Back to Newsroom
Back to Newsroom

This Cloud Engineer Bootstrapped a Logistics Startup to Profitability and a 50,000 Customer Base - Without Any Funding

Thursday, 14 October 2021 12:45 PM

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 14, 2021 / Experts estimate that it would take just 3 days for grocery stores to run out of food if long-haul trucks in the United States stopped working. Trucks transport more than 70% of goods in circulation, so it's not surprising that 74% of all fatal passenger vehicle accidents involve a large truck. If you have ever been stuck in an accident traffic jam, you know some of the pain that truck-related accidents can cause. For accident victims and their families, the pain is unimaginable - especially where fatalities or long-term health consequences are involved.

For the estimated 1.5 million trucking businesses in the US, the pain of a truck-related accident can leave a nasty footprint on business records - beside being expensive and time-consuming. Prevention is better than cure, so this collective pain is what TruckX exists to prevent.

Founded in 2016, TruckX is an exceptional Silicon Valley startup that has enjoyed Valley-style growth without Valley-style funding. The bootstrapped company is making a difference in the trucking industry with a one-stop shop for effective fleet management and absolute compliance. Its arsenal of home-grown safety and compliance solutions help trucking businesses operate safely, efficiently, and in good legal standing.

Truckx, Thursday, October 14, 2021, Press release picture

Tackling trucking bottlenecks

"Our number one mission is to offer trucking companies the tools they need to run their business successfully," says TruckX's founder, Tapan Chaudhari.

In 5 short years, Tapan has taken the company from 0 to 50,000 drivers who enjoy the company's products. TruckX's specialized hardware and software solutions address bottlenecks that trucking businesses face. From driver monitoring, fuel efficiency optimization, tracking, automated maintenance reporting, to cloud-connected Dashcam and ELD, TruckX has a solution for every truck-related problem.

Trucking businesses choose TruckX because they love not having to deal with the headaches of product fragmentation. With a suite of in-house solutions, the need to shop around for products from multiple incompatible vendors is eliminated. For example, advanced trucking dashcams report on dangerous driving antics such as speeding, braking, hard turns etc and livestream events to TruckX's cloud-connected software.

TruckX's multi-purpose cloud dashcams are a particular hit with trucking companies, as the advanced features help to protect against litigation and insurance fraud. The dashcam's advanced monitoring software records dangerous events and can be used to check dangerous driving before it causes serious problems. On the other hand, cloud-hosted recordings can be used to exonerate careful drivers who can sometimes be targeted by insurance fraudsters.

Truckx, Thursday, October 14, 2021, Press release picture

From cloud computing to trucking

So, how does a person with a purely technical background grow a successful business in an unfamiliar field? Tapan shows that the answer lies in willpower, a strong technical mindset, and leveraging connections.

Prior to finding success in the trucking industry, Tapan appeared to be a "purebred techie" with a decade of cloud computing experience. However, the idea to get into the logistics industry wasn't generated from thin air. Tapan gained early insight into the business of logistics as a child growing up in India.

"Growing up, my uncle had a used car dealership as well as a logistics business," Tapan recollects. "I spent all my summer holidays there, and got pretty familiar with the business model early on".

Years later, as a US-based cloud engineer, Tapan had a chance to revisit the logistics business model with fresh eyes after realizing the scale of inefficiencies in the system. Poor driver management, insufficient data collection, and poor temperature control for sensitive loads were just some of the problems that resonated with trucking businesses around the nation. Drawing from his rich networks and deep technical expertise, Tapan decided to create industry-specific solutions that fixed these inefficiencies once and for all.

Asked why these inefficiencies needed to be addressed by a coder, Tapan states "With just trucking experience, most people will need a significant amount of time to gather the relevant technical expertise needed to solve the problems that trucking companies face. Because I code, and know a lot of people with supplementary skills, I was able to hire a team to execute solutions, so I cannot take all the credit."

Going from the first user to 50,000

For most new startups, the most difficult customer to win over is the first. With roots in Silicon Valley (not popular for its truck traffic), acquiring TruckX's first customers required some out-of-the-box thinking. Following some online research, Tapan headed to truck associations in the Midwest to meet with his customer base for feedback.

"These meetings helped us understand the problems better, which in turn ensured that the solutions we created were optimized for the purpose" Tapan observed.

Once a working solution was established, TruckX set up a pitch at a tradeshow and before long, the first user was on board. Compliance regulations, enforcement dates, and word-of-mouth drove the acquisition of more customers to its current position of a healthy 50,000-strong user base today.

But Tapan believes that this user base is only the tip of a much larger iceberg, with a market value of $791 billion and an estimated 1.5 million trucking businesses (not trucks!) in the US alone. In the near future, TruckX plans to expand into the Canadian trucking industry in its mission to help trucking businesses operate safely, efficiently and profitably.

Media Contact:

Tapan Chaudhari
[email protected]
[650-600-0008]

SOURCE: Truckx

Topic:
Company Update
Back to newsroom
Back to Newsroom
Share by: