Earlier this month, Dan Goodwill’s Transportation Consulting posted an article about our newly-added Membership Plans and how they can help shippers in Covid-19 times:

On July 7, 2020, Freightera, North America’s rapidly growing online freight marketplace, announced the enhancement of its popular free platform with value-added paid memberships and a rewards program. Freightera’s customers can now subscribe to a range of Membership Plans that provide enhanced freight transportation services, tailored to their unique requirements.

Freightera is one of the top growth companies in the North American freight transportation industry, having increased revenues 240% per year since 2015, making it the third fastest-growing company in British Columbia. Frost & Sullivan identified Freightera as one of the top five “automated on-demand” freight platforms in North America and the only system that offers fixed-cost, all-inclusive quotes direct from transport companies of all sizes and modes.

Covid-19 Considerations

There is a concern in the freight industry that as the North American economies recover from the pandemic, this may lead to capacity shortages. Shippers who work with a limited set of asset-based providers may experience challenges in covering their loads. Similarly, the economic downturn is causing companies to reduce staff. Shippers who become Freightera members may lessen some of these concerns by utilizing the company’s streamlined automated shipping processes, their broad range of services, and their extensive network of carriers.

Freightera’s Membership Plan initiative has again demonstrated its industry leadership, customer-centric focus, and innovative approach to meeting the needs of North American shippers.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Freightera, North America’s rapidly growing online freight marketplace, just enhanced its popular free platform with value-added paid memberships and a rewards program.

“I am pleased to announce our latest release that enhances your experience and makes bookings more rewarding and fun,” noted Freightera CEO Eric Beckwitt, updating Freightera’s 12,700+ business shippers. “It also expands our plans and services beyond classic free Freightera with more choices for everyone.”

Late in 2019, the company surveyed its top shippers and found they were interested in value-added services and paid plans if Freightera was to offer them. Freightera’s team created a game plan and completed the implementation at the end of the second quarter, despite the added stress of COVID-19 disruption.

“It’s great to see a positive response from our shippers,” noted Beckwitt. “Automated bookings are up sharply, and we have renewed interest from investors.”

Because most businesses are affected by COVID-19, Freightera is offering three-month free trials of new paid SMB Plus and SMB Priority plans.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 15, 2020 (Newswire.com) – Freightera, a leading online freight marketplace offering instant freight quotes and streamlining shipping operations for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors in Canada and the U.S., was recognized among BC’s top private companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector by Rocket Builders for the second year in a row.

According to Rocket Builders, the annual 2020 “Ready to Rocket” lists “provide accurate predictions of private companies that will likely experience significant growth, venture capital investment or acquisition by a major player in the coming year … The “Ready to Rocket” lists are the only predictive lists of this kind in North America, requiring many months of sector and company analysis.”

“Freightera is honored to be recognized among the leading technology companies in British Columbia,” said Freightera CEO Eric Beckwitt. Some of BC’s most famous companies were acquired while on a Rocket list or graduated to become unicorns. This year’s lists feature 200 companies across five sectors: Information and Communications Technology, Cleantech, Life Science, Digital Health and Agri-Food.

Rocket Builders started its recognition program 18 years ago during the stock market downturn of 2002, post “the Internet bubble,” a time somewhat reminiscent of the current COVID-19 crisis. Rocket Builders’ partners Geoffrey Hansen, Dave Thomas, and Thealzel Lee covered the highlights for each sector, announced the recognized companies, and commented on COVID-19 related changes in the markets, investor interests, and growth predictions.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 14, 2020 (Newswire.com) – Freightera, North America’s freight marketplace start-up, just opened a Source Locally Community for its members, thousands of manufacturers, distributors and retailers in Canada and the United States. This project to facilitate local sourcing was started in response to the COVID-19 disruption of conventional and global supply chains.

The company realized that many of its customers needed help with sales to keep the doors open. At first, they just wanted to promote customers’ products so others in the community could purchase them. They noticed from what was shipping on the Freightera platform that customers had an inventory of products missing from supermarket shelves and also medical supplies needed by governments and hospitals.

“On March 24, we emailed to over 10,000 shippers in our marketplace asking them if we could promote them and their products,” continued Beckwitt. “We received a positive response and immediately started work on an internal community where our customers could see what products and supplies were still shipping, indicating the company is still in business and has the product for sale.”

On April 1, Freightera received a call from the BC Government’s COVID-19 Supply Hub to purchase medical and essential supplies. The team immediately sent this information to its shipper community. Hundreds of members responded. One of them even had millions of the coveted N95 masks. The company is currently working with the government agency to get these supplies to where they are most needed.

The Freightera Source Locally Community is a free service open to all registered shippers on the platform.

On Mar 3, 2020, Freightera will participate in the Urban Freight forum hosted by the Pembina Institute at The Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto.

According to the Pembina Institute, the forum will ”catalyze how urban freight can be differently managed in our cities, both now and in the future, [and] gather a cross-section of the most influential city-builders, transportation planners, policy practitioners and recognized sustainability leaders in business and industry.”

The forum participants will talk about the main challenges in urban planning, land use, and transportation, and related policies and implementations. Forum topics will range from ”municipal leadership on urban freight and goods movement, alternative delivery and operating models, opportunities for new and emerging delivery modes and technologies, and showcasing successful partnership for implementation.”

As Freightera’s mission is to make freight shipping sustainable and green, we are honored for this peer-to-peer learning opportunity.

Eric Beckwitt will be the first of five featured speakers on developing Cargo Tech trends, and will seek to ”help demystify technological complexities, and potentially help enhance your supply chain in the digital age”, according to Cargo Logistics Canada.

Freightera CEO will speak about digital transformation on Wednesday, Feb 5 2020, on the Tech Hub Stage, between 10:30 am and 11:15 am.

The 7th Cargo Logistics Canada Expo & Conference will be held at Vancouver Convention Centre from Feb 4 to Feb 6 2020, will consist of networking events, a conference program, and various exhibits.

Awesome news for Freightera blog and our readers! Our post Ship a Pallet in 15 Easy Steps: Quick Guide for Pallet Shipping for Beginners was selected among thousands of articles as one of the finalists in the Transport/Freight category. We want to thank everybody who voted for us!

Sadly, we didn’t win, but we had a chance to compete with some of the top online resources for freight shipping, and we learned a lot from reading their articles. We’ve found them relevant and educational, and we’re hereby sharing them with our readers.

“Last Friday, I joined the Global Climate Strike in Vancouver, Canada, with a group of colleagues representing a coalition of prominent British Columbia businesses promoting a clean economy. It was inspiring and energizing for all of us to walk the streets with what the press estimated was 80,000 people, many families with small children and thousands of students attending with their entire schools. Vancouver schools and many colleges were closed, and you can’t argue that the political lesson we all learned on that day was invaluable. It was a hopeful, bright event on a gorgeous sunny day in Vancouver. Vancouver, along with many other cities in North America, demonstrated what huge people power lies behind the climate action and sustainability movement of today.

Many progressive politicians are taking note. The Green New Deal legislation in the U.S. Congress is inspired by the “New Deal” public works projects of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The “Green New Deal” addresses both climate change and economic growth, directing investment in renewable energy infrastructure to avoid severe climate change while increasing employment. In this brief report, let me illustrate how the polluting and inefficient freight transport industry in North America could be transformed by a “Green New Deal for Freight Transport.” How can we do this with existing, rapidly developing technology?

In a groundbreaking new study, LUT University and Energy Watch Group reveled that by 2050 the world economy can run on 100% renewable energy with zero CO2 emissions. Energy cost with 100% percent renewables is projected to be slightly less than in 2015, and employment in the energy sector is projected to increase from approximately 20 million (2015) to 35 million (2050). In North America, the transition to 100% renewal energy is projected to be associated with an increase in employment in the energy sector, from 1.8 million jobs (2015) to a peak of 3.8 million by 2025 and 2.7 million by 2050. Cost of freight transport in this scenario during the transition to 100% renewables will decline by 70%, with cost of trucking falling the most.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, August 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Freightera, the rapidly growing Vancouver-based B2B Freight Marketplace offering instant all-inclusive LTL, FTL and rail freight quotes in Canada and the USA, was recently listed as #3 of 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in B.C. by Business in Vancouver Magazine. See the list on the BIV website.

Companies must have had $50,000 in sales in 2014 and $1 million in 2018 to qualify. Founded in 2014, Freightera grew 5,366.7% from $97K to $5.3M in revenue in 2018. Today, the Freightera marketplace connects 13,200+ businesses with over 20 billion freight lanes from 800+ transport carriers in the platform. Shippers love the combination of best prices, best inventory and excellent customer service we offer and routinely save over 50% on the transportation cost using Freightera,” says Eric Beckwitt, Freightera CEO. “We are happy to make the very top of the BIV Fastest-Growing Companies list. It’s a big recognition and a huge honor for everyone in our enthusiastic team.”

Freightera, a Canadian-based digital freight marketplace, plans to go public.

CEO Eric Beckwitt confirmed to FreightWaves on August 1 that his Vancouver-based firm is seeking a listing on the TSX Venture Exchange through a process similar to an initial public offering.

“Our intention to be a publicly listed company,” Beckwitt said.

Freightera is utilizing a Canadian process known as a qualifying transaction, which allows a private firm to merge with a publicly traded holding company.

Beckwitt said he could not disclose details or a timetable pending regulatory approval. However, a public disclosure by OV2 Investment on June 30, the company Freightera is merging with, valued the company at C$34 million.

“It is conservative,” Beckwitt said. “We’ll see what the market does.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Freightera, North America’s freight marketplace offering all-inclusive freight rates from hundreds of carriers of all sizes and transport modes, just launched door-to-door full truckload service from Union Pacific, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, three of the largest railroads in Canada and the U.S. This coverage combined with existing service from CSX and Norfolk Southern makes Freightera the only freight platform in North America offering comprehensive coverage from the major railroads. Freightera is currently in the process of obtaining live rates from the remaining two Class 1 railroads.

“Intermodal transport by rail is usually the least expensive way to move freight long distances,” says Freightera founder and CEO Eric Beckwitt, “but until now, freight shippers were unable to go to one platform and get instant all-inclusive rate quotes from the major railroads. Now they can do that with a click of a button. No phone calls or brokers necessary. They can also compare rail rates with the leading trucking companies’ rates and get a clear sense of available services and optimal cost for each shipment.”

Shipping freight by rail offers many important advantages over trucking. In the Freightera platform, a recent sampling of long-haul full truckload rail rates reveals 45 percent cost savings on average over truck rates with guaranteed availability. In Canada, Freightera rail rates are around 40 percent cheaper than long-haul trucking rates.