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SENNDER 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
by co-founder David Nothacker
Over the last five years, sennder has grown from being a mere idea that emerged from a university project, into a leading logistics company.
Over the last five years, sennder has seen major milestones that led to international growth and the disruption of one of the oldest industries in the world. Based out of Berlin, sennder has built a team of over 400 employees with offices across six European countries in major logistic hubs including Spain, Poland, Germany, France, Italy and Latvia. This is a result of sennder’s great team and the close collaboration with carriers and shippers based on partnership.
Our focus has been on the “full truck load” (FTL) market, which is aimed at organizing, logging and optimizing the cargo that lorry drivers are packing up onto their pallets, with a specific focus on smaller and mid-size trucking companies. This paid off last year wherein our Series C funding we raised $70 million.
In addition to the funding round, another important achievement was the merger with our biggest industry peer Everoad, forming our new entity sennder by Everoad. The strategic alliance is the foundation to maintain the position as Europe’s largest digital road freight forwarder whilst facilitating the relationship between shippers and carriers. This deal further supports our ambitious target of 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in revenue by 2024.
There is no doubt, however, that our greatest milestone so far has been the positive change we have created in the logistics and forwarding industry. We have brought cloud-based communications and better record keeping, along with a more efficient logistical mapping organization, to an industry that has been operating via faxed or shipped invoices and even, in some cases, handshakes.
By incorporating our technology, we have made businesses more efficient and seamless - this was and continues to be our vision. For example, to be able to have collaborated with one of the most established industries, Poste Italiane, shows that even traditional businesses are open to incorporating our product. This particular joint venture focuses on improving its long-haul road transportation efficiency and covers the entire Full Truck Load network, moving parcels and mail between all sorting and distribution hubs of the leading Italian postal service provider.
When reflecting on the past five years, five major pillars from both our learnings and technological developments clearly come to mind.
Follow-up load suggestions: To increase fleet utilization and reduce empty kilometers, sennder recently started to roll-out an algorithmic-based feature called “Birds Eye”, which suggests its carriers next best loads at the end of their recent drop off location.
Enhanced transport visibility: As sennder leads the way to set industry performance standards on GPS tracking of its transports, sennder is soon launching its new driver app to further increase GPS tracking coverage of its carriers, while also fostering direct integrations to shipper transport management systems
Multi-stop transport fulfillment: In order to expand its transport capabilities, sennder is currently rolling-out its newest platform feature to efficiently manage multi-stop orders, which increases transparency and reduces friction between carriers, shippers and sennder.
Marketplace extension with direct booking functionality: This feature eases the experience of carriers for relevant load booking without the need for price negotiations, while further increasing automation and reducing manual interventions from sennder’s operations team.
Invoice factoring: Besides operating its freight exchange, sennder offers financial services to its carriers enabling them to manage their business flexibly and effortlessly. Soon, sennder will offer a new service allowing carriers to factor invoices related to non-sennder transports.
It's been five years of sennder, and we’re only just getting started.
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