Truckers B2B, the largest buying co-op on the Internet, has linked up with National Transportation Exchange (NTE), the first electronic freight matching marketplace.

The combination creates a substantial challenge to the major trucking e-commerce sites set to launch this summer. Both Truckers B2B and NTE are already operational and have established member bases.
Truckers B2B (www.truckersb2b.com) was originally called Truckers Co-op when it was launched by Celadon Group, a truckload carrier, in February. The site pools the buying power of Celadon with members to offer discounts on items such as fuel, tires, parts, calling cards and insurance. Truckers Co-op caught the wave of rising fuel prices and immediately generated a large membership. In April, the company went public and took its new name. Truckers B2B now claims over 3,650 member companies representing over 161,000 trucks.
NTE (www.nte.net) was the first company to create a freight-matching market, linking large LTL shipments with available space on truckload trailers. Unlike services such as DAT and Internet Truckstop, which simply brought shipper and carrier together, NTE also provided the business mechanism, buying capacity from carriers and selling it to shippers. NTE now operates on the Internet and offers both LTL and truckload services. The company claims a base of 500 customers, including shippers, consignees, logistics companies, forwarders, brokers and truckload carriers.
The combination of Truckers B2B and NTE creates a serious competitor in the emerging Internet-based trucking marketplace that will see a number of players, such as Transplace.com, Transportalnetwork.com and others, launch this summer. One major player, Transportation.com, launched last week.