Fortune 500 fleet management and supply chain solutions company Ryder System is joining the peer-to-peer vehicle sharing movement to fill a gap in the commercial vehicle market. Launching in Atlanta after a three-month beta test in the same city, COOP by Ryder™ connects underutilized commercial fleet owners to businesses in need of rental vehicles.
“The reason we chose Atlanta is that it’s a great center of commerce. The city was the best market fit for launch for three reasons: its density of trucks in the marketplace, its large presence of Ryder customers (many of which joined the beta), and its favorable regulatory environment,” says Karen M. Jones, Ryder’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer.
Atlanta is increasingly being recognized as a top global logistics center, with more than 12,000 logistics providers, the world’s busiest airport, and easy access to much of the country.
The COOP platform allows fleet owners to list any idle commercial vehicles, set its availability and a pickup location, and receive automatic payments upon 
usage. According to Ryder, there are over eight million commercial vehicles on the road — a quarter of which sit idle for more than one day a week.
The platform includes a range of commercial vehicles including vans, trucks, tractors, trailers, semi-trucks and more, and all fleet owners are vetted prior to being listed on the platform.
“Our mission is to make trucks shareable for everyone everywhere. Business owners with a fleet of vehicles (or even just one vehicle) now have the opportunity to generate revenue on any of their idle vehicles,” says Jones. “In addition, businesses who need extra rentals trucks now have a new pool of trucks to choose from.”
An unused 26-foot straight truck traveling 100 miles per day can generate lenders up to $3,300 per month. COOP’s lenders range from a small business with one truck that isn’t always in use to a company with its own fleet.
Though startups have emerged to tackle this same problem, as an established logistics enterprise Ryder is able to leverage its deep expertise in commercial vehicles and knowledge in insurance requirements, DOT compliance, and associated payments.
“We are excited to launch this new platform that makes trucks shareable at a time when the sharing economy is driving innovation in many industries,” said Robert Sanchez, Chairman and CEO, in a statement. “COOP represents one of several strategic investments we are making to leverage technology and capitalize on disruptions our industry will see over the next five to 10 years.”
Jones shares that the beta yielded positive feedback, including measurable financial impact for the fleet owners.
“More than 100 businesses joined the beta, which has taken place in the Atlanta market over the past 90 days,” says Jones. “Customers who have been using the platform are excited to have the opportunity to maximize the utilization of their vehicles. One even recently told us that once the platform takes off, they can see the cost of their truck being covered if they rent it out once a week.”
With COOP’s chat feature, Ryder hopes customers will connect with truck lenders and grow a longer-term relationship that will ease the complex business of logistics over time.
“COOP is also developing a community of people/businesses who trust one another,” says Jones. “Many have engaged in repeated transactions with the same businesses and are satisfied with the experience and easy-to-use platform.”
Following this initial release, COOP will fully launch in Atlanta in April, with expansion to other major markets following in 2019.
Photos provided by Ryder System
