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Cape Town-based start-up Linebooker has introduced a Web-based platform allowing customers to be connected to logistics companies that transport goods and products around SA.

Operating nationally, Linebooker says it aims to shake-up SA’s road freight sector through its online bidding platform, which allows customers to find trucking companies and transport their goods to locations around the country. A spinoff from the innovation arm of CCS Logistics (part of the Oceana Group), the company’s platform links bulk business transport customers and trucking companies, to offer transparent pricing, as well as end-to-end delivery facilitation services.

According to Linebooker, transport customers can submit load requests online to alert multiple transporters that are given a two-hour window in which to provide the best bid, often competing up to the last second. At the end of the two hours, the transport company with the lowest bid wins the order.”It’s time for SA’s road freight industry to join the 21st century,” says Naudé Rademan, MD of CCS Logistics and Linebooker. “Technology exposes the imbalanced relation between buyers and sellers, and with our online tools and a single point of service, customers can enjoy more control and insights over the transport of various goods and products.”

With 18 years’ experience in the logistics and supply sector, Rademan says he recognised the need for a simple and transparent online-bidding platform to connect transport customers to trucking companies. Through Linebooker, transport customers benefit through vetted transporters, truck availability, and online facilitation of the entire delivery process, he adds.

Transporters on the other hand benefit through access to more customers; payment within 15 days and improved ‘lane balancing’ (deliveries loaded in two directions).

Rademan, together with a handful of colleagues – possessing almost 50 years’ experience in the sector between them – developed Linebooker in mid-2016. Since then, the company has facilitated the delivery of more than 1 000 loads, saving customers an average of 13% per load.

Linebooker currently has more than 60 transporters with over 1 300 trucks on its system —serving some of the country’s most respected brands, including Lucky Star, Shoprite and Heinz.

“Today, each transport request made online is like a mini request for quote,” notes Nick Hoffman, manager of Linebooker. “With our system we are improving the efficiency of the industry, connecting customers with more transporters (and vice versa), and ensuring transparent pricing. In some cases, customers are saving up to 18% per load.”

Composed of several former transport brokers, the company emphasises that it is not – nor does it want to be – a transport brokerage.  And while it does not own any transport trucks, it uses its technology, combined with the team’s knowledge of the industry to ensure that trust and fairness are part of every transaction.