"We want to bring in a fair amount of transparency in the transport business and create a competitive environment by loosening the stranglehold of middlemen in this business," says Sanjeev Rao. He, along with Sudesh Vernekar, Bakul Rao and Pradyna Chodanker have promoted the portal.

Transport finance and insurance companies are keen at getting into strategic alliances with us, says Rao. 3B is initially targeting linking up 14,000 transporters and will focus mainly on road transport. In the first year Rao expects 6,500 registrations from transporters and 500 corporate clients. The business model for the vortal includes revenues from annual registration fees, advertising revenues and two to five per cent cuts in deals made on the portal.

The vertical industry portal will link transporters/fleet owners directly to the industry and corporate segment, the main customers Apart from information on business opportunities, route surveys, distance charts, finance and insurance schemes for transporters, transporters can buy, sell and lease their assets while customers would be able to search for suitable transporters, compare quotes and track consignments.