Tech Stack At The Truck Stop: Outpost Seeks IOS Expansion With App-Enabled Logistics

The world of truck parking and industrial outdoor storage typically isn’t filled with seed rounds and funding announcements. But a rebranded firm, which just landed an eight-figure funding round, believes that its truck parking tech can help improve operational revenue for the sector while helping expand its real estate portfolio.

Outpost, formerly known as Semi-Stow, raised $12.5M from GreenPoint Partners and Speedwagon Capital Partners to expand its parking and management platform.

CEO Trent Cameron said the routing system helps trucks find spaces and allows owners to maximize their real estate. One of the largest users of the system is Outpost itself, which manages a platform of 18 properties and 8,000 parking spaces. Outpost owns six of those properties. 

Cameron said Outpost’s technology can help it expand and better position its assets. The firm predicts it will double the number of properties under management by the end of 2024.

Traditionally, IOS spaces seek out single tenants and set out six-month to year-long contracts. This leads to inefficiencies, Cameron said. Outpost, which helps drivers find empty spaces, fleets become more flexible and owners maximize usage, can help mitigate those inefficiencies, he said.

A shortage of truck parking has tormented the logistics and shipping industries and is one reason for the consistently high demand for IOS real estate.

The American Trucking Associations estimates there is roughly one parking space for every 11 trucks on the road, and cities typically are loath to zone for more truck parking.  A flood of outside capital into the IOS industry over the last few years has driven up prices. 

“Parking has gotten worse because inevitably, with the rise of e-commerce, there's more trucks on the road,” Cameron said. “It's gotten worse because with more trucks on the road, cities pay a lot more attention to the specific IOS use when it comes to zoning.”