Former rugby international Robert Russell’s TruckIt.net marketplace on the road to growth

A Queensland country boy who once played rugby for Scotland is now kicking goals in Australia’s multi-billion dollar freight industry.

After Robert Russell hung up his rugby boots he knew with absolute certainty that his business future lay in the digital world.

Eight years down the track from that light bulb moment he launched TruckIt.net which now has a gross marketplace value of about $20m from matching people online wishing to move large items around the country with transport operators who can do it.

Mr Russell said TruckIt.net was one of Australia’s first online marketplaces for freight companies but he doesn’t like the “disrupter” label.

“I believe in the power of online and we are an enabler. We are enabling transport providers to access customers,” he said.

In September, TruckIt.net users posted more than 17,000 freight jobs, a 65 per cent increase on June and 60 per cent up on the same month last year.

The company is looking to break the $25m mark in gross marketplace value this financial year.

The fee-based TruckIt.net is carving out a decent slice for itself out of Australia’s rapidly-growing on-demand freight sector that is part of the $100bn a year transport industry.

TruckIt.net owner and chief executive Robert Russell.

But for the 45-year-old, who grew up on a central Queensland cattle station, the road to TruckIt.net was not a straight one with plenty of twists and turns including winning 27 caps as a hooker for the Scottish Rugby Union team.

“It’s been a bit like my rugby career — a lot of hard work. There’s no such thing as an overnight success,” Mr Russell said.

Mr Russell who grew up on the Plain Creek cattle station near Charters Towers and boarded at Churchie in Brisbane where he received his grounding in rugby before going to UQ to take on a Commerce degree.

He played rugby at Souths at the time when the professional era was taking off.

“My father’s side of the family are Scottish and those clubs started throwing money around. As soon as I finished my degree when I was 21 I went over and played with Aberdeen,” he said.

“I was spotted by some of the Scottish rugby selectors and they realised my ancestry. I went back to Australia and was in the Reds squad but then went back to Scotland and won my first international cap in 1999.”

Mr Russell said he started looking for opportunities away from rugby and wanted to use his business background in commerce.

That opportunity came in Brisbane after the 2003 Rugby World Cup when he met the owners of Skinny Stores who sell Ugg Boots.

“I thought here’s an opportunity to sell Ugg Boots in Britain. I took a carton back to Britain and my wife Claire sold them in Camden markets. From there we got a website and built it up. It was called Ugs & Kisses and focused on female shoes offering 60 different brands,” he said.

“We had an office in London and a warehouse and it was at that point that I became absolutely certain of the future of the digital world.”

Robert Russell scoring a try for Scotland against the Wallabies in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

The father of three retired from rugby in 2007. They sold their businesses when Mr Russell’s father was unwell and returned to Australia.

The idea for TruckIt.net had its origins in Mr Russell’s return to Queensland and the problems of moving goods around the world.

“At the time there were a few freight marketplaces in the UK but it was very difficult to organise freight in Australia. Getting a car moved from one city to another or some furniture across town shouldn’t require dozens of phone calls,” he said.

In 2012, Mr Russell worked on the creating a digital marketplace with an IT partner that was to become TruckIt.net and it was officially launched in 2013.

“We’re basically a matchmaker. An online marketplace has to build trust. We’re bringing together two parties and you also have to balance the supply side with the demand side,” he said.

“The first five years there was a lot of building, a lot of learning and we gathered a lot of data. We were burning through cash trying to get people to transact online.

“In 2018 we had to re-skin it because we realised it wasn’t quite right. The next year we

launched our newer version which was more user friendly.”

TruckIt.net chief executive Robert Russell.

Mr Russell said Covid was a “catalyst” for the acceleration of the business with consumers more reliant on freight and deliveries because of lockdowns

According to TruckIt.net there were 45,874 loads posted in the 2021 September quarter, compared to 33,434 at the same period last year. In the September quarter in 2021 the value of loads posted was $32,111,800 compared to $21,564,930 in 2020.

“With large trucking companies operating at full capacity, the spot market is often the only way they can get larger items moved around,” Mr Russell said.

“Despite the lockdowns, people are still buying and selling cars and boats and caravans and need to be able to get them from one place to another.”

Since it was established, TruckIt.net has taken nearly 750,000 listings with deliveries covering more than 100 million kilometres. At any one time there is about $3m worth of freight jobs posted on the site and available for truckers to quote on.

The site now has more than 400,000 customers who have posted a listing on the site and more than 4500 vetted truckers ready to quote on individual jobs.

Based in Toowong in Brisbane’s inner west, Mr Russell said he intends to continue growing the company.

“Being a marketplace growth is important and there’s a lot more growth out there for us. We will be looking to go international and open up other countries but the opportunity in Australia is still huge,” he said.