Matt Chasen, uShip Founder, Steps Down as CEO
Matt Chasen, CEO of uShip, announced on his company’s blog Dec. 1 that he’s stepping down from the post and leaving the company he founded in 2003.
The company operates an app-based and online freight marketplace that allows shippers to post loads and let trucking companies with available capacity bid against each other for the business. Dick Metzler has told Transport Topics that uShip wants to take market share away from traditional freight brokers. He’s compared uShip to Travelocity and traditional freight brokers to travel agents, while others have characterized these startups as the “Uberization of Freight.”
Chasen wrote that he plans to pursue new interests and opportunities, such as getting involved with more startup companies.
“I’ve been planning this transition away from the operational CEO role for almost a year. For a few reasons, now is the right time,” he wrote. “First, I wanted to see through the signing of a milestone strategic partnership as well as to see some of our key strategic initiatives take root and establish momentum. Now that those things have taken place and the company is firing on all cylinders, it’s the right time for me to make my next move.”
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Jim Martell, who worked at UPS Inc., FedEx Corp. and UTi Worldwide, will become the interim CEO while the company’s board of directors begins a search for a new leader. Chasen wrote that the decision to leave was difficult.
“If you’ve ever turned a hunch or idea into something greater, especially into a successful and rapidly growing business, you will understand. Letting go is hard,” he added.
Over the summer, uShip announced a five-year partnership with DB Schenker, which ranks No. 17 on the Transport Topics Top 50 list of the largest logistics companies in North America. The company also has relationships with more than 30 national and regional LTL carriers, including UPS, FedEx, XPO Logistics, YRC Worldwide and Old Dominion Freight Line, which rank Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 11, respectively, on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
Chasen said he’s proud that the company has generated nearly $1 billion in gross sales earned by more than 800,000 registered transporters in 138 countries. He also referenced “Shipping Wars,” the A&E reality show that featured uShip between 2012 and 2015.
The Austin, Texas-based company has more than 200 employees.
