the online shipping marketplace

Giving back to the Austin, TX community, which has been so supportive of uShip over the past several years, is something we do with a great deal of pride. While we mix in smaller events throughout the year, we are thrilled to particpate twice a year in the Entrepreneur's Foundation of Central Texas Service Days. Service days, which take place in the fall and the spring, bring together over 300 volunteers from various tech-companies to work on important projects throughout the Austin community. This Spring, uShip had the honor of working in Austin's eastside on a project with Habitat for Humanity.

Our project was to do an overhaul of the exterior of the Habitat for Humanity warehouse facility -- this is the homebase for all Habitat projects throughout the city. The uShip team, along with some amazing Americorps volunteers leading the way, spent several hours painting the façade, adding framework to the building, and mowing and landscaping. Though we aren't ready to quit our day jobs, the team definitely pulled together despite a few mishaps with some pesky bees and wasps. At the end of the day the facility had a new face, which is important as it is located in a residential neighborhood. Now, families walking their kids to school will have something nice to look at each and every day!

Here are a few shots of the team in action!

Thanks again to Amanda Chiampi, Eugene Sepulveda, and everyone at the Entrepreneur's Foundation of Central Texas for making this a great day of teambuilding and community outreach!

In the past few years, many places across the US have sadly seen low water levels in lakes, creeks and ponds, but hopefully this season will prove to change that streak.  The New York Times recently reported that a heavier than normal water runoff from the spring thaw is expected to extend the normal boating and rafting season in the West.  Other lakes, like Lake Fontana in North Carolina, are also seeing a tourism boost this season due to the higher water levels.

In 2000, the US Army Corps of Engineers conducted an interesting study on the relation of lake water levels to the amount of recreational boating around the Great Lakes area.  Their findings seem quite rational; as lake levels lower, the area business and marinas feel the negative effects in their pockets.  Overall, the fewer boating days in a season seem to correlate directly with consumers spending less money on boating.

This is great news for all of those aquaholics out there - and even better news for our boat category Service Providers.  We already know this is a hot season for boat transporting, and it sounds like 2008 will be even busier than normal!  Good luck bidding and happy boating!

We are deep in the heart of the political season, meaning candidates, especially those running for president, are ready and willing to throw anything and everything at the American people in an effort to win votes.

This is no more evident than the recent proposals from Senator Clinton and Senator McCain to have a "Summer Gas Tax Holiday". On the surface (read ‘sound bite from the campaign trail'), this sounds like a great idea - cut the gas tax and people will pay less at the pump. Hey, these are hard economic times; everyone wants a few more dollars in their pocket! But is this the reality? Will this proposal really work, or is it just a campaign trick to earn votes from, and appear sympathetic to, working class voters?

A closer look at the proposals would suggest the latter. Now this isn't a political blog, so I will refrain from endorsing the policy proposals of one candidate or the other, but gas prices have a HUGE impact on the uShip community so I think it is worth discussing this issue and why I think it is flawed.

First, I want to point to an op-ed piece in the New York Times by Bryan Caplan (associate professor of economics at George Mason University). Caplan argues that while flawed, the gas tax holiday is the lesser of other evils/proposals that would be far more damaging to the economy.

First, this is the only legitimate article I could find supporting the proposal. Second, I hardly think that it is good economic policy to support something because we are afraid of what might be done in its absence. So, let's move on to why I think this policy is more gimmick than substance, and why I believe it will not put any real dollars into the pockets of the hard working truck drivers that make up the heart and soul of our community (and will, in fact, have farther reaching consequences that will affect drivers down the road).

The primary argument against the holiday has to do with basic supply and demand. I think this argument was best stated by Leonard Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. "Every summer, the refiners are running full out. If the price fell, people would want to drive more and there would be shortages. It's basic economic principle that if the supply is fixed, the price is going to be determined by demand." Basically what Mr. Burman is saying is that there is a fixed supply of fuel (we are at full refinery capacity over the summer months) and that lowering the tax would lead to more consumption. With no extra supply, the oil companies would have to raise the price to offset the increased demand. In other words, oil company profits rise, prices remain essentially the same, while federal tax receipts go down.

This leads us directly to the second argument against the tax holiday, which I think is especially important to our truck driver community. The lost revenue to the federal government is estimated to be approximately $9 billion. This is $9 billion that will be taken directly out of the Highway Trust Fund. The money in this fund is used to maintain infrastructure on our Federal Highways, in fact, 45% of all highway spending comes from the trust.  Pulling this money out will exacerbate the already alarming issues with our national highways infrastructure. This has direct and far reaching affects for those of you traveling the roads every day.

Based on these two reasons, and the consensus of just about every economist in the country, I would argue that the gas tax is simply political theatre. Rather than put money directly in the hands of consumers, it will simply divert money from the fed to the oil companies and impact our ability to properly maintain the safety of our federal highways.

Of course, this is just my analysis - what do you think?

Some of you may have seen our Press Release from last week announcing that we reached an important milestone - 100,000 registered Transportation Service Providers! To highlight how much our growth is accellerating, it took us 3 years to reach 50,000 service providers and just 1 more year to double to 100,000. On behalf of uShip, I would like to thank our entire TSP community for making uShip the largest marketplace for transportation services.

What some of you may not have noticed is that just 1 day before reaching this milestone, we also surpassed 10,000 concurrent shipment listings for the first time. Thanks to all of our shippers for helping us reach this milestone - it's good to know that our 100,000 TSP's will have plenty of shipments to bid on! We are really excited to have hit these milestones in just 4 years since launching our website.

Happy uShipping everyone!

Matt Chasen

Regardless of your stance on the war, you have to respect the brave men and women serving in our armed forces.  It is easy for us to sit back and argue about who said what and when we need to get out, but our soldiers are faced with very real life and death situations on a day-to-day basis, and it is a shame that many of them encounter considerable difficulty when seeking employment upon their return from duty.  Troops 2 Truckers hopes to make the transition back into civilian life a little smoother by providing our soldiers with solid jobs in the trucking industry.

Troops 2 Truckers is operated by retired military servicemen and women and is currently running at USMC Camp Pendleton and MCAS Miramar, CA.  The program provides on-base training with the aim of providing participants with both a CDL and a job immediately upon completion.  T2T has partnered with industry leaders to ensure that soldiers who participate in the program are making an investment in their future.  It is a refreshingly active response to an issue that most seem content to just argue about.

Earlier this month, Mickey, Phil, and I made our way to Louisville, KY to attend MATS, or the Mid-America Trucking Show.  With 1.2 million square feet of show space and 1,174 exhibitors, MATS 2008 went down in the record books as being the largest heavy duty trucking show of all-time.

As first time exhibitors, our team embraced the three days of trucking mayhem.  We were situated in the Expediters Experience with our friends over at Expediters Online and it was a true pleasure connecting with the owner-operator community.  We are able to spread the word about uShip and take in valuable suggestions from existing users.  I would like to thank everyone that came by the booth and hope to see more of you at the next trucking show.  

... And use uShip to bid on jobs. In all seriousness, not a day goes by without the media reminding us the dire straits the US economy is currently in. But (for once) politicians are getting things done in Washington. In February, Congress passed an economic stimulus package aimed at businesses—namely, small businesses. The NY Times reported on the legislation which raised expensing caps and loosened depreciation requirements. The Times’ example of expensing is relevant to uShip and all the Service Providers who use our site:

An independent trucker wants to buy a new rig, which costs about $150,000. Before the new law, he could expense (that is, deduct) only the first $128,000 of the purchase price. Under the stimulus act, he will be able to write off the entire purchase price (up to the new $250,000 limit).

In a recent post on his blog, Dan Goodwill, a Canadian transportation consultant, recommends that when “carriers are looking for new sources of revenue to boost their top and bottom lines” they think about making use of existing assets and relationships.

uShip is another way for carriers to drive top-level (revenue) growth—not just a venue for filling backloads or weekend jobs. With advanced tools like Group Bidding (and more on the way, stay tuned) uShip is building a complete platform for carriers to identify new business opportunities and stay ahead of the competition.

So take advantage of raised expense caps, buy yourself a new truck, and find jobs on uShip.

(Hat tip to Dane Carlson's Business Opportunities Blog for for turning us onto the legislation.)

Recently, talk of high fuel prices has dominated discussions about the shipping industry, so I wanted to take this chance to talk about a lighter topic: trucker hats.

Synonymous with the truck driver, these hats enjoy popularity with people across the country and around the world.

I started thinking about trucker hats after reading Bud Gernstein's story. Mr. Gerntstein has hauled items all over the country for around 30 years, collecting nearly 600 trucker hats from various businesses and events as mementos of his journeys. Mr. Gernstein recently decided to sell most of his enormous collection, though his most cherished hats will be passed down to his family.

With over 90,000 service providers on uShip, surely you've come across or own some amazing hats. So let's share some of our hats with each other.

Reply to this post with a link to a picture of your favorite hat. It doesn't have to be flashy or fancy; it could be your favorite because it's the best fitting hat you've come across or an item that's been through countless journeys with you.

Last week's post talked about proposed solutions to rising gas prices within the transportation industry. Many of those solutions involve making the industry much more environmentally-friendly.

While ideas are great, what will be important is seeing real companies implementing changes that both reduce costs and make trucking more green. Con-Way Freight, the inudstry's leading less-than-truckload (LTL) freight transportation company, has officially stepped up to the plate by making some significant changes to their equipment and business practices. These changes were made to both reduce Con-way's carbon footprint and boost profits.

• Lowering the governor on their fleet of 8,400 trucks from a maximum top speed of 65mph to 62mph in an effort to reduce carbon-emissions and reduce consumption.
• Using advanced truck aerodynamics in order to reduce the drag on their trucks  and therefore decrease fuel consumption.
• Using new lubricants for their trucks (for example: Amsoil Lubricants) in order to reduce internal engine drag and maximize engine efficiency.
• Combining certain engines and drive-trains that work better together for fuel mileage and power requirements.
• Using only 100% ultra-low sulfur diesel.

All of this will help Con-Way reduce their carbon emissions by 72 million pounds, which is the equivalent of more than 7,000 cars.

These positive steps all coincide with Con-Way's membership to  the EPA's SmartWay Transport Program. The company became a member back in 06 and has been commended for it's recent changes. The SmartWay Program came into fruition in 04 as a voluntary partnership between the EPA and freight businesss to reduce emissions and gas consumption.

As of March 1st, nationwide diesel prices hit an all-time high of more than almost 11 cents per gallon from the previous record. Prices may continue to rise, as the US government has mentioned that gas prices will be higher this spring and summer compared to last year. You can check the daily updated average diesel gas price in every state here.

The good news is, despite increased fuel costs, trucking is on the rise. While the increasing gas prices are frustrating to everyone, and especially to those in the transportation industry, what is interesting are the variety of proposed solutions that will help the industry cope with rising costs. These solutions include:

• Caps on diesel prices
• More fuel efficient equipment
  
• Fuel credits for truckers

I know that uShip Service Providers are dealing with this issue every day, and I wonder: What are the solutions you think will help the industry deal with rising diesel prices? On an individual level, what are you doing to manage increased prices?

This hasn't been the first time we've discussed gas prices, but I think the same conclusion holds. Despite rising fuel prices, uShip has never been more active--which shows us all that the transportation industry has plenty of room for growth, even if it hurts a little more at the pump.

For most of the last year, the trucking industry has been on a slow decline. At a time when many people are concerned about the economy, one would assume that things might only go from bad to worse.

Luckily, this doesn't seem to be the case. Goldman-Sachs thinks trucking is on the rise and has urged their customers to purchase stock in the trucking industry. The US trucking sector has been upgraded from "cautious" to "attractive" by the firm, and Goldman-Sachs believes the industry will stabilize--if not grow--in 2008, despite a looming recession.  This is good news for all in the industry... hopefully all our uShip Service Providers will be able to take advantage of this welcome change.

International Trucks, originally the McCormick Harvesting Machine company back 175 years ago, revealed its new flagship tractor, the Lone Star, at the Chicago Auto Show on February 7^th.

It looks like something from the future yet has an old style look.  As the Chief Designer of Lone Star, Dave Allendorph, puts it, it is a "modern interpretation of what classic is."  The distinctive grill and sloped hood was inspired by trucks the company used to make back in the 30s.  According to Dave, owner operators today have mostly been using a tall hood and flat grill...but now, "you don't have to compromise between fuel economy, style, performance and comfort."  The Lone Star is estimated to be 5-15% more fuel efficient than classic trucks, which could equate to $8,000 in annual savings to truckers.  According to Tom Baughman, General Manager of Heavy Vehicle Center, "Lone Star delivers on outstanding fuel economy...as good as the best of the aero trucks and a look and an image that you can tell for yourself is truly spectacular."

The Lone Star is the result of automotive-inspired design and extensive customer research, including interviews with hundreds of drivers, International said. The Lone Star offers improved ergonomics, an industry-leading suspension, advanced electronics and a quiet cab, the company said.  One interesting point about the development of this truck is that it progressed directly from math and clay models to production without any development prototypes.

For all of you truckers out there, I am sure you are jazzed about the fuel savings and sleek new look.  But as an internet guy, I am most excited about how geeked up the truck is.  It features a Monsoon stereo system with 11 speakers and subwoofer, workspaces to plug in laptop computers and has Bluetooth integration technology.  Some other cool features are the wooden floors, pull-down bed with 42-inch premium mattress and a mini-fridge.  The LoneStar will be in production in August at Navistar's plant in Chatham, Ontario.

Let me know what you think about this new ride offered by International.

Since I've been with uShip, I haven't had the opportunity to take too many extended vacations. Luckily, living and breathing the glamorous world of online shipping is, in many ways, a tropical paradise in and of itself. However, sometimes one needs an actual break to clear the mind and rest the soul. I was lucky enough to do so these past few weeks, spending time in India and Singapore, which was a stop off on my glorious 24 hour plan ride to and from my ancestral homeland.  (Is it just me or is one of the single greatest advancements of the past decade the ability to watch unlimited, personal, in-seat movies on international flights - even in coach! Now if I could just get the seat to go back more than 2 inches....)

While my belly grew larger from meal after meal of Tandoori chicken and spicy curries, I had a lot of time to reflect on some of the socio-economic changes that had, in less than two decades, transformed Bangalore, a city of 6.5 million once best known only for its gardens and (relatively) cool climate, into a yuppified,  Silicon Valley of India. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and most of the other familiar tech names we know all have major presences in the city. Of course, most Americans, when they think of Bangalore, probably think of the outsourcing phenomenon. If you've called a support person at American Express, CitiBank, Dell, or Hewlett-Packard...you've probably talked to someone in Bangalore.

So is outsourcing a good thing? Whatever our feelings, there is no doubt that Thomas Friedman is right, and the world is getting flatter. Financial markets have become permanently intertwined and there is no more clearer example than India and the U.S.  Given our country's current perception among much of the world, I think it is fair to say that there may not be a country  in the world that loves America as much as India. Certainly to India, outsourcing has been a salvation, transforming slums into livable dwellings and creating a middle class where none really existed. I remember one of my earliest trip to Bangalore (I was 10 or 11) when the entire town was abuzz because they had gotten their first fast food joint - a tiny Kentucky Fried Chicken. Now of course, you can buy just about anything found in any mall in America over there...and often for cheaper that in the U.S. because of lower overhead.  It's amazing what happens when labor becomes close to a commodity...from the luxury of having a cook, three maids, a driver, a night watchman, and a nanny (for about $500 a month total)...to the slightly absurd, yet regular occurrence of parking lots hiring people to push the automatic ticket dispenser button and hand the ticket to you as you drive up.

Make no mistake though, in India, even relatively rich cities like Bangalore still have a long way to go regarding infrastructure  - i.e., roads (virtually no traffic laws are followed), airports (2 baggage belts for a major international airport) , public utilities (lights go out now and then).  And of course, much of the populace still lives in abject poverty due to the severe overpopulation. Bangalore, although the Silicon Valley of India, would still feel like a 3^rd world country to most Americans. Yet there is an amazing energy and entrepreneurial drive over there...after years of flirting with socialism and trying to shake the lingering socio-economic chains of the British Empire, it is ironic that those specific effects of colonization - compulsory English language schools, a democratic political process, and a working and mostly fair justice system, are India's biggest advantages in the world over its emerging market rival, China, who has an even greater labor force at its disposal.

Let's remember however, that not all outsourcing is so obvious, or even so..."out". In fact, the next time you go to Wendy's and pull up through the driveway and order a single with cheese and a Frosty....you may be speaking to someone in Delaware!

As we are in an election year, there is no doubt that outsourcing will be among those discussed by candidates. What are your thoughts on the issue?

Over the past couple weeks, eBay has undergone several major changes—Meg Whitman retiring, John Donahoe taking over as CEO, changes in fee structure, the acquisition of Fraud Sciences by PayPal, and more. uShip is a very popular resource among eBay sellers and buyers, so I read blogs such as Scot Wingo's eBay Strategies to keep abreast of related news. The recent changes address the 3 F's of eBay's business—Finding, Fees, and Fraud.

First, Finding—eBay is updating the way you can search for products. Over the last decade, eBay has shifted from exclusively auctions to an increasing percentage of fixed-price listings. As the model changed, search (which returns results based on how soon an auction is ending) has become less relevant.

eBay's solution is BestMatch. Some clues inside the BestMatch black box can be gathered in a February 2007 patent filing by eBay for "determining relevancy and desirability of terms." BestMatch takes into account detailed seller ratings, shipping and handling, keywords, price, timeframe, and more. BestMatch—slated to go live in March—reflects changes in online purchasing behavior since the site was founded in 1995. If you're an eBay seller, I recommend researching how you adapt to BestMatch.

Next, Fees—eBay has made some controversial changes to its fee structure. Listing fees will drop-by as much as 50 percent while fees on sold goods (especially low-priced goods) will rise. eBay is completely removing gallery fees, encouraging merchants to upload photographs. Here at uShip we've seen that listings with photographs are much more effective so kudos to eBay for making this change. eBay says the net effect of its changes is lower fees for 60% of users.

Finally, Fraud—eBay is working at this from two angles: feedback and fraud detection. Feedback is central to eBay, uShip, and other online marketplaces because it is an extremely effective and efficient tool for building trust between buyers and sellers. As such, there are high incentives to game the feedback system. eBay's feedback changes include removing seller's ability to leave negative/neutral feedback for buyers and creating minimum/maximum time limits for leaving feedback.

Beyond feedback, PayPal's acquisition of Fraud Sciences strengthens its ability to proactively detect fraud. PayPal acquired the private Israeli company for $169 million in cash. Fraud Sciences specialty is "risk tools and analytics" which eBay says will be integrated with PayPal's existing fraud management systems.

All these changes are part of eBay's effort to continue growing along with retail shifts online. The web looks a lot different in 2008 than it did thirteen years ago when eBay was founded. These changes highlight the challenges (and huge opportunities) of running an online marketplace. At uShip, we encounter these same issues on a daily basis.

One final note—I am constantly confused by the acronyms people use when talking about eBay. Luckily, eBay has a helpful section so you are in luck the next time you forget the difference between MWBT and MWMT.

We get a ton of interesting emails here at uShip - most of which are not fit for re-publishing. But every now and then, we get an email (okay, in this case an email with a picture) that I absolutely have to share with you.

Lou, thanks for your enthusiasm, you certainly put a smile on more than one face here at uShip HQ! Are there any other folks out there that want to show your devotion to uShip? If so, send us your picture and you might find some cool uShip gear in your mailbox (just know that I will have to post anything as awesome as this picture on the blog!).