Tens of thousands of carriers, brokers and shippers rely on TransCore's 3sixty™ Freight Match and DATconnect.com load boards every day to find loads and trucks. These premier load boards, which host more than 40 million transactions per year, are powered by the legendary DAT® Network. DAT is the granddaddy of load board purveyors, founded 22 years ago as Dial-A-Truck by Al Jubitz, a truck stop owner in Portland, Oregon. The trucking industry was deregulated in the 1970s, encouraging independent truck drivers and small companies to find extra loads rather than returning empty.
Mr. Jubitz noticed drivers hanging around his truck stop after the usual meal and shower, hoping to find a load. So he decided to start signing up brokers and shippers who needed freight hauled from Portland.
He listed the loads on a monitor at his truck stop and charged the drivers a nominal fee to get the phone number of the company wanting to move the freight. By the 1980's, DAT monitors could be found in hundreds of truck stops around the country, with thousands of truck drivers and shippers subscribing.
With the advent of the Internet, Dial-A-Truck was more and more frequently accessed through www.dat.com and one of the most popular online products was DATconexus.com.
On February 3, 2001, TransCore® announced it had acquired DAT Services, including the 1200 truck stop monitors where drivers could find loads while on the road.
At the time of the acquisition, supply chain logistics were estimated to account for 60 to 80 percent of many companies' total costs. Consequently, businesses of all types had to extract greater value from their operations. Improving asset utilization and reducing back-office inefficiencies became crucial, which is a role the DAT Network performs, even as it has evolved over the years .
Now known as 3sixty Freight Match powered by DAT, the load board continues to be the largest, most powerful, and safest in the trucking industry. |
