Wabash acquires cargo security startup, expanding Trailers-as-a-Service security
Wabash has acquired TrailerHawk.ai, a cargo security and access management startup, to integrate into its Trailers-as-a-Service offering.
TrailerHawk's solutions aimed to provide secure, transparent, and efficient freight movement. The company provided smart asset access management with verified asset chain of custody. Brett Suma, TrailerHawk’s founder and CEO, will join Wabash to develop the company’s solutions further, according to the OEM.
“His tech will now help improve the way we acquire [trailers], do those damage audits, create those cases, and supercharge our on-demand capacity offering,” Cory O’Brien, Wabash’s VP of digital enablement, said during Wabash’s acquisition announcement webinar. “We’re going to continue to develop these platforms and merge them together to create an enhanced offering that addresses the cargo security element.”
Inspiration from scooter sharing
Suma founded TrailerHawk around April 2024. The idea of TrailerHawk came when Suma first tried using Lime scooters with his son. Lime’s shared electric mobility platform includes inspection and verification processes to monitor asset damage and location.
“It essentially requires you to do an inspection to make sure that the scooter is in working order,” Suma said. “You know the health of it because it tells you the battery percentage, and it unlocks itself for you when you’re in communication with it. Then you can use the scooter, and it’s geofenced to disallow you to go to certain locations. When you’re done with it, you do your disposition inspection, you take a picture, you leave it, and [Lime] charges you.”
The robust system helps Lime operate a profitable business loaning equipment that only costs around $1,000. The same idea could translate to trailers—a much more valuable asset.
“I thought, ‘this technology doesn’t exist in a trailer that costs upwards of $40,000 that can have hundreds of thousands of dollars of cargo in it,’” Suma said.
Cargo theft is a significant and growing industry issue. A commonly cited statistic from the FBI suggests that cargo theft costs $15 billion to $30 billion annually— that statistic originated in 2006 and is likely now much higher.
See also: What to do after a cargo theft incident
Adding security to Trailers-as-a-Service
Wabash said the acquisition will strengthen its TaaS by enhancing its customers’ freight security, visibility, and operational efficiency. The company’s TaaS provides a nationwide trailer subscription model with maintenance support and data insights, allowing customers access to trailers on demand without the usual significant capital investment.
“We’re really proud of our legacy of manufacturing, but we realized going forward that, if we’re going to seamlessly serve our customers in this space, we’re going to have to get good at merging physical and digital technologies,” Mike Pettit, chief growth officer at Wabash, said.
See also: Wabash, Purdue exploring trailer energy recovery
With on-demand trailer offerings, Wabash also needed a technology that would allow them to efficiently and securely control the acquisition/disposition processes: trailer access, inspection technology, damage attribution, and more.
As part of the acquisition, Suma will join Wabash Marketplace to lead the ongoing development and scaling of the TaaS and TrailerHawk.ai solutions.
Suma previously served as CEO of Loadsmith, a 3PL startup focused on autonomous trucks acquired by FreightVana in December. Wabash's TaaS was vocally supported by Suma in 2024 as a tool for Loadsmith.
“Having experienced Wabash’s TaaS platform as a customer, I’ve seen its ability to transform logistics operations,” Suma said. “I’m thrilled to join the Wabash team to continue innovating and delivering smarter, more secure solutions for the industry. By helping logistics providers streamline operations and protect assets, we’re creating solutions that deliver immediate and long-term benefits.”
