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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

#101
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is there something that incentivizes the facilities to stay unorganized? If no, then maybe there is a way to help them get better (and make money on that helping)?

As someone who worked in a will-not-be-named supply chain, the incentives are a combination of the silo-ing that occurs in any sufficiently large corporate structure, and the simple fact that if a corporation can not spend money, they will not spend money.

Case in point: In our (relatively small) facility we had two different switcher trucks (the really tiny semi trucks with hydraulics in the backs so they could jack up trailers without assistance, and without the driver leaving the vehicle). Over the course of one Christmas, both broke down because the company was always cheap about maintaining the things, which is especially bad because in our climate not maintaining trucks is a terrible, terrible idea. For about a week near end of December, route drivers were having to dock their own trailers on the building and according to them, were not being paid for that time, so they either had to hand the keys to their $90k-ish trucks over to complete strangers to let them do it, or do it themselves without pay after having driven usually 3-4 hours before.

Most of the disorganization in places like this is simple shit, but the corporates constantly decline to spend literally ANY money on maintaining literally ANYTHING, plus as a corporate entity we're incentivized to be as quiet as possible, i.e. not submitting things up the chain that need doing or buying, and even better to cut costs continuously, usually by sidestepping maintenance or janitorial work.

Mind you: this business was not even remotely in trouble, it's one of the largest shipping companies on the fucking PLANET, it's just in a corporation's DNA to be stupid and cheap.

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

#102
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…

Why is it advantageous to a warehouse to have the trucker sit idly by for long periods of time?

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

#103
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…

Why is it advantageous to a warehouse to have the trucker sit idly by for long periods of time?

I guess, it gives you extra free storage and workflow contingency. You tell the trucker you need them early. If they turn up early and you happen to have the stuff ready early great - you have some warehouse space freed up. If you're late however - no biggy - the transport is available to take it, immediately, effectively in demand when it is effectively ready. Maximum flexibility, zero additional cost.

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

#104
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…

Why is it advantageous to a warehouse to have the trucker sit idly by for long periods of time?

it's not? it may be a case of incompetence instead of malice.

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

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only low value, commodity items are shipped via rail however.

I live pretty close to some train tracks, so I observe trains on a regular basis. There are a fair number of coal cars, which I guess is a "low value commodity", but that portion is dwarfed by the overwhelming majority of rail cars that transport intermodal shipping containers. Is everything in a shipping container a low value commodity? Would it really be faster to transport containers by truck, so they would actual…

Intermodal = ultimately delivered by truck.

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

#106
post #34
post #20

I used to work for startup called OpenMile in 2012. We were trying to do pretty much the exact same thing. We might have been too early, but it was hard. We had the tech, but the trucker and other brokers were not very tech savvy. The margins were low and there was too much hand holding. Best of luck to them.

How far did you get? Were you delivering shipments?

we were a high tech broker. yes we did loads, but we could never figure out how to set good margins.

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

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live pretty close to some train tracks, so I observe trains on a regular basis. There are a fair number of coal cars, which I guess is a "low value commodity", but that portion is dwarfed by the overwhelming majority of rail cars that transport intermodal shipping containers. Is everything in a shipping container a low value commodity? Would it really be faster to transport containers by truck, so they would actual…

Intermodal = ultimately delivered by truck.

That is typically true but in no way supports your initial [incorrect] statement that only low-value commodities are shipped by train.

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

#108
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that for most companies playing in this space, freight brokering is just a transitional step. It can't work long-term, just like Uber can't be viable without self-driving cars. However, it's the best way to understand how the industry operates - if you're serious about disrupting it.

This really is the other side of the automated trucking coin. This way they can build enough of a network to start brokering freight for autonomous trucking companies and hiring short distance truck drivers, much like pilot/captains in shippng.

Exactly. The ultimate goal isn't incremental improvement of the current way for doing things, it's fundamental change.

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

#109
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far did you get? Were you delivering shipments?

we were a high tech broker. yes we did loads, but we could never figure out how to set good margins.

The article states that truckers lose up to 25% of the job price to freight brokers (obviously a ceiling). Were your margins far smaller than that?

It seems like the reputation feature and the ability for truckers to find a load on shorter notice would be incredibly valuable. I'm guessing if a broker is already making $13b in revenue, they've already experimented with some similar evolutionary changes to their negotiation process.

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

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here's the trailer for Space Truckers [1], truly looks like a B-movie that isn't willing to admit it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IerJF2xKwuo

I was hilarious, but I don't think they were prepared to admit it was a comedy, either.

Absolutely true. I kinda assumed the comedy category was added after the fact, but I haven't seen it, so maybe marketing didn't agree on it being a comedy.
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