Uber has inspired other entrepreneurs to find the business opportunities that have slipped between the cracks, like cargo shipping of small items

To solve the inefficiency and fragmentation of local trucking industry. Simply, we connect shippers with qualified carriers who have unutilized capacity on their trucks.

Introducing transparency and real-time efficiency into the market, while enabling local carriers to turn their capacity into meaningful business.

https://www.cargomatic.com/

With a nod to the fact that Sherpa Ventures founder Shervin Pishevar was also an early backer of the car-ordering mobile app Uber Technologies Inc., Cargomatic is billing itself as “Uber for local trucking.” It offers mobile and desktop apps to single-rig and other small trucking companies to help them run their business and drum up new orders.

Shippers–from retail stores to an office about to move–can also order the logistics services they need online or via the company’s Android apps.

Mr. Pishevar said he backed Cargomatic because of the founding team’s long history building successful tech startups and its domain expertise in logistics. He also believes trucking is a highly fragmented market that can benefit significantly from a “unifying” force and mobile app like Cargomatic.

A “Silicon Beach” business, Cargomatic employs 20 full-time in Venice, Calif.

Cargomatic makes money by charging a small fee to both the carrier and the shippers. Cargomatic negotiates prices with each side, and fees amount to as much as 20% of a total transaction, a figure Mr. Kessler says is an industry standard for small carriers and local trucking.

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/06/24/cargomatic-raises-2-6m-to-make-shipping-freight-easy-as-hailing-a-ride/