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Comment by shade23 | Hacker News Reader

I do not live in the US. So would love some help understanding what could possibly happen here:

-Do people own trucks or is it corporations/shipping-companies.

- What happens to all the various forms of taxes (are there any?) which come into picture during long distance transporation

- Is there a concept of toll tax on the roads. Who would be providing those?

- How do you ensure legality of contents and prevent illegal transportation of goods here?

- The USP of Uber is the being able to get the required service in a couple of minutes.Will this be applicable here?

- Uber has always been in grey areas when it comes to personal vehicles being used commercially to drive single passengers. Transporting goods would cause the same issues on a larger scale right?

On the website: It kind of sucks that you need to give an email id to get even basic information on what this is about[1].

https://www.uber.com/a/truckdriver

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Nearly everything in the U.S. is on a truck at some point in its transit. Most companies that make those items don't own their own trucks.

Of the roughly 3 million trucks on the road, 10% are owner operators (a person who owns his or her own truck and drives it).

Those owner operators mostly drive around the country like chickens with their heads cut off trying to source loads to transport. The owner operators will work with freight brokers (middle men) who either scour load boards or have relationships with companies that need things shipped. Some of the owner operators have a significant other at home who does the sourcing of loads for them. Deadheading, driving to or from somewhere without a paid load, kills these drivers. These drivers make on average $50+k per year.

The pre-Uber taxi scene looked a lot like this national truck load scene does today. I imagine that's why Uber sees opportunity here. In the taxi scenario you have the supply (taxis) and demand (passengers). In the freight scene they'd have to link up the supply (owner operators) and demand (any company that has truck loads of freight to ship).

Disclaimer: this is a simplification of logistics, ignores 'less than load' freight, multi-modal, and fleet operations.

Source: I founded and ran a freight logistics startup in the 2000's. Developed a web app to try and do what I said Uber could above. It was designed poorly from an empathy standpoint of both parties and most importantly it was pre-iPhone/apps. We were a successful brokerage/consultancy but failed as a startup.

I worked in the trucking industry for about seven years, so I can answer some of these.

Most trucks in the US are owned by individuals are very small companies.

I'm not aware of any taxes specific to interstate trucking. If you have a licensed and insured truck in one state you're good to go anywhere in the US. There are some slightly different regulations on trailer length and such, but there is a consistent baseline across the US.

There are toll roads but they're uncommon, especially in the middle of the country where most of the freight is moving. Those that do exist are fairly inexpensive and would be trivially easy to price in.

Carriers are generally not responsible for the contents of their cargo. If they accept a big 'ole pallet marked "cocaine" they're gonna be in trouble, but they're not required to ensure that the cargo matches the manifest.

LTL (less-than-truckload) cargo is generally delivered to your doorstep on a given day, not at a given hour.

Trucks are commercial vehicles, so insurance is going to be much less of an issue there.

I don't think Uber will try to solve those problems right away. What Uber is good at is routing and handling payments, both of which are kind of annoying as a driver and dispatcher. It will be a boon to businesses who do a lot of ad-hoc local shipping rather than scheduled or specialized deliveries.

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