Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 639 posts

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#181

Post by asdff »

Fordec wrote: post #167
sushid wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't realize wanting healthcare while getting let go from a company I worked for was desiring to be "coddled."

This is why dissolution isn't some whopsey-doodle word. When there's nothing left, there's nothing left. If that is a risk, including in that is your private healthcare provision, leave this stuff up to the 20 year olds that don't have the health concerns. Coddled might be too diminutive of a phrase, but if it's a risk you can't live with by your life expectations, don't get involved. Pick another job on the market.…

The whole issue with this premise is that someone has to bear the risk. There are no 20 year olds who know with certainty that they don't or will not soon have health concerns that require insurance. Anyone could be get hit with a car walking across the street or get a photon to break some DNA in their skin and cause a melanoma. 20 year olds are not invincible or always in perfect working order.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#182

Post by dboreham »

Fordec wrote: post #167
sushid wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't realize wanting healthcare while getting let go from a company I worked for was desiring to be "coddled."

This is why dissolution isn't some whopsey-doodle word. When there's nothing left, there's nothing left. If that is a risk, including in that is your private healthcare provision, leave this stuff up to the 20 year olds that don't have the health concerns. Coddled might be too diminutive of a phrase, but if it's a risk you can't live with by your life expectations, don't get involved. Pick another job on the market.…

Quick note that this wasn't a bankruptcy. Company just ceased operations. It still exists.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#183

Post by itsoktocry »

bart_spoon wrote: post #86
benced wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ex-Convoy employee here: if a company is shutting down, it obviously can't provide severance. It's not a matter of class or not.

If things are dire enough to close up shop now, they probably were dire enough to close up shop 2 months ago, and you can use the cash to give your employees some runway for finding new employment.

>If things are dire enough to close up shop now, they probably were dire enough to close up shop 2 months ago, and you can use the cash to give your employees some runway for finding new employment.

This might be true, but personally I'd rather the company try to remain a going concern.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#184

Post by omginternets »

busterarm wrote: post #137
vogt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>CEO said there'll be no severance or healthcare. Classy. Learning a lot about how certain people treat their employees during these last couple of admittedly insane years. Good for future reference, I guess - though not much solace now. I feel for the employees. Edit: Wow, more responses than I thought! I admit that the tone of my comment was too reactionary, but my opinion stands. I won't modify the original commen…

Startups are not established businesses. They are inherently risky ventures. If you want to be coddled and showered with benefits, go join a Fortune 500. Startups are not for you.

The series A startup I work for just laid off 30% of its staff. They got 3 months severance, 6 months healthcare and outplacement support.

So you could work for Bezos, or you could work for these guys. I've made my choice.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#185

Post by hotpotamus »

llm_nerd wrote: post #156
andlarry wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medicare: 65,748,297 people enrolled [0] Medicaid and CHIP: 85,614,581 people enrolled [1] Military: 9.5 million people covered [2] The US has not one but two of the largest single payer health insurance programs in the world. Medicare alone has more people enrolled than any European country's single payer programs other than Germany (pop 83,294,633) and the UK (pop 67,736,802). [0] https://medicareadvocacy.org/medic…

I don't think having discrete programs for subsets of the population is single-payer. Single-payer to my understanding means that the health system itself has a single payer. Having the government pay for some patients and a myriad of insurance plans covering the bulk of other patients is not single payer. As they said, it is bizarre the lengths the US will go to to maintain its layered system. It seems purpose built…

I think it would likely be called a non-universal multiple single-payer system if you want to get pedantic about things, but either way given that Americans spend more on healthcare in relative terms while lagging in most health measures makes it all seem very foolish.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#186

Post by icelancer »

laserlight wrote: post #178
WisNorCan wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is interesting to see that employees of Convoy aren't saying bad things about the CEO. But people on the outside who don't know the CEO are saying bad things. Usually it is the reverse.

Stockholm syndrome is a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

[flagged]

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#187

Post by netbioserror »

asdff wrote: post #174
busterarm wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startups are not established businesses. They are inherently risky ventures. If you want to be coddled and showered with benefits, go join a Fortune 500. Startups are not for you.

You could easily rewrite this comment to be about child labor in coal mines and textile mills. At the end of the day people are starting to expect certain basics from businesses considering places like In n Out are now offering benefits packages, and its about time we also enforce certain standards. If that raises the cost of doing business, so be it. I expect the business would be even more lucrative if you didn't h…

Boilerplate vapid moralizing nonsense. Are you assuming there's some magic stockpile of millions upon millions hiding somewhere that could be used to sever all of these people? You've already been told this is fantastically unrealistic for a startup bankruptcy. Unless you can suggest where to find the funds, you need a reality check.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#189

Post by sharkweek »

Anyone here looking at this and wanting to tie it into broader market trends should read the following:

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freight-brokerage-bubble-b...

Great deep dive into how drastically the freight market has shifted the last 12 months and the likelihood that Convoy will be the first of many more to fall in coming months.

Fascinating explainer of a market I didn’t know much about, especially the terms (covenants) laid out by banks that float the money on shipping accounts receivables.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#190

Post by dilyevsky »

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…

Not sure I understand - is this direct to consumer play? If so, you will have no return customers because on avg people buy a car like once every 7 years - bad business
Post reply on HN