Ridesharing freight with ML to cut SMB shipping costs by 50%
Oway is a rideshare freight platform that uses machine learning to automatically coordinate and sell unused space in trucks to SMBs at a 50% discount for lightning-fast shipping. Every year, nearly 50% all truck space goes unused annually in the almost $1T US trucking industry. On the other hand, SMBs represent 44% of the US GDP and are historically forced to deal with high freight rates and friction due to their small size compared to enterprise businesses. With trucking being a hyper-fragmented market (90%+ of US trucking companies are small family businesses), we decided to build an ecosystem that takes all of this inefficiency and turns it into something that could fundamentally transform the livelihoods of businesses and drivers alike. Oway is designed to be simple (you can place an order in 30 seconds) and scale with your business. Our ML rideshare protocol now allows businesses to ship freight affordably and faster than ever before. We also improve the survivability of independent truckers by maximizing their revenue when they’re already on the road - and it’s great for the environment too. 🍃
Jobs at Oway
Active Founders
Phillip Nadjafov
Founder of Oway, an ML-based online rideshare platform that makes small-batch freight shipping affordable for everyone. Self-taught engineer and occasional car designer.
Company Launches
TL;DR - Oway is a marketplace that uses machine learning to make freight shipping extremely affordable for SMBs by automatically “ridesharing” shipments using unused truck space going along the same route.
We’re popularizing a completely new way to affordably ship up to 8 pallets across long distances, cutting out warehousing transfers along the way.
For example: You can now overnight ship up to 750 lbs of goods on a pallet, across the state, for just ~$60 (instead of $120 market rate).
Problem
- Every year, almost half of all truck space goes unused in the $900B+ US trucking industry.
- Historically, freight shipping has been more expensive per unit for SMBs than for enterprise users due to their low relative volume. This results in higher COGs overall for SMBs, making it even harder for them to compete in their markets.
- On top of that, SMB freight shipping is generally an extremely low-visibility, high-friction environment due to its low value to a big trucking company’s bottom-line.
Solution 🚚
- We created an ML-based rideshare protocol that allows you to ship up to 8 pallets, overnight, for up to 50% off of market rate.
- When you place an order, Oway automatically matches and adds quick detours for independent truck drivers who are going to the same final destination as you with empty space. This saves you money and skips warehouse transfers (which reduces damage). Paperwork and communication is fully automated, and we use AI + LLMs to help with it.
- Oway is designed to be simple (you can place an order in 30 seconds) and scale with your business.
- It’s great for truckers. By doing 3 extra Oway deliveries per week, drivers can earn an additional $30K in extra income per year (avg. US trucker makes $65K in take-home income).
- It’s also great for the environment. 🍃