Miami-based Cargobot offers High-Tech Solutions to the Trucking Industry
Freight shipments carried by truck are a vital part of any logistics system, but the industry has been slow to apply new technology to its complex operations – using tens of thousands of trailer trucks to move cargo to and from ports to warehouses, and from manufacturers to mid-markets and end users.
Now comes tech company Miami-based Cargobot Inc., which has developed a digital platform that provides freight shippers and trucking companies (carriers) with new visibility, transparency, lower costs, and efficiency for millions of tons of cargo in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
By downloading its free app, Cargobot clients can take advantage of a suite of digital options that directly link shippers to a list of potential carriers (thus eliminating brokers), provide online bidding, GPS tracking for each load, incident reporting, and online generation and storage of all invoices and other related paperwork, plus other services. Shippers can list full or partial truckloads on the Cargobot app and carriers can use the app to make bids. The company also offers Cargobot SaaS, a program to help clients build their own freight networks and expand their businesses.
“Before setting up Cargobot, we studied the freight market and found that it suffered from inefficiency, a lack of communication, and fragmented technology,” says Fernando Correa, Cargobot’s CEO and co-founder, who has decades of experience in supply chains and freight transportation. “We saw a lot of inefficiencies and we began to use technology to simplify the entire process and make it easier for shippers and carriers to link up,” says Correa, who is originally from Spain and earned a degree in business administration from the University of Madrid.
Cargobot currently works with over 500 shipping clients, more than 20,000 carrier companies, and over 30,000 drivers. Clients include shippers, truckers, and fleet companies; the company makes its money from commissions on loads moved using the Cargobot app.
“It was incredibly easy to use their system,” says Luis M. DeAvila, who runs logistics for Texas Tissue Converting LLC in Conroe, Texas. The company produces a variety of products, including paper towels, bathroom tissue, and hand towels, and depends heavily on efficient delivery of raw materials and pick-up of finished products for its customers. “We work with them most of the time because of the quality of their service – the flow of communications and the ability to keep pick-up and delivery appointments,” says DeAvila. “They saved us a substantial amount of money…”
Essentially a digital freight-matching company, Cargobot was founded in Miami in 2016, using capital pooled by its three partners. The two other co-founders are Catalina Machado, who has extensive experience in freight brokerage, and CIO Gustavo Medina, a tech entrepreneur.
Cargobot is addressing a massive market that is essential for the economy. Freight carried across the country by tractor-trailer (or semis) represented about 73 percent of all freight movements by weight. In 2022, more than 750,000 carriers moved nearly 11.5 billion tons of freight and generated more than $940 billion in freight revenues, according to the American Trucking Association. About 96 percent of carrier fleets are small businesses, with 10 or fewer trucks.
Since its founding, Cargobot has grown from two employees to more than 70 in the U.S., Colombia, and Mexico. Cargobot recently opened an office in Spain to offer its services in Europe. The company declined to provide figures on its revenues.
