The technology-driven trucking company CloudTrucks received a $20.5 million Series A investment in December to create a suite of tools that would help owner-operators enter the market and successfully scale their businesses.
While the company previously has only offered tools for drivers running under its authority, the company announced Wednesday it has launched two offerings open to carriers outside of its operations.
Its first offering, Flex, is a toolkit for owner-operators that gives them access to available loads, schedule optimization tools and the company’s Business Intelligence Dashboard, mirroring its previously released Virtual Carrier program.
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“The vision at CloudTrucks has always been to provide trucking entrepreneurs with all the tools that they need to succeed. Our Business Intelligence products are a big part of that,” said Tobenna Arodiogbu, CEO and co-founder of CloudTrucks. “Prior to this release, we have only been able to work with drivers who are coming under our authority. Now we are expanding our reach by allowing owner-operators to keep their own authority and still have the same CloudTrucks experience.”
Its second offering, CT Cash Card, is now open to the public as well. Using the CT Cash Card will allow carriers outside of the company’s authority to track everyday transactions, leverage discounts on fuel and maintenance and receive cash advances and quick pay transactions with a 1.5% fee per payment, competitive to the 3-5% fees commonly seen from factoring companies.
“Factoring rates are ridiculously high and they make it difficult to even get out of those agreements,” said Arodiogbu. “With our card, you can get out with 30-day notice, the fee is low and you get real-time eligibility checks for advances. Our system will let you know whether that load is eligible or not for the advance and you are funded in minutes.”
Arodiogbu explained that the company’s goal is to bring the advancements of technology commonly seen in the traditional banking world to the trucking industry.
“The CT Cash Card can become a virtual card that you can add to your Apple wallet,” he said. “This feature is critical for owner-operators. If they lose their card, they can very quickly disable the physical card and still have access to the virtual card that is accepted at most locations now.”
Along with opening up its offerings to owner-operators outside of its authority, CloudTrucks has updated a number of its Business Intelligence features to help carriers track CT Cash Card expenses and set goals for future revenue growth.
“We were finding that our owner-operators were falling into two categories when it came to managing their finances. There were folks that had dedicated accountants and those who did not,” said Arodiogbu. “In one quick glance [the Business Intelligence platform] helps those without finance experts track revenue per week and dollars per mile, giving you a good sense of what all your costs are. You can also set revenue goals for the week and manually add recurring expenses so that everything is tracked really well.”
The company has separated all of its owner-operator offerings — Virtual Carrier, Flex and the CT Cash Card — so that drivers can choose the exact experience they want to have with CloudTrucks.
“It’s basically a choose-your-own adventure for your business,” said Arodiogbu. “If all you need is better cash flow tools, you can just use the CT Cash Card and still have access to the Business Intelligence Dashboard. If you need better scheduling tools but want to stay under your own authority, you can join our Flex program and still have access to all the same features as our owner-operators.”
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