Young WestFleming builds 'Uber for the transportation sector'

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With his company Transdirect, Gilles Devriendt matches self-employed truck drivers with production companies in need of transport capacity. In just two years, turnover multiplied by four, to 1.6 million euros. 'There is already a shortage of drivers, so every truck must be optimally filled.'

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'You see Idon't have to do this often, don't you,' laughs Gilles Devriendt (24), as hestruggles to close the rear doors of his new trailer. 'It illustrates the ideabehind my company: everyone does what they have the most experience with. Thetruck drivers have to hit the road, my planners do the planning, and I stay faraway from the loads.'

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Barely two years ago, on Jan. 1, 2021, the young West Fleming founded Transdirect. The forwarding company (a transport company without its own trucks, ed.) linksdrivers to production companies in need of transport capacity. 'We have a network of 500 independent transporters who can decide for themselves how often they work for us. We provide them with assignments without them having to go through a lot of hassle themselves. From the planning to the administration afterwards, we take care of it all for them. If they run into problems along the way, they can call our planners for help.

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Already, Transdirect handles 40 to 50 shipments daily, accounting for roughly 1,500pallets per day. Among the more than 250 customers are the paper and cardboard company VPK Group, the racking manufacturer Stow, the sea salt producer Zoutman and the steel plate specialist Joris Ide. 'For them, it is not interesting to do their transport themselves or arrange it completely by themselves. That's why they knock on our door. In exchange for a commission, they get a central contact point where they can book transports,' says Devriendt, who was a jobstudent at a transport company.

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With the profitable Transdirect, the young entrepreneur operates in a hyper-competitive sector plagued by staff shortages, skyrocketing fuel costs and traffic jams.'You're not going to find many new drivers quickly, so the main thing is to work even more efficiently with the active carriers. If we get an order from Roeselare to Hasselt, we will look for a company in Limburg that needs transport in the opposite direction. The goal is to acquire even more customers, so that we can fill all rides as optimally as possible.'

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While Devriendt ended 2021 with sales of 400,000 euros, he concludes 2022 with 1.6million euros. In the coming years, he wants to cross the 4 million euro mark.The crucial piece of the puzzle is a new digital system that will be operational by the end of next year. In this way, Transdirect should further develop into a kind of Uber platform for the transport industry. 'That's quite a pretentious thing to say, but we do indeed want to focus on automation.'

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Becoming active outside the Benelux is not the plan. 'I don't see us going to France or Germanyright away, because then we wouldn't be able to offer the same services.Everything revolves around having enough customers to fill each truck as optimally as possible. There is enough business in our region,' says Devriendt.' With the concept of Transdirect, I may not have reinvented hot water, but I still see a lot of growth potential because there are few players who offer a total approach. For me, it's not a question of more trips with more trucks, but of moving more loads with just fewer trucks.'

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PIETERJAN NEIRYNCK December 29 2022
https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/transport/jonge-west-vlaming-bouwt-aan-uber-voor-de-transportsector/10437438.html