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Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

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Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#371

Post by FireBeyond »

tejohnso wrote: post #194
bart_spoon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Tesla wouldn't exist if Elon had shut down at the 2 month dire point. At least, I recall him saying they were at one point about 2 days away from bankruptcy. Not surprising though, that Elon would be in the same camp as this Convoy CEO, not likely to shed too many tears over worker concerns.

> At least, I recall him saying they were at one point about 2 days away from bankruptcy.

Elon has said several variations of this have happened on several occasions.

And yet this fragility never really made it into IR reports or SEC filings or annual reports.

So either he exaggerates (shocking concept from a man whose company has on multiple occasions had to follow him around and say "his claims of Tesla doing X, or doing it by Y date, are visionary, and not statements of fact"), or there's some hinky accounting going on.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#372

Post by thegginthesky »

h2odragon wrote: post #149
thegginthesky wrote: post #74

I work for one of their competitors and I can empathize with them. My thoughts goes to all the employees and their families. The Freight business is collapsing after an unrealistic high during the pandemic. Since April 2022, revenue per load has decreased to about 70%, this means less ways to generate a profit under the same headcount. We also saw a decrease in volume as companies overstocked and consumer spending ha…

> consumer spending has shrunk to less than 50% of what it used to be and you're in a position to be concerned with the accuracy of your numbers, i assume. CNN Tuesday: "US retail sales rose in September for the sixth-straight month" https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/17/economy/retail-sales-septembe... ... id be interested in your thoughts on the apparent conflict of viewpoint there.

Like the sibling comment has said.

But what we saw during the peak was crazy, and some investors and execs thought it would last.

At least in regards to what pertains FTL freight, we saw a drop of tougjly 50% in volumes as consumer spending is down when compared to pandemic height. I am pretry sure there will be a seasonal trend upwards, but no where in the way it was before.

If you are in the industry, you can easily check how much cargo is moving around. Maybe by November-December it will be less than a 50% drop, but expect it to return by kid January-February.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#373

Post by FireBeyond »

WisNorCan wrote: post #121
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.

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.

Is it your serious contention that because insufficient numbers of (now ex-) employees of this company haven't posted on Hacker News within three hours of learning about their unemployment, that it's a non-issue?

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#374

Post by itsmeacupoftea »

shermozle wrote: post #325
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.

In Australia this is called insolvent trading. Is that not also a crime that Directors go to jail for in America?

To be clear, in Australia, this would not be trading whilst insolvent. If the director was not negligent, and they had a legitimate reason to believe they would be able to pay their debt when it fell due, whether via new revenue, new debt or restructure of existing debt, then it wasn't trading whilst insolvent.

The directors had reduced expenses, had been seeking further investment, to increase revenue, and finally to sell the assets of the business, before voluntarily ceasing to trade. They executed their power and duties in good faith, with the care and diligence a reasonable person in their situation would have. It's not a crime to have a business fail.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#375

Post by datavirtue »

drewrv wrote: post #248
duxup wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused as to what Convy "had" anyway. Was it largely spot rates, a bid board, and lots of small carriers? Customers easily could just get rates / carriers elsewhere and walk from Convoy? No other services making income keeping customers around? Rates are pretty fluid in logistics, very strange that they would rely on that alone if that was the case.

Obviously it didn't pan out, but you could think of Convoy as an aggregator of small carriers. A big shipper doesn't want to deal with 1,000 small carriers but they can deal with Convoy, and Convoy deals with the small carriers. Convoy could interface with large companies as though they had a large fleet of drivers and trucks. That "fleet" wouldn't require paying for benefits to employees, maintenance or fuel on the…

Logistics is so crazy saturated. We have an aggregator in Cincinnati, TQL, that was started by a dispatch employee and has just blown up like crazy ever since. They are still growing.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#376

Post by FireBeyond »

Apocryphon wrote: post #195
camhart wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unemployment benefits should already apply wouldn't they?

Should provide something better than COBRA

I love that COBRA isn't just paying the entirety of the health insurance your employer was paying (or partially paying for you), but an additional 5% fee on top of that.

Talk about insult on injury. Gotta love the lobbying that allows that.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#377

Post by datavirtue »

moneywoes wrote: post #116
duxup wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused as to what Convy "had" anyway. Was it largely spot rates, a bid board, and lots of small carriers? Customers easily could just get rates / carriers elsewhere and walk from Convoy? No other services making income keeping customers around? Rates are pretty fluid in logistics, very strange that they would rely on that alone if that was the case.

Exactly, I'm very curious as to what was their edge

Same here.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#378

Post by FireBeyond »

dopamean wrote: post #151
adaml_623 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Flexport was still hiring a month or two ago

They were and the ceo commented on twitter that he had no idea why that was and then rescinded offers to people who were starting the next week.

The CEO who was the founder and until he came back as CEO was on the BOD, the executive, in fact.

"No idea at all!"

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#379

Post by FireBeyond »

mywittyname wrote: post #59
emgeee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang, no severance or healthcare is really brutal and signals to me they probably should have called it earlier.

At least nobody will be around to fight against unemployment claims.

Unfortunately, in Washington state, benefits adjudication is currently sitting at around 10-14 weeks before you'll see your first check.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#380

Post by rvba »

adastra22 wrote: post #99
bart_spoon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A startup will never survive long enough to close the next round with that logic.

There are those (rare?) cases of bootstrapping
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