Grande Prairie Tech Startup Trusted Dispatch Pitching At Calgary Competition
A Grande Prairie tech startup will vie for $10,000 and make a pitch to investors in Calgary next week.
The Competition
Trusted Dispatch is one of 32 finalists taking part in Inventure$ 2018 from June 6-9, hosted by Alberta Innovates, a provincially-funded corporation that supports research and technology development. The Grande Prairie based company is one of seven competing in the category of “clean energy technology.”
The Pitch
Trusted Dispatch uses an automated online shipping platform to connect shippers with drivers who are already going the direction the shipment needs to go. This reduces the amount of vehicles on the road and cuts emissions, said Dusty LaValley, Trusted Dispatch president.
“When you need to ship something from Grande Prairie to Calgary, it doesn’t make sense to send a truck to go all the way there, drop it off, and come all the way back empty,” he said. “Because you can just about guarantee there’s about a thousand trucks heading that way in the next 24 hours, so why don’t we just connect the dots? That driver can make some extra money rather than going back empty and the shipper saves some money.”
How Trusted Dispatch Started
Trusted Dispatch originally began as a call service to connect industrial clients with backhaul transportation. LaValley’s automated online software, launched late last year, expanded the company’s scope. Anyone can download the app or go to the website and register as a driver, from truckers to hatchback jockeys. And it’s for anyone who wants to move something.
“Whether there be something the size of a paperweight all the way up to a big excavator weighing 80,000 pounds, our shipping platform is designed to handle everything in between all the different weights and sizes,” LaValley said. “And we’re utilizing not just the semi trucks, but pickup trucks and cars and everything.”
