diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 77410b8..e815a6e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ RUN yum install -y gcc
 RUN yum -y --enablerepo=powertools install libyaml-devel libffi-devel
 RUN luarocks install lua-resty-http 0.16.1-0
 RUN luarocks install lua-protobuf 0.3.3
+RUN luarocks install net-url 1.1-1
 RUN luarocks install busted 2.0.0-1
 RUN luarocks --server=http://rocks.moonscript.org install lyaml
 
diff --git a/lib/opentelemetry/trace/exporter/http_client.lua b/lib/opentelemetry/trace/exporter/http_client.lua
index 25481af..5e7169d 100644
--- a/lib/opentelemetry/trace/exporter/http_client.lua
+++ b/lib/opentelemetry/trace/exporter/http_client.lua
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 local http = require("resty.http")
+local net_url = require("net.url")
 
 local _M = {
 }
@@ -7,6 +8,17 @@ local mt = {
     __index = _M
 }
 
+local function build_uri(address)
+    local parsed_address = net_url.parse(address)
+    if parsed_address.scheme ~= "http" and parsed_address.scheme ~= "https" then
+        return build_uri("http://" .. address)
+    end
+    if parsed_address.path == "" or parsed_address.path == "/" then
+        parsed_address.path = "/v1/traces"
+    end
+    return tostring(parsed_address)
+end
+
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
 -- create a http client used by exporter.
 --
@@ -19,13 +31,8 @@ function _M.new(address, timeout, headers)
     headers = headers or {}
     headers["Content-Type"] = "application/x-protobuf"
 
-    local uri = address .. "/v1/traces"
-    if address:find("http", 1, true) ~= 1 then
-        uri = "http://" .. uri
-    end
-
     local self = {
-        uri = uri,
+        uri = build_uri(address),
         timeout = timeout,
         headers = headers,
     }
diff --git a/rockspec/opentelemetry-lua-master-0.rockspec b/rockspec/opentelemetry-lua-master-0.rockspec
index fcd9282..f32d5c5 100644
--- a/rockspec/opentelemetry-lua-master-0.rockspec
+++ b/rockspec/opentelemetry-lua-master-0.rockspec
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ description = {
 dependencies = {
     "lua-protobuf = 0.3.3",
     "lua-resty-http = 0.16.1-0",
+    "net-url = 1.1-1",
 }
 
 build = {