Fluid Truck sees growth in Northwest Arkansas

Colorado-based Fluid Truck, one of the nation’s fastest-growing tech companies, is investing in Northwest Arkansas.

Fluid Truck allows businesses to rent commercial vehicles on demand through mobile devices. It operates in more than 400 U.S. cities from Seattle to Miami, offering 24/7 mobile access to various vehicles 365 days a year. The company has more than 100,000 users on its platform, ranging from individuals to small businesses like florists to large retailers like IKEA.

Fluid Truck began operating in Northwest Arkansas this past summer with a fleet of box trucks, vans and trucks. Business development manager Rebecca Moll said the company stages vans at a parking lot in Rogers’ Pinnacle Hills area near Target and Twin Peaks. She said additional regional staging areas would soon offer broader access.

“Northwest Arkansas has an incredible community of small businesses, and we’re proud that we can have a role in supporting them by making commercial vehicles accessible 24/7, 365 days a year at the tap of a button,” said James Eberhard, the company’s founder and CEO.

Moll, who lives in Bentonville, and fleet manager Taylor Higginson of Bella Vista work remotely for the company, which started in 2016 as a marketplace for “stuff” where people could rent everything from wedding dresses to bouncy castles to bow ties. There was one box truck on Fluid Marketplace, the original company name, and customers always rented that. Fluid Truck spokesperson Emily Allen said that was a lightbulb moment — to create a marketplace for commercial vehicles because it did not exist. That was the beginning of Fluid Truck, which took that name in 2019.

“We service time-starved businesses and people who don’t have time to drive to a traditional truck rental company and wait in long lines to check out a vehicle,” Allen said. “In under three minutes, our users can download the app, check available vehicles in their area, see pictures of the vehicle and read reviews, and rent it.”

Allen said businesses that manage their fleet know that work can be a full-time job.

“Small businesses don’t have time for that,” she said. “We have companies on our platform that used to own a fleet of vehicles and sold them all. Now they hop on our app and rent vehicles whenever they need to. They can flex and contract their fleet size based on their business needs and don’t need to invest capital into owning and maintaining a fleet.”

In March 2021, Fluid Truck closed on a $63 million Series A funding round, one of Colorado’s largest-ever Series A rounds. This past November, Fluid Truck placed ninth on Deloitte’s list of 500 fastest-growing companies in North America, with an impressive growth rate of 9,899%. Fluid Truck was also named the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Colorado.