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Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

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Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#61

Post by simonh »

adventured wrote: post #55
mv4 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to friends in the business: - hard to make money - people work too much and sleep too little - various abuse by trucking companies For a more methodical analysis - USA Today did a piece a month ago: https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forc...

> hard to make money That's not a supporting premise for something being badly broken. Amazon has found it hard to make money in retail, as have Walmart and Costco (2% to 3% razon-thin net income margins). Most retailers find it extremely difficult to make money. That's not necessarily because the business is badly broken. It means the margins are being competed away, which is tremendous for other parties (consumers…

In the case of Amazon those thin margins are mainly due to massive re-investment expenses to grow capacity, not competition. The question is if or when they might be able to reign back the investment without risking losing competitiveness with rivals.

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#63

Post by malandrew »

mv4 wrote: post #47
mkolodny wrote: post #40

"Uber for trucking"... Uber already has an Uber for trucking [0][1]. And it's doing very, very well. [0] https://www.wired.com/2017/05/uber-freight/ [1] https://medium.com/official-uber-freight-blog/uber-freight-l...

Uber for Freight only officially launched last month. Check their app reviews (both iPhone and Android), more than 1/3rd are one star, citing various issues. What makes you think they are doing very well?

Just checked both apps in the iOS store and Android Store.

On the iOS Store, 4 stars out of 5 based on 31 reviews for all versions. Not enough reviews for current version. Only 4 are 1-star reviews. That's 12.9%, not 33%.

On the Android Store, 3.4 stars out of 5 based on 139 reviews. 53 are 1-star reviews, so 38%. Many of the 1-star reviews were Uber haters and people complaining about low rates. The latter I expect to become the norm once technology streamlines the industry, whether its Uber, Convoy or some other company that does it. Only a few 1-star reviews actually report a bad experience with the app that isn't related to rates.

Based on both stores, 30% are 1-star ratings, so it's about 1/3 1-star reviews across both stores. I really wish the app stores made an effort to cull obvious haters and fanboys so that only legitimate reviews were left. People gaming app store reviews are just hurting the people who would derive the most utility from choosing the best application for them.

For comparison, Convoy Driver in the Android store has 4.1 stars based on 51 reviews. In the iOS store it has 4.5 stars based on 12 ratings. Several of its 1-star reviews make the same complaint about the same low rates.

Both Uber Freight and Cargo Driver each have 10,000-50,000 installs in the Android Store, and the fact that Uber Freight has 2.6x the number of Android and iOS reviews based on only 1-month of operations versus almost 2 years seems very solid to me. Convoy's first review in the Android store is from all the way back in October 2015.

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#64

Post by anon4728 »

aresant wrote: post #17

Walmart just lightly threatened carriers & owner operators that if they work for Amazon they can expect lower priority from Walmart in the future (1) Walmart presently represents ~14% of the total capacity of one of America's largest carriers - Swift transport - and likely similarly important elsewhere. (2) Obvious outcome down the road is that one of these behemoths snaps up a convoy / other plays in the space to se…

Amazon should buy FedEx because UPS is awful and they need to grab the last mile business since more things are going to be sold online only.

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#65

Post by pissedycfounder »

YC companies beware. YC "Continuity" will come talk to you to learn the ins and outs of your business and then go fund a non-YC competitor. The whole idea of the fund was to use it to support YC companies at the next stage but now they're funding companies like Convoy that compete with YC companies like Flexport, while using their access to the YC businesses to do diligence. That's fine, normal investor behavior, but you can't treat YC like trusted insiders any more (prob never should have).

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#66

Post by Haley_ »

mcguire wrote: post #56
mv4 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's IBM in that business? IBM has a few initiatives in transportation + blockchain (Maersk, also trucking in Brazil). Anything else?

I have a vague recollection of IBM working with trucking companies to collect routing and shipper's source and destination information to optimize routing. Possibly part of their "smart shipping containers" thing that has apparently evolved into the blockchain Maersk deal. https://www.forbes.com/2006/08/06/smart-shipping-containers-...

I quit working at shoprite and now I make $35h - $80h...how? I'm working online! My work didn't exactly make me happy so I decided to take a chance on something new… after 4 years it was so hard to quit my day job but now I couldn't be happier. Heres what I do, ＡＭＡZＩＮＧ ＪＯＢＳ ----->>http://www.smartfinancemedia.com/?682

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#67

Post by malandrew »

While Convoy Driver app has slightly better reviews than Uber Freight in both app stores (iOS 4.5 stars vs 4.0 stars, Android 4.1 stars vs 3.4 stars), both Uber Freight and Cargo Driver each have 10,000-50,000 installs in the Android Store and Uber Freight has ~2.6x the number of Android and iOS reviews.

The number of installs and reviews for both is especially remarkable because Uber Freight has only been available for about a month, while Convoy Driver has been available for about 1.5 years now.

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#68

Post by michaelbuckbee »

pg_bot wrote: post #31

Speaking as the son of a trucker who spent a summer helping my dad negotiate and optimize his freight rates and schedules, the freight brokerage business is not one I would consider getting into. There is also a ton of competition in the freight brokerage space and the problems associated with shipping are due to poor warehouse management and unreliable truck drivers. Unlike hailing rides in a taxi, manufacturing and…

One interesting thing that Uber/Lyft/similar did in terms of markets was make it much simpler for people to track and view the reputation of a particular driver - which shapes behavior.

I wonder if something like Convoy would do similar -> rapidly highlight the unreliable truck drivers. Allow a good truck driver to carry their reputation from manufacturer to manufacturer, etc.

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#69

Post by edorsey »

47 wrote: post #42

A bit of tangent, But i am in the market for the Software that Convoy and CargoFone are building. We have our own FT, LTL and Final Mile Carrier network. We have negotiated custom rates with them. What i am looking for the Software service through which i send Orders and get updates from these Carriers. Is there a solution like that out there?

I'm in charge of Product at Freightview (https://www.freightview.com). We work exclusively with companies that have existing rates setup. Would be glad to chat.

Re: Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking

#70

Post by baillon »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #68
pg_bot wrote: post #31

Speaking as the son of a trucker who spent a summer helping my dad negotiate and optimize his freight rates and schedules, the freight brokerage business is not one I would consider getting into. There is also a ton of competition in the freight brokerage space and the problems associated with shipping are due to poor warehouse management and unreliable truck drivers. Unlike hailing rides in a taxi, manufacturing and…

One interesting thing that Uber/Lyft/similar did in terms of markets was make it much simpler for people to track and view the reputation of a particular driver - which shapes behavior. I wonder if something like Convoy would do similar -> rapidly highlight the unreliable truck drivers. Allow a good truck driver to carry their reputation from manufacturer to manufacturer, etc.

There's another side to that, too: Highlighting shippers that are unreliable or hostile to drivers. E.g. shippers or facilities that have disorganized staff, incur egregious waits, etc.
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