uShip Blog : Announcements

uShip Tops $125M in Bookings, Continues In-Country Localization

community@uShip.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:24:00 GMT

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.

uShip Pricing Tools Now Available on AutoTrader Classics and LeaseTrader.com

community@uShip.com — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:03:00 GMT

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.

Pet Costume Contest Winner & New Contest for TSPs!

community@uShip.com — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:01:00 GMT

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 Enhances Service for Members in Australia and Throughout Europe

community@uShip.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:19:00 GMT

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.

Halloween Pet Costume Contest- Submit Your Photos!

community@uShip.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:29:00 GMT

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

uShip Enhances Support for Users in Canada and UK

shawn@uship.com — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:06:00 GMT

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.

What Moves You? NPR's Marketplace Profiles uShip in Moving Industry Story

community@uShip.com — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:02:00 GMT

Whether you’re a service provider or shipping customer, this should be of interest. uShip was included in a piece on Marketplace, the nationwide personal and business finance program from American Public Radio (and heard on nearly 500 NPR stations). uShip CEO Matt Chasen is a part of a 3-4 minute piece by reporter Lenora Chu, who looks at fundamental changes in the moving industry.

Have a listen to the story here

PayPal Service Interruption on 8/03

community@uShip.com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:51:00 GMT

As some of you may have experienced yesterday, PayPal had an unexpected world-wide system outage on Monday, from around 10:30 a.m. to around 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The interruption affected users worldwide while the company worked to solve the problem. According to MSNBC PayPal handles $2000 a second in online transactions, making the outage not only inconvenient but potentially expensive for PayPal and its users.

Although PayPal issued an apology for the outage uShip would like to also apologize for any inconvenience that this outage may have caused our customers. Members of the uShip team are currently contacting every member that was affected by the outage to ensure that all problems have been resolved.

If you believe you will need additional help please visit our support page at http://www.uship.com/support/.

Bid Options Help Streamline Bidding and Acceptance Process

community@uShip.com — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:07:00 GMT

uShip.com now gives users more options when placing and reviewing bids. Service Providers can now offer additional services to shipping customers through the new Bid Options feature. This streamlines the bidding process, allowing Service Providers to give different service options with one bid. Customers can then select the exact services they require.

Bid Options are currently available in the cars and light trucks, power boats, sail boats and motorcycles categories. Service Providers can add options to their bids from the bid form or from My Rates. Options may be offered for a flat fee or as a percentage of the bid. When a customer reviews the bid, they can select the options they would like to include, and the cost of these options will be included in the total bid price.

As an example, up until now, if a Service Provider wanted to offer a different price for open and enclosed vehicle transport, they would need to place separate bids for each service, maybe $400 for open and $500 for enclosed. With Bid Options, they can place one bid of $400 with a $100 option for an enclosed trailer and let the customer choose the service they need.

Where's My Stuff? uShip Tracking Let's You Follow Your Shipment in Real-Time

community@uShip.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:46:00 GMT

uShip Tracking Center helps customers keep track of their shipments through GPS location tracking, and TSP status updates through uShip Service Providers that opt-in to the program.

Some of uShip’s Power Providers have been using the system for a few weeks: “The most common questions I get from my customers when I’m on the road are: ‘Where are you now?’ and, ‘When will you be here?’” said Mike Garrett a uShip Platinum Power Provider from Southern Maryland Moving and Storage, LLC. “Now I can answer those questions for many people at once through these updates, and when being considered for future jobs on uShip, I have a better chance of getting that business.”

uShip tracking is another way that our Service Providers can keep providing great service while helping customers have confidence and peace of mind when using uShip.com to ship their valuable belongings. Whether it’s your prized pony, your 72” plasma TV, a classic car, or the entirety of your home, now you can use any internet connection to get real-time updates on where it is and where it's going with the uShip Tracking Center.

uShip Tracking (beta) Released for Power Providers

community@uShip.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:42:00 GMT

uShip.com shipping customers can now track the location and activity of shipments and Transportation Service Providers from the uShip Tracking Center. Customers that accept a bid from a participating Power Provider have the ability to track their shipments while in transit for added peace of mind. They can also find TSPs in their area, allowing them to submit more targeted bid requests.

The feature is currently only available to Power Providers but will soon be made available for the entire marketplace. uShip offers several options for tracking your shipments, from manual status updates by TSPs to GPS location tracking on Sprint and Nextel mobile devices in partnership with WaveMarket.

Learn More >

ChooseYourItem.com Adds uShip.com Transport Solution

community@uShip.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:56:00 GMT

ChooseYourItem.com has selected uShip.com as its transportation partner for its online classified listings in a variety of different categories.

ChooseYourItem.com bills itself as the “premiere place to find it, sell it, trade it!” and has listings in categories from airplanes and antiques to motorcycles and commercial trucks.

ChooseYourItem.com integrated uShip’s Shipping Price Estimator into their classified listings, allowing their shoppers to get instant transportation estimates on items they are considering for purchase and easily list their new goods to start getting bids.

The partnership gives uShip Service Providers access to new customers who have an immediate need for transport services and gives ChooseYourItem.com customers a better way to find reputable and affordable transporters for all of their online purchases.

Improved Support for Canada on uShip.com

community@uShip.com — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:53:00 GMT

uShip.com has improved searching and mapping capabilities for shipments beginning or ending in Canada. This includes any cross-border loads as well as intra-Canadian shipments.

Benefits for Transportation Service Providers:

Access an interactive map showing all U.S. states and Canadian provinces to search for loads.

Use the geographic search to locate nearby shipments or pinpoint loads along your route.

Partnership with Vancouver-based Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers is adding hundreds of heavy equipment loads each week.

Free inclusion in the uShip Canadian directory for Service Providers offering service there.

Benefits for Shipping Customers:

Transporters can more easily find your listing for loads crossing the border or wholly within Canada.

More competition from transportation companies can mean better service and better prices.

Estimate transport costs with our Shipping Price Estimator.

Browse transportation companies servicing Canada in the uShip Service Provider directory to request a bid.

Bid on Hot Deals and Save 50% on Match Fees

community@uShip.com — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:22:00 GMT

Now uShip.com Transportation Service Providers can get an immediate 50% discount on Match Fees by bidding on a listing that has been designated a “Hot Deal.”

Hot Deals Are:

Listings that have not received a marketplace bid, but are likely to match if they receive one.
Shipments that are likely to match based on a statistical analysis of a variety of factors including past customer activity, the quality and completeness of the listing and other member and listing data.
A great deal for transporters since Match Fees are discounted by 50% if the first bid placed on a Hot Deal listing is accepted.

Hot Deals Tips:

Hot Deals can be found on the new Hot Deals tab in Find Shipments and are also denoted by the Hot Deal icon ---- next to the shipment name in Find Shipment sorts and in Saved Searches.
Only the first bid on a Hot Deal shipment is eligible for the discount. Subsequent bids, even by the same TSP, are not eligible.
TSPs are encouraged to bid aggressively and accurately on their first bid on Hot Deals shipments in order to win the job and receive the 50% discount.

TSPs can check for Hot Deals now >>

uShip.com's Month Long Mania

community@uShip.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:34:00 GMT

Just five years after introducing a new and innovative way to ship things, uShip is preparing to surpass $100 million in gross shipping volume. To celebrate this milestone we thought to ourselves, “Why not give away some prizes to our Twitter followers?” So that’s just what we’re going to do.

Monday, April 27, four randomly selected people who retweet our contest announcement for the day will receive a $25 gift card from Amazon.com. Every following weekday until Memorial Day weekend we will tweet a question of the day. The first person to respond will get a $10 Amazon.com gift card and we’ll also select one person at random from everyone who responds by midnight Central Time and give them a $10 Amazon.com gift card, too. Best of all, you can win more than once.

So, for example, one day we may tweet “How many times have you moved in the past five years?” All you have to do is reply like so: “@uShip: I’ve moved five times in the past five years. #ushipcontest”. Be sure to include “#ushipcontest” so we can know when you’re entering and remember, there are no right or wrong answers—just a fun giveaway to say “Thanks!”

And that’s not all. Every answer you give over the course of our contest is an entry for our grand prize: a Flip Mino HD camera. More responses equal more contest entries equal a better chance at taking home the grand prize. Want even more entries? We'll give you five more just for signing up and checking out uShip.com. Just go through this link to sign up and direct message @uShip with your uShip.com username and you have five more entries for our grand prize. Good luck, tweet tweet!

Follow uShip on Twitter.