StoneLoads, the Chattanooga-based natural stone online marketplace that began seven months ago, has partnered with the freight technology company Loadsmart to offer instant freight quotes on natural stone purchases across the country.
With the addition of the shipping service started this week, StoneLoads customers can now purchase full loads of natural stone online and receive instant flatbed freight quotes as part of their transaction experience.
“Since we launched StoneLoads in May 2022, the most frequent question we’ve been asked is when we’re going to offer a freight solution,” StoneLoads CEO Patrick Wells said in an announcement of the new service. “Across the country, StoneLoads customers can shop full truckloads of natural stone and book freight to ship their purchases all in the same checkout process.”
Wells, who acquired the Majestic Stone quarry in Dayton, Tennessee in 2016, has boosted his own natural stone business more than fourfold and began Stoneloads to offer online pricing and purchasing for stone quarries throughout the country. StoneLoads is a digital marketplace enabling quarries and natural stone fabricators across the United States to list truckloads of products for landscape supply yards and other distributors to shop.
Under the partnership with Loadsmart, Stoneloads allows a purchaser during the online checkout process to receive an instant quote and book freight brokered by Loadsmart’s extensive network of trucking partners across the country.
“This partnership with StoneLoads is a perfect application for Loadsmart technology, providing StoneLoads buyers with a one-stop purchasing journey,” said Giovanni Batistella, vice president of product at Loadsmart. “We are excited to work together to bring the shipping experience that modern customers have come to expect to the natural stone industry.”
Wells said StoneLoads is now offering full truckloads of products in more than 20 states to distributors that are serving most of the country.
“Our team has a lengthy history in the natural stone industry, and we leveraged our know-how to build a platform that simplifies one of the most problematic experiences facing our peers: getting fast access to products ready to purchase,” Wells said.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner