In an Amazon-driven ecommerce world, it's hard to fathom just how time-consuming it can be for retailers like Lay-Z-Boy to ship their inventory across the country.
Even though one-click ordering and GPS tracking are commonplace for consumers, the trucking and logistics industry that brings merchandise from around the world to store shelves relies largely on phone calls, personal relationships and Excel.
A slew of tech-fueled companies from NEXT Trucking to ZUUM are trying to modernize the $1.2 trillion transportation industry, made up largely of small fleets that serve manufacturers to large multinational enterprises.
<p>"We created a Priceline for trucking," said Matt Tabatabai, co-founder and COO of ZUUM. "Everything you can think of [in the trucking industry] is super old school and low tech."</p><p>ZUUM isn't targeting the FedEx and Amazon fleets, but the 2,000 trucking companies in the U.S. with over 20 trucks each and the 700,000 with under 20.</p><p>Tabatabai founded ZUUM in 2016 with logistics executive and CEO Mustafa Aziz to do just that. The company already counts Home Depot, Tyson and Staples among their clients and it just scored a $8.58 million seed round that it will use to expand its reach. </p><p>The round bumps their total funding to $12.58 million at a time when global supply chains are reeling from slowed business and shipping operations. </p><p>ZUUM's app connects the three main players involved in long-haul freight — shippers, brokers and carriers — through what it calls a "logistics-super-platform." It sets pricing rates for shipments and can connect shippers with vetted truckers. </p><p>"Some software solutions exist but they do unitary things and charge an arm and a leg for it," Tabatabai said. </p><p>ZUUM's target customers are mid-market retailers and small trucking companies, which Tabatabai calls their bread and butter. </p><p>The software also automates the process: billing, payment, managing drivers and tracking shipments. Companies can also use their system to calculate freight quotes and schedule trucks.</p><p>The idea is one that companies like Uber Freight and Convoy have run with in recent years. Tabatabai said ZUUM operates a lot like NEXT Trucking, the venture-backed "FreightTech" company that laid off 20% of its workforce in March, as dot.LA <a href="https://dot.la/next-trucking-laysoff-20-of-workforce-reversing-fast-growth-2645018098.html" target="_self">reported</a>.</p><p>Tabatabai said ZUUM stands out from competitors because it isn't "another Silicon Valley tech company," His team understands firsthand what makes freight so complex.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUwNzgwNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDU3ODk1OH0.XfCoGUGdBhPzx0-dpPD5aeYJKqM7W0OQcmt6TbGwWMc/image.jpg?width=980" id="ae7cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d81c97e006cbd42ca6b223b4ad11de0c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Matt Tabatabai is co-founder and COO of ZUUM.
<p>While most digital freight marketplaces try to eliminate brokers to save costs, ZUUM believes brokers are essential because they already have the connections.</p><p><span></span>"The trucking industry can't be automated overnight," he said. "That human element has got to be there for some time."</p><p>Brokers emerged in the 1980s to help companies importing goods connect with trucking companies. Tabatabi said these brokers typically call truckers to find a match for their clients.</p><p>The company helps them transition to online operations through its "broker in a box" feature. </p><p>CEO Azizi came from the brokerage industry before launching ZUUM in 2016 with Tabatabai, who previously worked on the tech side of shipping.<br></p><p>"There's been this trend of trying to automate everything and I'm not going to name the city that ends with Valley," Tabatabai said. "Our industry is too complex for that."</p><p>Tabatabai expects the industry to keep digitizing. Eventually, he said, AI will take over many of these tasks, but rushing into that change would be a mistake, which he said the industry learned when autonomous trucks entered the market.</p>
<p><br/>The raise comes during ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China that have led to a dip in imports at California ports. Companies have started to reroute supply chains from China to countries in Southeast Asia with ports on the East Coast instead of the West.</p><p>The money they've raised will go towards tech operations, sales and marketing. The recent round was backed by investors including Estes Express Lines, Plug and Play Ventures, SAIC Ventures and Holman Growth Ventures.<br/></p><p><em>This post has been updated with new information about ZUUM's target market. </em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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Shipsi's 'Drastic Measures': Cuts Staff, Trims Customers, Adds Efforts to Weather COVID-19
Apr 28 2020
In these pandemic times, people are more isolated than they've been in our lifetimes and more dependent on technology for everything from work to entertainment to food. So you'd think that L.A. company Shipsi Inc., which is dedicated to connecting businesses across 700 cities to its last-mile delivery networks of one million drivers, would be experiencing a boom.
Spoiler alert: It's not.
In fact, the roughly 40-person company founded in 2017 has laid off half its staff as a "cautionary measure" after non-essential company closures, with Shipsi's remaining 20 or so employees now taking everything from partial to full furloughs to limit the bleeding. The company has also refined its technology to help make operations more automated and cut back on customers that require significant support or resources.
<p>"We took some pretty drastic measures initially, because no one really knows how long this is going to continue," said CEO and co-founder Chelsie Lee. "We had to make some really hard decisions."</p><p>Shipsi is hardly alone. </p><p>It's been a brutal year for retail, and for the technology platforms that support them, unless your business is related to food and beverage stores. According to the most recent monthly numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau's retail trade survey, retail trade sales were down 6.2% from February 2020 and 3.8% below last year. Food and beverage stores were up 28% from March 2019, while clothing and clothing accessories stores were down nearly 51% from last year. There's little indication that their next report, in May, will be any better.</p><p>But the company has worked hard to rise up to the challenge, whether through diaper deliveries, helping farmers who no longer have restaurants to deliver their goods to, or by launching a new less expensive product Tuesday that neighborhood stores can use to help with product delivery amid it all.</p><p>Shipsi, which is backed by Halogen Ventures, had seen strong growth prior to this, with month-over-month growth anywhere from 60 to 350%, said CEO and co-founder Chelsie Lee. Lee's company works with some major brands, including longtime California surfboard and surfwear brand, O'Neill, the retail chain Party City, and had started a pilot program with Brooks Brothers before the pandemic hit home. It's unclear what will happen with any of these arrangements once the dust settles.</p><p>Founders are "proving in this moment whether they'll make it or they won't" said Jesse Draper, founding partner of Halogen Ventures, the L.A.-based early-stage venture capital fund that invested in Shipsi and generally invests in consumer technology companies led by women.</p><p>Out of the firm's 60 portfolio companies, Draper said in a recent interview that companies have on average laid off 10 people, with as few as one to as many 60 people being laid off.</p><p>"A lot of them are doing it because they need to increase their runway," Draper said. "Some are doing it fully to restructure (because) they needed to restructure anyway. It kind of forced them into action. Most of it is just in case, these guys need to figure out if they don't have runway for 12 months they need to figure out how to have cash for 12 months.</p><p>"Even some of the ones who were doing well, had just closed a round, they were like maybe let's lay off one or two people."</p><p>For Shipsi, which had just hired additional staff at the end of 2019, the decision required Lee to reevaluate her workforce, cutting employees with a more focused skill set and betting on those who "had more depth and more breadth of skill that we could utilize in other areas," Lee said. She also weighed the fact that for some, letting them go would enable them to reap additional unemployment benefits while those benefits last.</p><p>Many of Shipsi's big retail clients are businesses that aren't providing "essential" products and so their shops that operate as distribution centers temporarily shut down. But the company has been working hard to innovate quickly to face the challenge of COVID-19 and also to help.</p><p>It's rapidly built and is deploying new products, including an instant delivery portal, so that companies that might not have the budget to pay to integrate with an e-commerce site or don't have one, can merely have customers go to a portal instead and request delivery in an hour or at a time of their choosing, as easily as if they were calling an Uber.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE3MDI1MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjYwODcxN30.UaoQ6KqhqRvddGzkBMhZoHBFYl6bO8YrYVfJGGQfKCA/image.jpg?width=980" id="8636d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9727c38df4f96027cdb530b8f3543480" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><br/></p><p>Their technology automatically provides shops with customer service and real-time tracking services, plus the ability to rate shops, Lee said. So far, at least 10 entities have <a href="http://www.shipsi.com/signup" target="_blank">signed up on their website</a> to trial a new beta version of their technology, which officially launched Tuesday.</p><p>Shipsi plans to also release in May an e-commerce integration that allows for stores to provide curbside pickup rather than just delivery.</p><p>The company has also moved into areas it never imagined, including helping the local community deliver supplies to families and babies in need by facilitating the delivery of more than a million diapers. The company is also working with local farmers who traditionally sell to restaurants who aren't able to do so right now, and don't have a website or the means to sell their goods.</p><p>"Really it's a matter of selling something or nothing for our current customers, which is why we developed a newer, lightweight version of our product to be able to offer it to the shop around the corner," Lee said.</p><p>Shipsi is also trying to batch orders to help drivers and stores more cost-effectively staff deliveries.</p><p>"You know, there are things we're learning through this, but it'll only make us stronger in the end," Lee said.</p><p><em>__</em></p><p><em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" target="_blank"><em>@latams</em></a><em>. You can also email me at tami(at)dot.la, or ask for my Signal.</em></p>Courtesy of Shipsi Inc.
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Amazon fired two highly visible employee activists who regularly criticize the company's position on climate change and conditions inside its fulfillment centers. The employees were terminated for "repeatedly violating internal policies," an Amazon spokesperson said.
User experience designers Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two leaders of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group, were let go Friday. They helped form the organization inside Amazon over a year ago.
<p>Amazon has fired at least three employee activists this month who criticized the company's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The third employee, Christian Smalls, organized a walkout at a New York fulfillment center calling for broader safety precautions after several of his coworkers tested positive for the virus. Amazon says Smalls was fired for breaking quarantine, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/senate-democrats-grill-amazon-warehouse-worker-firing-covid-19-procedures/" target="_blank">a claim several U.S. senators dispute</a>. The string of firings come as Amazon faces <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-faces-unprecedented-challenges-dozens-warehouses-grapple-covid-19-outbreaks/" target="_blank">immense pressure</a> to keep up with a surge in orders and criticism for its handling of the crisis.</p><p>"We support every employee's right to criticize their employer's working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies," an Amazon spokesperson said. "We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies."</p><p>Cunningham spoke during Amazon's annual shareholder meeting last year, addressing CEO Jeff Bezos directly and calling on the company to implement a more aggressive strategy for reducing its carbon footprint.</p><p>After Amazon Employees for Climate Justice began agitating, Amazon unveiled the size of its carbon footprint for the first time and launched the <a href="https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/" target="_blank">Climate Pledge</a>, programs the company says were already in the works before the activist group formed. The initiative is a promise to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, 10 years ahead of the deadline set by the Paris Agreement. Cunningham and her peers continued to push for broader environmental reforms.</p><p>More recently, Cunningham and Costa have been critical of conditions inside Amazon's warehouses, where a growing number of COVID-19 outbreaks have put the company under a microscope. Both said they would match donations up to $500 to support warehouse workers who choose to stay home to avoid exposure to the virus.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<div id="926af" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cffad4566f7d087482a9d84f8ae80359"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1243441985173651456" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">I'm matching donations up to $500 to support my Amazon warehouse worker colleagues. "The lack of safe and sanitary… https://t.co/sMJYGuLPQo</div> — Emily Cunningham (@Emily Cunningham)<a href="https://twitter.com/emahlee/statuses/1243441985173651456">1585294645.0</a></blockquote></div>
</p><p>Amazon is rolling out temperature screening across its warehouses and Whole Foods grocery stores to identify workers who may be ill. The company says it has implemented <a href="https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/amazons-actions-to-help-employees-communities-and-customers-affected-by-covid-19" target="_blank">150 other process changes</a> to keep workers safe.<br/></p><p>"Amazon is focused on protecting the health and safety of our employees while continuing to serve people who need our services more than ever," the company's COVID-19 website says. "Our employees are heroes helping people get the products they need delivered to their doorsteps, products they might not otherwise be able to get while maintaining social distancing."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<div id="3e56c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2c61a034da3dca5f4d150c989831471c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1249968430465175552" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Amazon fired me and @marencosta.
As Mary Oliver wrote, "oh! how rich it is to love the world." It's a gift to be… https://t.co/NZV1PJYcgH</div> — Emily Cunningham (@Emily Cunningham)<a href="https://twitter.com/emahlee/statuses/1249968430465175552">1586850671.0</a></blockquote></div>
</p><p>Before the firings, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice sent out an invitation asking Amazon warehouse and tech workers to join a <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfuadRhxbRzL0j_n8P12bKI0fW3oaYkpWh1wD7HGYBZ6HZZcA/viewform" target="_blank">webcast discussion</a> of the COVID-19 situation. Cunningham, Costa, and celebrity activist Naomi Klein plan to host the virtual event. Costa said Amazon deleted emails about the webcast in a statement released by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.<br/></p><p>"Why is Amazon so scared of workers talking with each other? No company should punish their employees for showing concern for one another, especially during a pandemic," Costa said in the statement.</p><p>Earlier this year, Amazon warned Costa and Cunningham that they could be fired for violating the company's external communications policy. Hundreds of employees <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/hundreds-amazon-employees-plan-protest-pr-policy-speaking-climate-change/" target="_blank">responded by publicly criticizing Amazon</a> in defiance of that policy. Cunningham and Costa discussed the threat of termination in <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/bernie-sanders-enlists-amazon-employee-activists-climate-change-campaign/" target="_blank">a campaign video for Sen. Bernie Sanders</a>.</p><p>In addition to scrutiny, Amazon is fielding a huge spike in demand for its products and grocery delivery services as thousands of people stay home to avoid exposure to COVID-19. The company appears largely immune to the economic headwinds plaguing so many other businesses. Amazon stock <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-stock-hits-time-high-tech-giant-now-valued-1-1-trillion/" target="_blank">reached an all-time high Monday</a>, hitting a record price of $2,262/share and eclipsing a previous mark set in February. The company has hired 100,000 new warehouse workers since the crisis began and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-fills-100k-warehouse-worker-jobs-plans-hire-75k-meet-pandemic-driven-demand/" target="_blank">plans to add an additional 75,000</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-fires-two-employees-called-climate-change-reform-better-warehouse-conditions/" target="_blank">This story first appeared on GeekWire.</a></p>
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