ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern has invested $8 million in DrayNow as part of a joint venture to improve the intermodal drayage experience for truckers and customers.
DrayNow’s app for mobile devices provides customers with real-time shipment tracking and connects small fleet owner-operators with brokers who need first- and last-mile drayage service – in much the same way that Uber connects drivers with people looking for a ride.
“We’re a customer-centric, operations-driven company. Together with DrayNow, we are reimagining the way we serve our customers and work with drayage,” Norfolk Southern Chief Marketing Officer Ed Elkins said in a statement today. “While we are a B2B business, our customers expect a B2C experience. This means leveraging cutting-edge technology to give them a full and transparent view into their shipments and a seamless administrative experience.”
Norfolk Southern’s investment will enable DrayNow to further technology development, increase its sales and marketing efforts, and hire more employees. NS also gains a seat on the company’s board, which will be filled by NS Chief Strategy Officer Mike McClellan.
“We are taking a comprehensive look at the supply chain with an emphasis on areas where we can modernize our processes and extend our reach even further beyond the track,” McClellan said in a statement. “Our shared goal is to improve our customer experience and help them grow their businesses. This is perfectly aligned with our long-term vision for Norfolk Southern.”
DrayNow CEO Mike Albert said the partnership with NS will accelerate the company’s expansion. DrayNow connects truckers with intermodal customers in 15 states. The service is used by intermodal marketing companies and third-party logistics firms that rely on railroad-owned equipment such as the EMP container pool run by Union Pacific and NS.
“Drayage is an underappreciated key component of the intermodal equation,” intermodal analyst Larry Gross says. “What determines whether a load is going to go intermodal is the total door to door cost versus truck. Getting efficiencies in drayage are every bit as important – if not more important in shorter lengths of haul – than getting efficiencies on the rail line haul.”
DrayNow, based in Conshohocken, Pa., says thousands of carriers are registered to use its service. The company was founded in 2017.
DrayNow will provide intermodal customers with visibility to drivers on the street, NS says. GPS confirms where they are and where they’ve been, as well as the load they are hauling. The app can capture the proof of delivery documents at destination in real time, which the intermodal customer needs to invoice their customer, NS says.
It is pitiful a container has to be trucked across town from one railroad to another. Why not fix that problem (and lack of rail service,) instead of another stupid new app?
A cleverly planned, necessary collaboration that will satisfy both sides.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün