Financial Times writer Emiko Terazono reported today that, “US farmers are getting a service akin to Uber to deliver their grains and oilseeds, with the launch of a transport unit by agritech start-up Indigo Ag.
“Sellers and buyers of crops can hail trucks through a mobile app on iOS and Android, and enrolled truck drivers can identify and select loads. Indigo Transport is available across the leading crop regions in the US — Midwest, Southeast, Northeast and South — and the company takes a transaction fee for loads delivered on the service.
“Growers who are commercially licensed and own trucks can also sign up as carriers on the Indigo platform, turning underutilised assets into new sources of income.”
The FT article explained that, “According to Indigo, the US agriculture transportation market is the third largest sector within the US transport industry, moving 800m tonnes of crops a year and is worth $7.5bn. However, sourcing transportation remains inefficient and time intensive with limited price transparency.
“‘Shippers of agricultural products – including growers, food processors, grain elevators – are faced with a time-intensive and often unreliable sourcing process,’ said the company.”
