Freightera, a Canadian-based digital freight marketplace, plans to go public.

CEO Eric Beckwitt confirmed to FreightWaves on August 1 that his Vancouver-based firm is seeking a listing on the TSX Venture Exchange through a process similar to an initial public offering.

“Our intention to be a publicly listed company,” Beckwitt said.

Freightera is utilizing a Canadian process known as a qualifying transaction, which allows a private firm to merge with a publicly traded holding company.

Beckwitt said he could not disclose details or a timetable pending regulatory approval. However, a public disclosure by OV2 Investment on June 30, the company Freightera is merging with, valued the company at C$34 million.

“It is conservative,” Beckwitt said. “We’ll see what the market does.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Freightera, North America’s freight marketplace offering all-inclusive freight rates from hundreds of carriers of all sizes and transport modes, just launched door-to-door full truckload service from Union Pacific, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, three of the largest railroads in Canada and the U.S. This coverage combined with existing service from CSX and Norfolk Southern makes Freightera the only freight platform in North America offering comprehensive coverage from the major railroads. Freightera is currently in the process of obtaining live rates from the remaining two Class 1 railroads.

“Intermodal transport by rail is usually the least expensive way to move freight long distances,” says Freightera founder and CEO Eric Beckwitt, “but until now, freight shippers were unable to go to one platform and get instant all-inclusive rate quotes from the major railroads. Now they can do that with a click of a button. No phone calls or brokers necessary. They can also compare rail rates with the leading trucking companies’ rates and get a clear sense of available services and optimal cost for each shipment.”

Shipping freight by rail offers many important advantages over trucking. In the Freightera platform, a recent sampling of long-haul full truckload rail rates reveals 45 percent cost savings on average over truck rates with guaranteed availability. In Canada, Freightera rail rates are around 40 percent cheaper than long-haul trucking rates.

Silpa Paul, Frost & Sullivan commercial vehicles industry analyst, mentions Freightera among key automated-on-demand solutions in her article in trucks.com earlier this week and states that we are entering the era of fast adaption of brokerage digitization. Silpa Paul’s authority comes from prolific work in the space. She has published more than 30 research studies covering trucking and logistics.

“The trucking industry is in a phase of digital transformation, with connected devices bringing greater visibility and transparency across the supply chain. The installation of telematics devices in trucks has jumped exponentially and will cover nearly half the trucks in operation in North America by 2025.

In an era of smartphones, smart cities and smart mobility, the North American trucking industry is headed toward its “smart” future. This is pushed by the 2017 mandate that heavy-duty trucks be equipped with electronic logging devices that digitally track how long truckers drive each day to make sure they comply with federal rules

A key segment of the trucking industry that has struggled to digitalize is the brokerage process. Digital brokerage solutions – whether digital load boards DAT or Truckstop.com or automated-on-demand solutions like those offered by Convoy, Uber Freight, Loadsmart, Transfix, Next and Freightera – are modernizing the brokerage process. All are using technology to automate and remove redundancies.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Freightera, a leading freight shipping marketplace offering instant freight quotes and online shipment bookings in North America, was recognized as a top private company in the ICT category by Rocket Builders. Selected from hundreds of companies evaluated in the “2019 Ready to Rocket” category, Freightera was recognized for its impressive market traction and revenue growth to date, as well as future growth potential.

“Each year when we choose the Ready to Rocket companies, we are looking for those companies that leverage the latest trends and offer a unique, compelling value proposition. Freightera is an excellent example of a company taking key steps toward achieving its commercial potential,” said Geoffrey Hansen, Managing Partner, Rocket Builders.

It’s been great to see the media attention pouring towards Freightera in the recent months, but having Freight Waves article about our green mission coming out on Valentine’s Day was rather auspicious. We loved the article’s angle and depth. Freight Waves journalist Linda Baker wrote a comprehensive article giving justice to Freightera’s unique story.

“Although automating freight systems is usually good for the environment as well as the pocketbook, few digital logistics companies have made a big deal out of the emissions reductions that go along with making transportation systems more efficient. Not Freightera, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup that has created what is perhaps the first green freight marketplace featuring rail services and carriers committed to energy efficiency and reducing their carbon footprint.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ – Frost & Sullivan, the top 25 global market research and analysis firm, just placed Canadian startup Freightera among the leading global freight digitization startups in their new report “Global Digital Freight Brokerage Market Opportunities, Forecast to 2025.”

Frost & Sullivan research showing Freightera among ‘Key Solutions’ for freight automation and high growth potential to 2025.

According to Frost & Sullivan, global logistics spending is expected to grow from $7.9 trillion in 2017 to $16.9 trillion USD in 2025, with transportation accounting for a majority of the spending at about 70 percent, or $11.8 trillion USD. There is a huge opportunity for firms that can successfully automate and disrupt this market.

Freightera, North America’s online freight marketplace offering business shippers instant fixed-cost quotes from carriers of all sizes and one-click booking, celebrated its first year by doubling inventory to 1.8 billion freight lanes.

“With this expansion we now offer multiple competitive quotes between most communities in Canada and US,” says Freightera’s founder and CEO Eric Beckwitt, “Our shippers manage warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities. They ship to various locations across North America every day, and we give them the ability to ship freight with the ease, speed and convenience of online travel sites. Enter your dimensions and destination and get instant rates with a single click.“

Canadian Shipper just published an article about Freightera’s ambitious mission. The story is written by Dan Goodwill, one of the top journalists and leading experts on freight transportation in North America. It describes the state of the industry that is vitally important economically, enormously large and highly fragmented. “Shippers that move freight across North America have always faced the challenge of finding a set of trucking and rail service providers with the precise range of services, geographic coverage and rates that meet their needs. Since no single asset-based transportation provider can meet the needs of all shippers, the trucking industry has long relied on the thousands of third-party brokers, essentially travel agents for the freight transportation industry, who connect shippers and carriers.”

Freightera, very much like online travel sites, removed the brokers from the equation and connected shippers and carriers directly. “Freightera is one of the only companies that has created a fixed cost model with data directly from carriers. It has found a way to enter carriers’ rates from multiple modes in their data management system so shippers can compare rates from carriers of all sizes and transport modes in one place.”

Mediaplanet just published and distributed in USA Today their special edition about innovative technological solutions for transportation and supply chain management. This ‘Digital Supply Chain’ issue aims to help businesses navigate new technologies for improving efficiency of their supply chains, increasing productivity and gaining a competitive edge for their companies. Mediaplanet interviewed Freightera CEO Eric Beckwitt about our green freight mission, what we are working on and what we see coming.

SupplyChainDigital.com picked up our recent press release about Freightera CEO Eric Beckwitt’s 2019 Clean50 Award and published a feature article about this news for the supply chain community. Thank you, Supply Chain Digital! This story will help us spread the word about our solution.

The excerpts from the article below.

“Freightera is a B2B website focused on finding the best deals for shipping, compiling different companies’ quotes in a manner similar to flight and hotel comparison sites.”

“The company’s website states, “It’s difficult for all but the largest companies to negotiate volume discounts on shipping. Freightera levels the playing field.”

“Freightera is preferentially bringing in new carriers that offer the highest quality service, the best price and lowest emissions for each lane and region, so shippers can continue to reduce emissions as they pay less and improve the bottom line in their operations.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ – Canadian freight digitization startup Freightera is honored to announce that CEO Eric Beckwitt has just won the 2019 Clean50 Award for his outstanding contribution to advance the cause of sustainability and clean capitalism in Canada over the past two years. The award was presented at the Clean50 Summit in Toronto on Sept. 27, 2018.

The award winners were selected from more than 600 nominees and competed in 16 categories including Manufacturing and Transportation, where Eric Beckwittwon the award along with Mario Plourde, CEO of Cascades, and Sarah Buckle, director of enterprise risk and sustainability at Translink, the greater Vancouver transit authority. Past honorees include Premier Kathleen Wynne of Ontario, who opened the summit, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Galen G. Weston of Loblaws.

Clean50 is one of the most important awards for corporate contribution to environmental sustainability in Canada. This means a lot to everyone at Freightera, an online marketplace that brings together businesses that need to ship freight and transport companies that move it. Freightera’s mission is to make freight easy, accessible and green.

Freightera CEO Eric Beckwitt’s article about how Canada can lead in greening global freight transportation was just published in the La Malbaie, Quebec G7 Summit edition of CLIMATE CHANGE – the New Economy (CCTNE).

CLIMATE CHANGE – the New Economy is the leading climate change publication supporting the G7 2018 Summit. In the publisher’s words, it’s “brimming with bold leadership from some of the world´s top innovators and visionaries”. In it you will find how leaders and experts are addressing the challenges and identifying innovative solutions for cleaning the oceans, how cities should be leading the energy transition, and, in the case of Freightera, how we can accelerate the transition to low emission freight shipping.