Live data from Hacker News

Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

bloomberg.com

461–470 of 639 posts

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" exper…

'Dealer trades' are pretty common now. If you want a very specific car it might be the only way to get it these days since the used market is so anemic. My local dealer somehow got a lead that I want a very specific year and trim GTI and twice now they have offered to bring one in for me.

Although you will pay the local dealers mark-ups, not the remote dealer's cheaper prices, from what I hear.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#462
post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to clarify your point about paying out employees... in what sense do you mean that? Some quick googling says that when a company goes into Chapter 7, employees become creditors for their unpaid wages, which means that they are at least in the same boat as other creditors (although it seems like they might sometimes be prioritized).

Your source is talking about unpaid wages (legally mandatory), but severance is additional (legally optional) payments the company chooses to make to support former employees.

And equity is legally subordinate to both of the above.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#463

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…

This just made me realize that things are back in stock regularly again. I suppose it happened slowly so I didn't notice, but shortages seem to be totally gone and things are back to 2019 stock levels.

Not everything, cars still have super long wait times if you buy new

Especially hybrid or PHEV

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#464
post #411

Never heard of this company. Thought it was another automated trucking company. Bloomberg profile of the company shows it’s actually a platform for truckers (finding “routes”), and larger companies to manage routes, their fleets, and status of delivery. Most of this appears to rely on GPS. Not sure why this was valued at $3.8B. Wall Street investment bankers smoking crack while evaluating this one.

It was basically Uber for truckers

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#465
post #312
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…

In the 2001 DotCom downturn a friend worked at a company where they were informed that the paycheck they had received the prior month was the last payment they'd get. So not only no severance, etc but they also worked a few weeks gratis.

Unpaid wages pierce the corporate veil.

I am not a lawyer but I believe that in this case the owner can be found personally liable to the employees.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#466
post #412

There are some really profound misunderstandings of how bankruptcy and credit work in this thread. Creditors are ranked by seniority and get paid out in order by seniority. Equity is below every creditor and has been completely wiped out. Companies are not allowed to take cash or sell the furniture to pay out employees. That money is legally owed to creditors and attempting to stiff them is theft. I'm sorry to those…

Just to clarify your point about paying out employees... in what sense do you mean that? Some quick googling says that when a company goes into Chapter 7, employees become creditors for their unpaid wages, which means that they are at least in the same boat as other creditors (although it seems like they might sometimes be prioritized).

You will rudely discover that the landlord gets paid their early termination fees and any back rent before the employees see a single cent.

Unfortunately I had to learn this the hard way (as in I was lied to and assumed they were still going to pay us, and then the payroll money went poof)

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#467
post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your source is talking about unpaid wages (legally mandatory), but severance is additional (legally optional) payments the company chooses to make to support former employees.

And equity is legally subordinate to both of the above.

Creditors and vendors on the other hand, may not be.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#468
post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think the executives are making anything from this? It's a startup, it ran out of money, it failed, there is nothing left. Joining a startup is risky.

In europe companies are supposed to make accruals for this. Accrue the money, bankrupt one month earlier. Pay the money. Of course this means companies think twice before hiring anyone.

Companies would only do that if required by law because otherwise it’s a huge advantage for your competitor that’s not doing that.

So yeah, if one thinks this is wrong, they need to take it up with their lawmakers. This is not something private companies can change on their own, otherwise all the well behaved companies would be much more likely to go out of business and only the poorly behaved ones would remain.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're taking a remarkably short sighted position here. Blacksmiths and cobblers were once highly in demand workers as well. Do you really think writing code is such a special beautiful skill that it's immune to the same forces of automation? Software development is a trade skill, like any other. We're in a very brief window of time where it's a very lucrative skill to have. Don't expect that to last forever. When th…

I am not at the mercy of my employer or capitalist class for that matter. And I will be the first one to automate my job and reap the benefits of automation myself. This is the way of life - if you cannot adapt - those more flexible, more adaptable, smarter, younger, hungrier - will eat your lunch. There is no way any tech union can enforce monopoly, because there will always be new entrants ( ew grads) and offshore…

I hate to break it to you but if your job is automatable it won't be you reaping the benefits, it will be the people who have the most capital to deploy automating. That ain't you buddy, sorry. Your world view is basically peak HN techbro-iterianisim. I hope you never get the opportunity to experience exactly how wrong you are.

Re: Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer

#470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not at the mercy of my employer or capitalist class for that matter. And I will be the first one to automate my job and reap the benefits of automation myself. This is the way of life - if you cannot adapt - those more flexible, more adaptable, smarter, younger, hungrier - will eat your lunch. There is no way any tech union can enforce monopoly, because there will always be new entrants ( ew grads) and offshore…

I hate to break it to you but if your job is automatable it won't be you reaping the benefits, it will be the people who have the most capital to deploy automating. That ain't you buddy, sorry. Your world view is basically peak HN techbro-iterianisim. I hope you never get the opportunity to experience exactly how wrong you are.

it shows that you have zero experience in automation, because no high value job is fully automatable.

Human augmented+automation will always be more superior/flexible/valuable and large corporations with a lot of capital will never be able to be as flexible and nimble for all customers and all their use cases, as a small player like myself can be

Post reply on HN