Thousands of semi trucks traverse U.S. highways daily while running roughly half full, producing sizable inefficiency and economic opportunity. Companies such as Uber Freight and Flock Freight already pursue matching drivers with shippers. San Francisco startup Oway focuses on ride-share-style long-haul matching, claiming to cut pallet shipping costs by 50%. Oway, founded in 2023 and backed by Y-Combinator and General Catalyst, closed a $4 million seed round. The company uses machine learning to match cargo to empty trailer space, automates shipping and insurance paperwork, and leverages electronic logging device (ELD) data from trucks to enable convenient route matches.
Oway, founded in 2023 and backed by Y-Combinator and General Catalyst, recently closed a $4 million seed round in pursuit of that goal. Founder Phillip Nadjafov told TechCrunch investors have bought into Oway's concept because his company has already developed a way to cut the cost of shipping a pallet across the U.S. by 50%, using a clever mixture of new and somewhat old technologies.
There's artificial intelligence, of course, in the form of machine learning that Oway developed to help find and match cargo with empty trailer space and a convenient destination (or a short detour). Oway is also automating a lot of the standard shipping and insurance documentation that goes with freight. But Oway's ride-share cargo pitch is made possible by what's known as "electronic logging devices" (ELDs) that are installed on the trucks that traverse our country.
ELDs became government-mandated around a decade ago, part of a push to make trucking safer and more efficient by eliminating paper logbooks. This makes it harder for shippers and drivers to skirt the federal rules on maximum driving time, theoretically cutting down on fatigue. The devices have been a source of contention for many drivers worried about excessive surveillance. And there's some evidence that the promised safety benefits may be offset by an increase in aggress
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