Aayush Thakur didn’t like what he saw in the trucking industry.
During his five years of work in transportation — first as a senior modeler for Cambridge Systematics in Colorado, then as a senior freight planner for the Tennessee Department of Transportation — he noticed inefficiencies, and a poor work-life balance for drivers.
Interstate truck drivers have a 14-hour driving window, during which they can drive 11 hours, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Administration. Once the window has ended, or once they've hit the 11-hour mark, they're required to take a 10-hour break. Because of this, trips generally take drivers days, and sometimes weeks. That means less time at home, and less time with the family.
The long hours on the road are in part why the industry has struggled to find workers. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, there is a shortage of over 60,000 drivers — and this could increase to more than 100,000 in the next five years.
But, Thakur realized, things could be different.
“He had this idea that there is just so much waste out there, and that the system doesn’t have to work that way,” said Deme Yuan, Thakur’s wife. “It’s having a negative impact on drivers’ lives, and trucking companies could be making more money.”
The realization led Thakur and Yuan to found Truckish, a local startup developing a fleet manager and relay technology system for small to mid-size trucking companies.
“It makes lives a lot better for truck drivers as well as for the companies, or whoever owns the trucks while they’re there, by maximizing asset utilization,” Yuan said.
Thakur was granted a patent on his relay software in October 2018. In January 2018, the company moved from Nashville to India — where Thakur and Akshay Singh, the chief product officer and another co-founder, are from.
They created a software development team and spent four months in the country.
Yuan and Thakur then moved to Memphis to participate in Epicenter’s logistics accelerator program, which ran from May to August. Afterwards, they stayed in Memphis and made the city its headquarters, though they still work remotely with their team in India.
Truckish has been named a semi-finalist at Established's Startup of the Year Competition and Summit, a finalist at Microsoft’s U.S. Changemaker Pitch competition, and “the best company to invest in” at The Next Big Thing, a pitch competition hosted by Epicenter and The Society of Entrepreneurs.
Its fleet manager, set for a June 2020 release, puts all the tools and information trucking companies need into one system. A device plugs into the truck engine, and the driver has a mobile app. Meanwhile, employees at the office can check in on a computer.
Everything — Electronic Logging Device compliance, GPS tracking, accounting, dispatch, diagnostics, and fuel tax reporting — are integrated into one program.
“It automates everything,” Yuan said. “So, it’s smooth for both the office and the driver, and it saves a ton of time — because the vast majority of trucking companies are doing all of this stuff using a lot of different things.”
And when you’re using so many different programs for one operation, Yuan believes, it can make things difficult.
“Whether they’re using a bunch of tools or a combination of tools like Excel spreadsheets, all those different outputs take a lot of time to put together and leave a lot of room for human inaccuracy,” she said. “That takes a whole lot more time, so this system makes that a lot easier.”
There are currently programs available that put everything in one system. Yuan, however, said she feels they are cost-prohibitive for most trucking companies.
“If you are to call and get a quote, the first question is how many trucks do you have in your fleet,” she said. “And if you say, ‘Less than 20,’ they’re like, ‘You’re not our customer.’”
Ninety-seven percent of U.S. trucking companies, Yuan said, have fleets of fewer than 20 trucks. So, very few can obtain these systems. Truckish, she believes, can provide them with a new opportunity, as it will be more affordable — though a price hasn't been finalized. It will also connect separate businesses.
“This improves their operations, but it also serves as a uniform platform,” she said. “It’s a common operating system that they’re using, so they can collaborate, because we’re building this network of trucking companies.”
And this network of trucking companies will lay the groundwork for Truckish’s next project: the relay system.
This is part one of a two-part series. Stay tuned to read about Truckish's relay system, which the company says could turn truck driving into a day job and cut delivery times in half.
