Conshy truck-tech company DrayNow ships platform in two new markets

Truck drivers and freight shippers in Dallas, Texas, and Southern California now have access to the DrayNow Marketplace, an online platform build by Conshohocken-based DrayNow.

Through the platform, users can both browse and book available truck loads, with close to 20 of the 60 major “shipping intermodal brokers” signed up for the platform to date. DrayNow previously served drivers and shippers in Chicago and Atlanta, but a $5 million Series A round raised last month is helping to speed up scaling efforts.

The venture capital raise, led by Comcast Ventures and Osage Venture Partners, will also help raise the head count: Currently at around 20 staffers, DrayNow hopes to get to 130 to 150 employees over the next two years.

“Expanding into Dallas and Los Angeles continues to solidify our DrayNow model,” said CEO and founder Mike Albert. “Our Marketplace provides brokers with a better tool to manage a highly fragmented and regional business and gives carriers a single app for finding loads. More importantly, it provides everyone with transparency and real-time information while removing the waste that is far too common in intermodal drayage.”

(Uh, “drayage“? Yup, that’s a shipping industry term that refers to the transport of goods over a short distance. It stems from the term “dray“: a “vehicle used to haul goods,” especially a cart or wagon without sides.)

Among those major shippers using the platform is Radiant Clipper, a subsidiary of Radiant Global Logistics operating in 100 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

“The innovative technology that is a part of the DrayNow platform has allowed our team to work more efficiently and has opened up new capacity and thought processes within the intermodal space,” Christopher Brach, VP of Operations at Radiant Clipper, said in a statement. “We only see this relationship continuing to grow as DrayNow enters new markets.”