Internet Spawns ‘Non-Asset Based’ Freight Middlemen
Companies that do nothing more than match shippers with carriers on the Internet are springing up to meet electronic commerce demands, wring inefficiency out of freight transportation and make money.
Even if they don’t do much, they have flooded the market recently. The blitzkrieg of Internet entrepreneurs has reached the transportation industry partly in answer to transportation and fulfillment demands brought to light as e-commerce firms sold record volumes of goods they could not deliver efficiently.
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These Internet transportation firms call themselves “non-asset based,” which means they are arranging and passing the freight business to logistics providers or trucking companies.
And while the firms do none of the heavy lifting associated with moving freight, they say they offer cost-savings for shippers and efficiency improvements for carriers.
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