Uberization analysis: from the two-sided market to the application of freight procurement

The exponential growth of two-sided markets and the propagation of sharing economy phenomenon in different sectors have spread the “uberization” business model in the procurement field and the emergence of digital freight platforms in the logistics industry. These innovative start-ups are transportation network companies that connect carriers and shippers in real time with the use of advanced technology, offering tariffs approximately 20% inferior to the spot market ones. Uber-like platforms demonstrate that a new era in Logistics is becoming reality. Competitive real-time pricing, ultimate market transparency, and exceptional convenience enabled by rapidly emerging technology that links demand and supply in Logistics in an unprecedented way, provides the next level of efficiency savings. Due to these opportunities, after a literature review about the success factors of a digital multi sided market, the purpose of the thesis is the study of the “uberization” of freight activities for the European scope inside the Accenture Innovation centre and capability network department of Barcelona. Relevant space in the thesis is given to the European transportation market analysis with the use of different strategical tools that allowed to point out the main features of the market. It is characterized by an increasing lack of transportation capacity, one out of 5 trucks are running empty, by the presence of idle capacity, the problem is enabling the demand to find it, and by the entry of new uberized players in the playfield that makes the platform ecosystem scattered. The presence of these challenges in the marketplace have made it possible to design the idea of the orchestrator of all European digital freight platforms. During the drafting of the dissertation, the possibility of carrying out an explorative analysis, about the tariffs price comparison between one European platform and a client’s contracted carriers, was presented. The analysis done has brought out that, besides benefits for carrier and shippers, there is a big savings opportunity: approximately 150.000 €/year, with a sample of 20 loads per day. The strategy used for the business case consists in focusing only on the loads that provide savings and exclude the ones that present worse pricing conditions. Focusing the strategical analysis done, the digital platform orchestrator could be useful firstly to manage peak season, secondly, for Accenture clients that have optimized their routes with a transportation management system, to have the information in a unique centralized platform and, finally to help the building of a green supply chain with the reduction of empty runs. In contrast, the platform coverage in all European countries is under construction and, for this reason, the risk that other players enter in the playground before the Accenture project implementation is the biggest risk of the value proposition proposal. Concluding, to defeat the market and win, it is necessary to be faster and develop the best technology, with all available features, before small or big gamers.