Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

From a friend: Everyone was laid off with no severance or benefits. The CEO put all the blame on a lender in order to explain why there were no severance packages. This sucks because they took it upon themselves to offer staff retention bonuses earlier this year to keep people around after the earlier layoff.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#5

Post by moralestapia » Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 6:12 PM UTC

1.1B USD in funding!

I'd definitely want to know more about how things came to be like this.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#6

Post by sputknick » Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave up and drove it cross country.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#7

Post by ejstronge » Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 6:19 PM UTC

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

If one searches Reddit, there are brokers who will pass on wholesale car shipping prices which are lower than the prices of those one may find on Google.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#8

Post by toomuchtodo » Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 6:23 PM UTC

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

"Disrupting" this is quite a challenge due to the nature of the service and the logistics around this type of freight. You either pay for someone to drive it which will be on an ad hoc basis when someone is available and interested or you pay to ship it on a Class 8 hauled flatbed or car trailer.

A possible brokerage opportunity would be to inquire with Carvana or Carmax if you can buy slots on their cross country shipments as capacity allows, and sell those to customers. You'll be at the mercy of their schedules and capacity, but could be a service tier along with other more "white glove" services (dedicated driver "hot shot", semi shipment, etc). You could also buy capacity on freight rail cars shipping back empty to factories (depending on destination and routing). High touch biz, beware, there be dragons.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#9

Post by gumby » Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 6:28 PM UTC

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

Did you ship your furnishings? I have shipped my car by simply including it in the move and it traveled with my other goods in the same truck. Not that it was a huge SUV.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#10

Post by dieselgate » Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 6:31 PM UTC

sputknick wrote: post #6

start-up idea if anyone is bored: disrupt car shipping. When I moved from Seattle to Raleigh shipping my car was BY FAR the biggest headache. It's a 20th century business where you have to call people, who will bid for you, and you have no idea if your bid is accepted. Agents will promise a low price to get your business, then tell you a week later that bid was too low, you need to double it. I eventually just gave u…

Don't have experience with trans-continental vehicle transport but as part of an old job one task I had was "drive this truck from Utah to North Carolina.. work there for a few weeks then drive this van back to Utah". Certainly cheaper than designated shippers for a company...

As a consumer I'd assume there are hotshot truckers/services that would be used for this? People have mentioned similar "agent oriented" experiences with moving services and how it's opaque and unreliable.