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June 21, 2000 9:50 AM, EDT

Two years ago, J. Vincent Ciroli Jr. was developing Internet sites for banks and helping his wife promote her real estate business online.

But after talking with his friend Rich Frio, a commissioned sales agent for System Transport, a flatbed truckload carrier in Spokane, Wash., Ciroli became convinced that the trucking industry was ready for an Internet revolution.

“What I was seeing was a cottage industry. Just about anyone with a little money could set up a trucking business. There were no dominant players.”

Ciroli was struck by the fact that 72% of all trucking companies operated six or fewer trucks and that even a company as large as Schneider National — with annual revenue close to $3 billion — garnered a relatively insignificant share of an estimated $450 billion spent each year on truck transportation.

For the full story, see the June 19 print edition of Transport Topics. .