Digital, Secure and Transparent: How truckoo is Transforming the Commercial Vehicle Trade
The best ideas sometimes emerge in exceptional situations. That’s how Julia Unützer, together with her brother Max Füchsl, founded the startup truckoo in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. Their goal: to make the purchase and sale of trucks and other commercial vehicles as simple, transparent, and digital as possible – internationally. In conversation with Ambivation, Julia shares how the idea came about, which hurdles they had to overcome, and why even major partners such as Deutsche Leasing AG rely on truckoo.
Julia, how did you come up with the idea for truckoo?
We founded truckoo in 2020, right in the middle of the Corona pandemic: At that time, my brother Max was managing our family business – a traditional truck dealership. I was working as a management consultant. At that time, there were already well-known digital solutions in the passenger car sector.
In the truck sector, however, we are still the only startup to this day that is reinventing international trade. We experienced the challenges of being truck dealers ourselves: The trade is highly international. You encounter language barriers on a daily basis. Often, there are “last-minute price inquiries” just before a deal is closed. And when buying a truck, you can only be certain about its condition if you inspect it yourself on-site. For a buyer in Serbia who is interested in a vehicle in Germany, this means a huge amount of effort.
Julia Unützer, CEO of truckoo. Copyright: Achim Schmidt
What else distinguishes commercial vehicle trading from that of passenger cars?
Commercial vehicles are not built for simple mobility but are designed for many specific use cases and for small or large workloads. This means that trading in our industry works fundamentally differently. Local dealers buy vehicles from local companies and first place them on their lot. Then they look for an export customer via advertising portals. This results in a very reactive approach, with very high acquisition costs, significant depreciation risks, long idle times, and maintenance expenses.
At truckoo, we are taking a new approach. We are creating a network to build trust between buyers and sellers, ensure transparency regarding vehicle conditions, and thus enable uncomplicated international trading.
How exactly does it work?
We developed an extensive questionnaire to digitally capture the type and condition of a commercial vehicle. In addition, we work in Germany with a large network of workshops that can verify the condition of vehicles. On our truckoo platform, registered buyers can purchase commercial vehicles with just one click.
How should we imagine the vehicle inspection process through truckoo’s partner workshops?
There are several options: Many sellers let our partner workshops handle the data collection directly – especially if they are unfamiliar with the technical details. At the latest, the vehicle is inspected before delivery. Currently, most of our commercial vehicles come from Germany and Austria and are sold to 25 other countries. In addition, we work with major partners who have their own workshops, and we classify their data as reliable – this applies, for example, to trucks from Deutsche Leasing AG.
On your website, I see two apps for data collection and for sales. How exactly does your process work?
Sellers find all functions in one interface – from recording vehicle data to negotiating on the truckoo platform all the way through to the sale. The process even covers invoicing and handover. For sellers, selling via truckoo is free of charge – meaning they can simply try truckoo for one or two vehicles without risk.
What added value do you offer compared to competitors?
We combine many functions on one platform and promise the best market price for our sellers. To achieve this, we provide access to the international market and directly reach out to potential buyers. We know the market very well. If the price of a vehicle is later reduced, we automatically inform all interested parties.
How did the collaboration with Deutsche Leasing Group come about?
In the course of a planned financing round, we entered into talks with vent.io, the CVC unit of Deutsche Leasing. In addition to the investment by vent.io, a pilot project was immediately launched with an operational unit of the Deutsche Leasing Group.
This meant that we were allowed to approach a selected customer segment and present our offer within the framework of a campaign. The pilot project went very well – our figures matched expectations – and this has since evolved into a genuine cooperation. Our solution ideally complements Deutsche Leasing’s offering, as there was previously no proprietary solution for digital marketing of used commercial vehicles.
With our platform, we were able to close this gap and help Deutsche Leasing support its customers not only with financing but throughout the entire lifecycle of the vehicles – all the way to digital marketing. At the same time, we gained access to new customers. vent.io played an important role by building the bridge and accompanying the implementation of the cooperation.
In the meantime, you are also marketing trucks for Deutsche Leasing Group.
Exactly. Leasing companies repeatedly have vehicles on their balance sheets – for example, after repossessions or agreed returns. At Deutsche Leasing, there is a dedicated department for this.
For this department, truckoo is an equal partner, supporting both the international marketing of their vehicles and the digitalization and optimization of their internal sales processes. – A win-win situation for both sides.
What is the next step in the cooperation?
Deutsche Leasing Group operates internationally. Of course, as a startup, we also want to support teams in France and other countries with digitalization. We think big but proceed step by step, implementing small projects to gather experiences and success stories while convincing key decision-makers along the way.
Contact
Website: www.truckoo.com
LinkedIn: Julia Unützer