Seneca Alumni

Two Seneca grads taking on empty miles

The idea to build FleetOps, a freight matching platform explicitly built for brokerages, came to Joshua Keller and Chris Atkinson when they identified an industry pain point: truck drivers delivering freight from point A to B are returning without cargo from point B to A. This means that drivers are not only facing net loss, but they are also contributing greenhouse gas emissions that can-not be justified.

“The problem that exists in the truck industry is that there is about a one in four chance that a truck you see on the road is driving without cargo, for about 320 km on average. These ‘empty miles’ total the CO2 emissions of Spain each year,” said Mr. Atkinson.

FleetOps addresses this problem by matching drivers with shipments based on the drivers’ location, schedule, preference and truck capabilities, thereby helping reduce the industry’s carbon footprint and raising its efficiency level. Their system connects brokers to 227,000 drivers.

The idea for FleetOps started to form for Mr. Keller and Mr. Atkinson after reviewing data collected through the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to co-founding FleetOps, they had started a tech company in 2014 that built technology on behalf of savvy entrepreneurs looking to create their own start-ups.

The business partners met in Seneca’s Business Administration – Marketing program, which they graduated from in 2011. For Mr. Keller and Mr. Atkinson, their time at Seneca was life-changing not only because they were able to forge a friendship and a business partnership, but also thanks to the lasting connections with mentors and industry experts they made.

Looking back on their time in Seneca, they credit different professors for helping them on their path. Mr. Keller attributes his conversation with Robert (Bob) Carroll, the late professor, for his decision to attend Seneca. “I was deciding between Humber and Seneca when I visited Markham Campus and met Bob Carroll,” he said. For Mr. Atkinson, it was a conversation with another Seneca professor, Brian Broadway, during his second year that inspired him to engage in extracurricular activities where he met Mr. Keller.

With FleetOps having raised $8 million to date, Mr. Keller and Mr. Atkinson look forward to further creating value for investors and all those who contributed.