Rollzi Raises $8 Million to Accelerate Single Lane Relay Approach to Trucking

Company Focused Initially on Interstate 5

Rollzi (www.rollzi.com), an efficiency-focused truckload carrier, has raised $8 million, comprised of seed equity and credit financing, to fund and accelerate the company’s expansion on the West Coast and beyond. Rollzi’s proprietary technology powers a single lane relay strategy to trucking in which multiple drivers combine to deliver loads, increasing both truck utilization for carriers and efficiency for its shipping customers.

Based in Seattle, Rollzi is co-founded by CEO Damien Hutchins and Jonathan Epstein, CFO. Epstein has a background in finance and real estate while Hutchins has been a leader in technology and logistics startups. Most recently, Hutchins headed the brokerage team at Convoy, the nation’s leading digital freight network.

According to Epstein, Rollzi’s angel investors include individuals who lead varied companies related to transportation, logistics, and consumer goods, such as AJM Packaging, Belfor, and Smile Direct Club. In the near-term, Rollzi plans to deploy the funding to expand its fleet of trucks, refine its relays and support hiring. Beyond the operational expansion, the company intends to automate much of its planning and decision-making tied to load selection, truck & driver assignment and routing. Rollzi’s technology considers dozens of data points to model the most efficient relay for each driver, truck, trailer and load. These data points can include live data from telematics, market inputs, service activity, driver location and hours of service, fuel prices, traffic data, weather data and more.

With its single lane relay strategy, the company’s growing fleet of trucks currently focuses on delivering shipments to customers along Interstate 5, stretching from the Seattle area south to the Los Angeles area. Rollzi’s customers include major food and beverage companies, as well as consumer packaged goods and home-furnishing retailers. The company also takes spot market shipments from a short list of top freight brokerages.

According to Hutchins, this single lane focus on the I-5 corridor provides an ideal testing ground for innovative ideas. The freight density of Southern California combined with the relatively mild weather and technological advancements offered by West Coast technology, make it a strong primary target. In the coming months, the company plans to extend its focus to other specific lanes, such as Interstate 10, from Los Angeles to Atlanta.

“There is need for a new paradigm in trucking and Rollzi is here to break long-held industry assumptions,” Hutchins said. “Until recently, fast decision-making tied to the dynamic nature of trucking and all of its variables has not been possible. By using technology and our single lane relay approach, we can drive more revenue per truck than a traditional carrier, we can provide better service levels for customers, and deliver better pay and quality of life for drivers.”

For shippers, Rollzi’s single lane relay model cuts transit time down so freight arrives to its destination faster. In case of any mechanical, weather or traffic-related event, the company has more flexibility to deliver on-time service. For drivers, an obvious benefit of the single lane strategy is staying closer to home, but another benefit is having high truck density. That is, if any driver is ever in need of help, they know that another driver is very nearby and can be on location soon.

Beyond the single lane relay strategy, Rollzi is a values-based company that treats drivers like all employees should be treated. Its drivers are paid by the hour, including any and all on-duty time. The company pays its drivers for fueling, waiting at facilities or during break-downs, which moves the risk to the carrier instead of arbitraging the labor. Rollzi also pays overtime, equips its late model trucks with technology and amenities that make life on the road enjoyable and provides a career path for all drivers including management and IC pathing.

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