Back in 2004, when uShip launched, we set out to connect people and businesses with feedback-rated transporters to make moving more affordable and efficient. In just five short years, we’ve not only done that but we’ve also hit a significant milestone:
$125 million in business transacted on its marketplace.
We couldn’t have done this without tens of thousands of service providers who have driven a collective 185,000,000 miles in five years (for those keeping score at home, that’s equal to 755 trips to the moon!). Or without hundreds of thousands of customers who have shipped cars, trucks, freight, household goods, heavy equipment, boats, motorcycles, pets, along with eBay and Craigslist purchases more efficiently and affordably. In fact, uShip customers have left over
26,000 positive stories on uShip and thousands more on
Facebook.While uShip has had non-U.S. shipments since 2005, you’ll continue to see more in-country localization in 2010, adding to our existing local settings in the U.S., UK, European Union, Australia and Canada. Read more about this localization
here and
here. You’ll also be hearing more about
Highway-to-Help (our charitable moving program), uShip’s “green” effort and site design updates.
We put together a few additional facts and figures you might find interesting about uShip:
- At any given time, $8-$10 million in shipping jobs are available to transporters on uShip
- eBay item shipments on uShip have topped $30 million
- uShip deliveries have gone into and out of nearly 100 countries and regions
- Non-U.S. shipments are up 500 percent globally and 272 percent in the UK vs. 2008
- 160,000 transporters have registered and placed 2.8 million bids on uShip.com
- 900,000 shipments have been listed on uShip since launching in 2004
- Transporters volunteering to provide shipping services to those in need at little or no cost, have helped hundreds of people and traveled 200,000 miles, equal to eight times around the world.
One of uShip’s most popular categories is vehicles. At any given time, thousands of cars are listed on the marketplace – and with two new partnerships, that’s about to increase. AutoTrader Classics and LeaseTrader have now incorporated uShip’s Shipping Price Estimator and vehicle transport information into their sites, making it easier than ever for their users to save on car shipping.
AutoTrader Classics is one of the largest sites on the Internet for the buying, selling, owning, and appreciation of classic, collectable and specialty cars and trucks.
LeaseTrader.com is the first full-service online auto lease transfer marketplace, matching individuals looking to get out of a short-term lease with people looking to lease a vehicle.
With thousands of vehicles listed in our marketplace everyday, car transporters on uShip have shipped some pretty amazing cars. We took a quick browse through our favorites and have them on display below. When you’re finished enjoying these beauties, check out AutoTraderClassics and LeaseTrader to see an even bigger selection of impressive cars.
When you’re talking about classics, nothing is more classic than a Model T. Regarded as the first affordable automobile; Henry Ford’s Model T was manufactured between 1908 and 1927. Junkinjeff’s beautiful red carriage will be around for years to come after its successful trip from Munford to Ft. Mitchell.
blitzforce’s 1965 Shelby Cobra brings bling to a whole new level. Chromed out to max, the customized roadster is one of the cooler cars you will ever see. He recently trusted it to uShip and was rewarded with a 1700 mile shipment for under $2,500.
Like its cousin Shelby, the AC Cobra is a British roadster originally intended for the track. Designed as a “corvette beater,” the light weight auto is so fast that it is rumored to have contributed to the implementation of national speed limits in the U.K. While no laws were broken during the transport of BajaBoys’ 1967 gem from Riverside, CA to Sumas, WA, you can bet federaltowingltd was putting the pedal to the metal.
antiqu8ed’s 1932Ford Street Rod is straight out of a mobster film, but cooler. The black and aqua exterior make this hot-rod an eye catcher, and the antique body style harkens back to the heyday of American automobile manufacturing.
It may not be a classic yet, but it’s hard to find a classier car than the the twin-turbo W12 engine Bentley Continental GT. With top a top speed of 198 mph, it can get places fast. What’s more, this luxurious king of the automotive jungle turns heads with its looks as much as performance. And what’s better than 1 Bently? Well two, of course. lipemedeiros shipment traded a a convertible Bently Continental, for a hardtop version.
The old adage says “fast, cheap, or good. Pick two”. You want it done quick and cheap? Well the quality will suffer. You need it good and fast? You better be willing to shell out the big bucks.
But does it really apply anymore?
Before the internet, it was hard to get competitive pricing for small shipments. With only a few freight companies in every town, it was hard to shop around for the best prices. If you needed something shipped, you have to wait until their trucks were ready. Need the shipment rushed? It can be done, but it will cost extra.
Then there’s the question of “good”. You can open the yellow pages and pick a carrier, but all an ad takes is money. Even after checking references or the better business bureau, you get a small sample of their service, not a good picture of their average customer.
The internet changes all of that.
Fast
Then: You had to wait for one of the local transport companies to have a truck available.
Now: You have access to thousands of trucks across the country that could potentially transport your shipment.
Cheap
Then: Unless you were big enough to negotiate contracts, you payed the standard rate.
Now: Multiple transporters can bid for your business, offering the best price possible.
Good
Then: You have to rely on their word, your instinct, and if you’re lucky, a few references.
Now: You can browse through literally hundreds and thousands of reviews, and choose the transporter that gives the best service to the average customer.
When a marketplace connects thousands of customers and providers “fast, cheap, or good”, becomes “fast, cheap, and good”.
The uShip Pets Costume Contest has come to a close and we are happy to announce the winner:
By day she is Mizu, walking around the house, digging holes in the garden, and sniffing at your ankles,…but at night she’s known as the Bark Knight, the Canine Crusader, or simply, BatDog. She walks the city streets, digging up crimes and sniffing out… evil. She was also the cutest pup in our contest, winning a $250 gift card for her owner!
Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. There were so many adorable submissions, so make sure to visit our facebook page to see all of the entries!
New Contest for Pet Transporters!
After the success of the costume contest, we thought we’d share the love with some of uShip’s excellent Service Providers. Starting Monday, November 15th, until December 31st, the uShip Service Provider with the highest number of successful pet matches will be awarded with a $500 Amazon.com Gift Certificate! For more information, check out the contest info page here.
So head over to find shipments and get bidding on any of the over 500 pet listings found there every day!
uShip has just enhanced its localized services in Australia and the 27-country European Union (EU). As with the recently improved services in the UK and Canada, it is now easier than ever for uShip members in Australia and across the EU to list and find shipments within their country or region.
uShip automatically updates a user’s regional or country settings based on location, whether in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia or within the EU, which is the single largest developed market in the world consisting of more than 450 million consumers. . Members can also select a different region by clicking on the country flag in the upper right corner of any uShip page.
What does this mean for customers?
For members in the EU and Australia, uShip regional settings now reflect:
- Local currency -- Australian Dollars (A$) and Euros (€)
- 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 Australia and the EU 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 Australia and the EU.
- EU and Australia Service Provider Directory so customers can easily find and request bids from you.
Transporter Special – First Match Fee Waived!
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 their first shipment booked to, from or within the EU or Australia.
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!
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
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!
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
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 $200,000). Now that’s a lot of berries. In fact, if all the pastries were placed end to end, they would stretch from London to Bournemouth, a distance of about 125 miles. No word on how it would affect traffic going that direction.
Aside from how much the winning bidder will pay, naturally, the next question is how much will it cost to transport 13,000 cases containing 84 pies each, or about 130 total pallets? The listing indicates “local pickup only” and the job would probably take five articulated trucks or lorries.
What’s the most unusual shipment you’ve ever had to transport?
Over the past five years, moving and transport jobs on uShip have gone into and out of nearly 100 countries and regions around the world. Although uShip in based in the U.S., we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to localize our services to support customers and transporters/hauliers in other popular regions. Today, uShip is announcing it has enhanced its support for users in Canada and the United Kingdom to better facilitate shipments traveling in, out or within those two countries.
For our Canadian and UK members, uShip will automatically detect your location and display your appropriate regional settings. You can also view and change your regional settings by clicking on the country flag in the upper part of any uShip page.
What does this mean for customers?
For customers in the UK and Canada, your uShip regional settings will now reflect:
- Local currency -- Canadian Dollars (C$) 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
