credit for the outstanding service that our members receive - so I would like to recognize and thank our thousands of household movers for helping to provide arguably the best customer satisfaction available anywhere. In Part II of this series, I will address the issue of fraud in the moving industry.