Uber Freight Seeks to Corral Truckers With Discount Program

Uber Freight has an offer that it hopes truck drivers cant refuse thousands of dollars in discounts on Navistars International brand big rigs if truckers use its freight-matching service. Uber also will provide price breaks for maintenance, tires, gas and cellphone services. that have materialized as freight demand climbs and more segments of the trucking transportation industry go digital. The discount program piggybacks on existing relationships between third-party vendors and Uber Freights parent company, Uber Technologies.

The ride-hailing business has long offered price breaks on gas and other services to Uber drivers. Offering a fuel card is a natural extension of what weve done so far with our mission to make it more affordable and efficient for truckers, said Eric Berdinis, Uber Freight product lead. When we talked to Uber Freight they were on a similar pathway. To be eligible for Navistar vehicle discounts, drivers must use the Uber Freight app at least 10 times. Uber Freight isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel by rolling out a loyalty program. Uber Freight Plus competes with existing fuel card discounts and loyalty programs offered by truck stop networks, trucking associations, and other industry groups. Some truckers are trying out the Uber program after having negative experiences with rivals.

When I heard about the Uber fuel card I was looking forward to signing up, he said. Uber Freight pegged the program’s announcement to the opening of the annual Mid America Trucking Show, which begins this week in Louisville, Ky. Ubers Advanced Technologies Group manages Uber Freight and the company’s autonomous vehicle development programs. Uber Advanced Technologies Group announced earlier in March that it had been testing autonomous trucks in Arizona since late 2017 as part of an experiment to blend self-driving and conventional driver-operated trucks.