Cape Town – Nick Hoffman describes himself as an "intrapreneur" who is passionate about the transport business. He is co-founder and general manager of Linebooker, an online bidding platform for road freight and logistics.
An intrapreneur is a manager within a company who promotes innovative product development and marketing.
Hoffman said they saw a gap in the transportation of goods where a truck, for example, would take a load to George and drive back empty, which meant a loss of income for the business owner.
They developed an app that would have business owners register their businesses to give them a pool of customers. Customers on the other hand, have a variety of transport services to choose from.
Hoffman said Linebooker provides a transparency both for the transport owner and the customer through their online bidding platform, which reduces any opportunity for profiteering.
"I think profit is made within these dark holes without having visibility and I think people have been profiteering from this for a quite a while," Hoffman told Fin24.
They charge a booking fee for transports that want to be on their platform and they also take surety for insurance, but they vet all the transports that come onto Linebooker.
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There is a virtual fleet of over 4 500 transporters registered on the platform. The bidding on the platform between transporters is open for two hours before a customer selects which transporter they choose to work with.
"The company has seen extremely happy transporters, with one earning R900 000 in additional revenue over 10 months from lane balancing achieved on the platform," it said in a statement.
WATCH: Hoffman explains how their platform works
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