While the August demise of less-than-truckload carrier Yellow Corp. monopolized headlines in both mainstream and industry media in 2023 after the 99-year-old trucking firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — the largest filing in U.S. trucking history — a number of smaller trucking companies and brokerages also called it quits or sought bankruptcy protection after a brutal year in the freight industry. Other FreightWaves stories focused on fraud investigations and the mysterious...
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With brokerages closing and some filing for Chapter 11 protection, a major factoring company has...
After experiencing two years of record growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jacksonville, Florida-based Surge Transportation, a digital freight brokerage, sought to find a buyer and slashed its rates and workforce nearly a year before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday.
“In the first half of 2022, demand for excess motor carrier capacity dramatically contracted. In an effort to maintain volume, [Surge] cut its rates,” according to court filings. “While lower rates resulted...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/surge-transportation-sought-buyer-prior-to-filing-for-bankruptcy
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After experiencing record sales growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital freight brokerage Surge...
By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation
The companies growing rapidly and staying relevant to their customers are offering much more than their core business model – they are offering “core-plus,” some form of additional value creation or frictionless experience. These companies are focusing on developing a rich ecosystem of partnerships and leveraging those partnerships to provide a robust system of offerings rather than sticking just to their core business models.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/changing-the-game-core-business-model-plus-ecosystem-of-value
By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation
It always surprises me when anybody chooses to arbitrarily limit their options. In this conversation, we’re discussing limiting the number of brokers shippers work with based on, well, the number of brokers they work with rather than based on the specific strengths and weaknesses of their broker partners.
When it comes to motor carriers, the selection of carrier partners is much more deliberately made on the strengths of those carriers....
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-limit-your-provider-mix
In an era when most digital brokerages and TMS integrations are indistinguishable from one another, Surge Transportation is differentiating itself with real-time pricing API, the only proprietary software capable of shipper TMS integration automating both customer load procurement and carrier load bookings.
As the freight landscape is inundated with faster and smarter technologies, shippers are demanding more from their transportation management systems — more capacity and greater cost savings.
S...
By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation
So much of the conversation recently has been dominated by digital transformation of the supply chain that I thought it might be nice to take a moment to reflect on what got us here.
In the years before APIs, 10 years in my case, our approach was always to provide value as a strategic partner by positioning our relationship with customers in places that needed tweaking — maintenance. Maintenance in routing guides/supply chain can be short...
By Omar Singh, president and founder, Surge Transportation
FreightTech is good, there is no doubt about that. However, the rub is that it is only as good as the team who is willing to use it. Companies can implement and deploy a new technology or capability, but if they don’t get buy-in from the team and incentivize around it, then it may just essentially be a shiny new thing collecting dust.
Buy-in can be anything from proper training and awareness, to restructuring incentive compensation to...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/obstacles-to-implementing-freighttech
On this episode of FreightWaves Insiders, Dooner catches up with President & Founder of Surge Transportation, Omar Singh. They’ll walk through hell and back to recount the trials and tribulations Singh has fought through to build his company.
Omar is a teacher by training and a trucker by trade. He has a graduate degree from Georgetown University, has studied at Oxford University, and mentors entrepreneurs at Stanford University. He drove trucks for years to pay for college, taught public...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/dont-call-it-a-comeback-the-surge-transportation-story