Bodhi Vette: Road Ninja Founder on new Uber-style app to help people find work in the transport sector

A new Uber-style app for truckies is launching nationally next week after being trialled in Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. 

The Road Ninja app - dubbed the "Uber for truck drivers" will match businesses to truckies in their area. 

Road Ninja Founder Bodhi Vette told Tim Beveridge drivers can set their own rates and get paid what they’re worth. 

Vette said “It’s a driver-first platform.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's been called Uber for truck drivers. So it's a
new app that will connect companies with a job request
for skilled it will connect them to skilled drivers in
the area. It's called road Ninja, and it launches next
week and app founder body Vet joins me. Now, good
a body, how are you going?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Okay, Sam? How are you mate?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning, good good good? Now how does this work?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Oh mate? Yeah, it's like a marketplace platform really, So
drivers download the app for free from the app stores,
create their profile, choose the types of disciplines that they
interested or that they're either interested in or have experience in,
and what rate they want to charge that, and then
companies that need drivers put in all their filters and

(01:03):
searchers and then yeah, find the drivers that match and
are available for them, and then can book through the platform,
and can you even do recruiting there starting from next
week as well.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, I saw a quote it's kind of like the
love child of Tinder and Uber. Is that a positive
selling point?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, it's yeah, Look I didn't come up with that.
Somebody somebody out said it, and it seems to be
stuck around. But yeah, I suppose we're matching drivers with
companies and companies with drivers, So you know, when you're
talking about matching things, yeah, I suppose dating maps can Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, what about obviously there's been a bit of publicity.
Uber doesn't necessarily pay a lot, but the drivers can
set their own pay rates. Is that right?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, So that's the that's the big part
that's you know, drawn in a lot of the drivers
is that, you know, just that word of mouth really
like we've we've got a pretty strong acquisition of drivers
and it's just been through to the fact that they
get to set their own rates and.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Sorry, who will benefit my So is this something that
the businesses crying out for? Is it something that's going
to benefit drivers more? Where do you put the balance?

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Good questions, Like, I mean, it's a driver first platform,
so you know, originally, like I was a driver myself.
I know a lot of the drivers on the platform.
I love driving, Like I was start off as a
two of us driver and sort of got into that
industry through that. And then there's that one common denominator

(02:40):
across all the sector and that's your license and then
depends on how heavy the vehicles are, you get different
classes or endorsements. So it's just, you know, a great
tool to open the door to some of the different
things within the transport sector. But the platform, yeah, it's
really sort of taken off just because I guess it
lets the drivers set their own worth. And like before that,

(03:02):
I had a labor higher. It was a labor higher business.
And what I didn't like about that model was the
fact that we would have to agree on a rate
with the company and at a set rate, and then
we would obviously make our margin on how little we
paid the drivers, which never sat well with me. I
really hated that model, but it was that's a labor
higher model. So I just wanted to flip that around

(03:24):
and figure out a new way to do things. And
marketplace platforms were on the scene around the three or
four years ago where we sort of came up with
the innovation of doing it for transport here in New Deal,
and yeah, it's kind of just that's gone gone really well.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
And then obviously is this some sort of spread, Is
there some sort of screening for drivers that sign up
that that businesses know sort of what they're getting apart
from look I'm available and I've got my license.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah yeah, no, we so we actually API with nded
tha's license system, so when they put all the licensed
information and it pays their system and it responds back
with the actual valid licensed information that they have. So
when you are searching on the platform, you're actually searching
licensed information that is valid as well and current. So

(04:15):
it's a pretty cool technology to API with with the
government agency. And then we do the m J checks
as well. Our stance on that at the moment is
as obviously the clean slate so that we you know,
wouldn't want to be the judge during a prosecutor, but
we had to, I guess, pick a stance when we launched.

(04:37):
I would like to see that part just obviously, through
privacy laws and stuff, you've got to be careful about
what you share, so that's why we had to sort
of pick a stance on it. But you know, down
the track, i'd like to see that move to just
like a flag system with their consents so that you know,
obviously you can create the cycle and you know, worked

(05:01):
with a lot of people. You know, once I've done
done the crime, and done the time and learned the lesson.
You know, they've got to be given that sort of
chance into the workforce and contribute otherwise the cycle can continue.
So yeah, we would like to see some evolution in
that space, which we've got plans around as well.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
So excellent. Oh well, good luck for it, mate, A
great idea and so I hope, I hope it works
well for you. Cheers, buddy.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, hey, thank you so much. Tom, appreciate the time.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
No worries. That's Buddy Vett. Here's the founder of an
app called a road Ninja to link skilled drivers with
companies in the area. Great idea, good stuff.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
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