10-4 Systems names Holmes, retired UPS executive, to board

Fast-growing logistics software startup 10-4 Systems Inc. said today it will add UPS Inc. veteran executive Jack Holmes to its board of directors, a week after announcing it would spin off from its parent company with millions of dollars in new financing and six days after Holmes retired as president of UPS Freight, the company's less-than-truckload (LTL) unit.

10-4 Systems said last week that it would break away from GlobalTranz Enterprises Inc., using $13.9 million in new funding to bring its "Uber for trucking" technology to a wider market. Boulder, Colo.-based 10-4 makes a fleet management trucking app that automates the data exchange among carriers, brokers, and shippers, matching trucks with shipper loads so carriers can avoid empty backhaul miles.

By naming Holmes to its board, the four-year-old company has added experience to help complement its new independence. Holmes retired from Atlanta-based UPS on June 30 after nearly four decades with the transport and logistics giant. Holmes headed UPS Freight for nine years, leading the unit through the difficult climates of a freight recession and the subsequent Great Recession, as well as a brutal LTL price war that began in 2009 and stretched for nearly three years.

Holmes also served as co-chairman of the Department of Transportation's National Freight Advisory Committee under secretaries of transportation Ray LaHood and Anthony Foxx.

"I'm at a point in my life where I am going to do business with whom I choose, and with people whom I trust," Holmes said today in a statement. "I believe 10-4's technology is the most exciting development I have seen in supply chain visibility. It truly provides value for carriers, shippers, and brokers alike by aggregating proactive notifications. I believe this technology will make each stakeholder more effective in what they do."