Where's My Stuff? uShip Launches Shipment Tracking Platform to Expand Marketplace Transparency

uShip Welcomes WaveMarket As First Location-Services Provider to Offer Transporters Easy and Free Way to Keep Their Customers in the Loop

Austin, TX (PRWEB) June 29, 2009 -- uShip (http://www.uship.com), the first and largest online marketplace for shipping and transportation services, today announced beta availability of the uShip Tracking platform (http://www.uship.com/tracking), a new service that gives uShip customers a wide range of options for tracking of their shipments by Transportation Service Providers (TSPs). The uShip Tracking platform provides three primary location-update options ranging from real-time, GPS-based tracking to manual location mapping to simple Facebook-like status updates.

uShip Tracking is one of the first shipment tracking services to give customers real-time, location-based updates on their shipment status and location, delivering much more precise and timely updates compared to unpredictable checkpoint updates of other shipping services. Click here (http://www.uship.com/images/Veriplace-on-uShip-Screenshot.gif) for a sample of real-time tracking.

uShip is offering the real-time location-based service (LBS) through Veriplace (http://developer.veriplace.com/devportal/)™ from WaveMarket (http://wavemarket.com/), a world leader in mobile location-based platforms and applications, and provider of carrier LBS such as Sprint Family Locator and AT&T FamilyMap. To enable this technology, uShip has partnered with Veriplace™, the gold standard in LBS and the first service on the uShip Tracking platform.

While keeping the customer informed, uShip Tracking supplies Service Providers with various privacy levels, including who, how and when they are monitored while on the road, including what windows of time updates can be shown. Naturally, opting-in to provide location-based updates creates more transparency and likely attracts more business and value to current and potential customers.

"The most common questions I get from my customers when I'm on the road are 'Where are you now?' and 'When will you be here?'" said Mike Garrett, a uShip Platinum Power Provider from Southern Maryland Moving and Storage, LLC. "Now I can answer those questions for many people at once through status or GPS updates, and when being considered for future jobs on uShip, I have a better chance of getting that business."

"We understand that people hold tremendous value in their 'stuff,' and they want to stay in the loop when it's being moved or transported," said Matt Chasen, CEO of uShip. "The uShip Tracking platform - along with our feedback rating system - accomplishes that by giving shipping customers peace of mind that their items are safe and sound. And we are thrilled to be working with WaveMarket, which has created an incredibly simple location-based development platform in Veriplace™ that's helping to enable this whole new level of transparency in the transportation and shipping industry."

About uShip

uShip.com is the first and largest online shipping marketplace that connects people and businesses with feedback-rated Service Providers to make shipping more affordable and efficient. uShip's patent-pending search technology helps 150,000 Service Providers find and bid on hard-to-ship items, such as cars, boats, freight and households, to fill empty cargo space and dramatically reduce transport costs for consumers and businesses. Based in Austin, Texas, uShip's reverse-auction format has generated over $100 million in gross shipping volume since it was launched in 2004.

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