If there’s a financial bright spot in Uber Freight’s earnings, it’s that gross bookings have increased year over year as well as sequentially.

The year-over-year increase was the first time such a gain had been achieved by Uber Freight since the integration of Transplace. (Although the fourth quarter of 2022 generated more revenue than a year earlier, the fourth quarter 2021 revenue does not take into account Transplace’s revenue for the entire three months and therefore only constitutes a partial figure.)

Uber Freight’s revenue in the third quarter of this year was $1.308 billion. A year earlier, it stood at $1.284 billion. Sequentially, gross bookings increased from $1.272 billion in the second quarter.

In its prepared statement accompanying the results, the company said the year-over-year increase “was primarily driven by an increase in revenue per load, partially offset by continued pressure from company-wide headwinds.” the category”.

The topic of Uber Freight’s performance was not mentioned during the parent company’s earnings call, according to a transcript.

Reports on brokerage profitability this quarter have been mixed to negative.

While 3PL giant CH Robinson (NASDAQ:CHRW) was capable of reinforcing several measures In terms of profitability, management did not attribute this to a stronger market, but rather to the continued implementation of what it calls its “model” for revamping the business.

The assetless integrated capacity solutions segment at JB Hunt (NASDAQ:JBHT) saw its turnover fall 7% year-on-year, to $278 million, but its operating loss narrowed to $3.3 million from $9.4 million.

Brokerage segment turnover Werner Logistics (NASDAQ:WERN) amounted to $206.8 million, an increase of 10.1%. But operating profit fell to $345,000 from $2 million a year earlier.

Touting its technology

Uber Freight has touted various technological improvements in its digital brokerage business as well as in the operations of the former TMS Transplace. Some of this added technology was mentioned in the prepared Uber Freight commentary accompanying Uber Technologies’ earnings release, but there was no comment on Uber Freight’s economic conditions.

Many of these technological advancements were touted by Uber Freight President Lior Ron at the company’s Deliver conference. last month in Texas.

Advancements highlighted in the earnings report were an integration between Uber Freight and Uber Direct, which helps shippers deliver packages through Uber Freight’s package transportation management system and various AI enhancements.

In an email to FreightWaves, an Uber Freight spokeswoman did not address financial performance. But she pointed to other company developments not cited in the income statement, such as the growth of cross-border trade with Mexicogrowth in Canada in less than a truck and an industry award for combating merchandise theft.

Uber Freight revenue: 3.2% of company total

Skepticism about the future of Uber Freight within Uber Technologies arises periodically. But in the past, skeptics have been repeatedly silenced by actions that reflected the company’s commitment to Uber Freight, which in the third quarter accounted for just 3.2% of the parent company’s gross bookings.

These transactions were Acquisition of Transplace for $2.25 billion announced in July 2021, the $550 million recouped by new owner at the end of 2021, at the same time as it concluded the Transplace agreement, i.e. a Half-billion dollar investment by Greenbriar Capital in 2020.

In an August interview on CNBC, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber Technologies, was mostly positive about the future of Uber Freight, saying that the segment “continues to perform very well in a very, very difficult “.

“We’re watching very carefully, but in the meantime, our team continues to bring the technology to essentially connect shippers to truckers on a direct basis, sort of a next-generation freight company,” Khosrowshahi said. “We are very confident about the prospects there. But right now the environment is difficult. »

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