
Convoy presents itself as “Uber for trucking” - prostoalex
http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/27/9620352/convoy-uber-for-trucking
======
austenallred
My brother-in-law (and next door neighbor) owns a logistics trucking company
(that mostly ships for my father-in-law's hay company, which is the largest
exporter in the US). My father-in-law is the largest exporter of anything out
of Utah, and loads all of his trucks back up from the port, making him one of
the largest importers. In short, they do a lot of business.

I talked with them at length about this exact idea, and they had me convinced
that the Uber model doesn't necessarily make sense in this space.

First of all, there's no network effect or immediacy required (a la Uber).
Basically you're just contracting out trucking companies, and there are a
bunch of different ways you can already do that, even online. It's not a
simple push-button order, and generally the ordering is done based on
relationships.

So basically this company is putting that ordering process into an app. I'm
not sure if there is a big enough of a differentiation to make a difference.
But I wish them luck.

~~~
exelius
Yeah, that was my thought as well. Logistics companies have been operating
computerized dispatch systems for decades: it just never made sense in the
taxi business because prior to widespread smartphone adoption, the systems
were too expensive relative to the amount of money a single taxi makes.

This might be attractive to small shippers, but yeah, anyone who does any
volume of shipping by truck likely already has a computerized dispatch system
that's probably integrated into their warehouse management software (so they
don't even have to order the truck - the warehouse just does it for them when
a shipment is entered into the system).

~~~
ropman76
That is correct. The hard part of the logistics industry is getting the
integration between warehouse, trucking and operations correct. I worked as a
programmer in this space and most of the time and money in this space is not
going towards apps and websites (most logistics companies have that or have
easy ability to get those things up and running) but integration between
interested parties.

~~~
Someone1234
Something something EDI something something kill me.

I too worked in that space. Super not fun. You're absolutely right that there
is tons of money to be made by interconnecting interested parties with
incompatible systems. It is a massive industry but yet still there is room for
new competition.

I agree with you and above, nobody is going to replace their warehouse
system's automatically generated requests with this Uber clone, they want deep
integration and this doesn't get them closer to that.

Companies are already competing with this but not by copying Uber but by
acting as a data intermediary making it easy to connect logistics companies
with their end users. Data compatibility is the "hard problem" not connecting
two companies together.

------
ryanmarsh
> 1.2 million trucking companies in the US, most of which have fewer than six
> trucks

And thousands get shut down each year by the DOT. Being the Uber for trucking
is great and all, but enabling these small trucking companies to pass DOT
safety audits with flying colors could be the biggest advantage of all.

Safety rating is one of the biggest factors involved in selection of carriers
because Union Carbide doesn't want their toxic chemical spilled all over the
highway.

The safety rules for trucking are written in blood, meaning much of the rule
book exists because people died. Trucking is immensely dangerous. If they get
the safety part right, they'll take over the industry. If you knew how the
trucking industry works you'd be amazed anything gets anywhere.

~~~
ArkyBeagle
I would think that being able to package the passing of audits would be a
service by now.

FWIW, the people who carry permit loads are more trained and at least when
last I checked, not necessarily competing with the rank and file of truckers.

Your last sentence is 100% spot on. I wish people driving in mixed traffic
including lots of trucks understood. They clearly do not.

~~~
ryanmarsh
> I would think that being able to package the passing of audits would be a
> service by now.

Most of the software out there for this is crap. It is a big job though,
mainly dealing with driver logs.

~~~
ArkyBeagle
That's the part I'd most like to see automated. I'm sure it's not that simple.

~~~
paulbaumgart
Some people I know are building this:
[https://keeptruckin.com](https://keeptruckin.com)

------
jaysonelliot
The shipping industry is ripe for innovation all over, and of course it's been
driven by innovation for decades, at least since the 1950s when the shipping
container was invented.

The trucking industry will absolutely see several new billion-dollar companies
emerge in the near future. If I were investing in a startup, though, I'd want
it to be run by founders with a background in trucking, shipping, and/or
logistics.

If the only experience either founder has is one of them working a summer job
at his uncle's company delivering office supplies, I'd be a bit wary. Between
Lewis & Goodale, they've run a game studio, a natural-language processing
startup, and had various software development roles.

You could argue that Uber broke into a blue-collar market without any
experience, but they had the general public as customers, The trucking
industry is a very insular place, they're going to need to get a co-founder
who comes from the world they're trying to break into.

~~~
samstave
In 2007 or so, a number of us engineers from Lockheed had created a
shipping/trucking cargo tracking device... It was a combo rfid tag with gprs,
gps, wifi and mesh networking capabilities along with sensors like
accelerometers...

Nobody wanted it.

~~~
Yakimoto
in 2012 we had this in Afghanistan on almost every single
container/pallet/load.

~~~
samstave
Yeah thats what we originally built at Savi... but there was no security, wifi
or any other security in those original tags.

This was the impetus behind us trying to make the modular version.

------
alaskamiller
8 months ago a redditor shared insight to his freight brokerage business:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2w8an6/any_fr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2w8an6/any_freight_brokers/)

6 months ago another 23yo redditor shared insight of his trucking company--
even as generous as a peek into his revenue and expenses spreadsheet:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/32gwjj/april_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/32gwjj/april_2014_i_started_a_trucking_company_while)

Lots to dissect from there.

------
chongli
The reason the taxi business had been so ripe for disruption is that it's a
big example of regulations creating a market failure. The business of actually
driving a taxi is far, far less lucrative than being an owner of medallions
and collecting rent from a fleet of drivers.

------
jtriangle
I'd be worried about the trucking unions having a legal field day over
something like this. The taxi unions are one thing, but the teamsters and
longshoreman are a whole different thing. I don't think we'll see Convoy
trucks picking loads up at port for some time (if ever), which is where the
big money is to be had.

------
omonra
Just for those too young who might not get the reference - I believe the
company name is a riff on
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077369/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077369/).

I think I watched it in the USSR in late 80s - we all thought that's what USA
is like.

~~~
gavazzy
It's more likely that the movie and the company chose the name because of its
meaning. A convoy is literally a group of ships or vehicles transporting
something, usually protected.

[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/convoy](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/convoy)

~~~
bufordsharkley
The Peckinpah movie (and the hit C.W. McCall song that inspired it several
years earlier) stands among the most famous instances of trucking in popular
culture-- I would guess rather strongly that it's a reference.

~~~
baseten
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss)

somebody gotta link the convoy song!

------
ihsw
Notably, a URL for the website is missing from the news article, _as well as
pretty much every single news article on Convoy._

But I found it, after furious Google sleuthing.

Their website:

[https://convoy.com/](https://convoy.com/)

And their Android app:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.convoy.dri...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.convoy.driver&hl=en)

The iOS app is Coming Soon(TM), and apparently they received $2.5M in seed
funding _yesterday_.

~~~
jessaustin
One would not have expected "convoy.com" to have required any "sleuthing" at
all?

------
gaahrdner
uShip has been doing this for a while, curious as to what competitive
advantages Convoy is going to bring to the space.

------
Thiz
Never underestimate the power of the long tail.

------
cpncrunch
10-4 rubber ducky.

~~~
davidw
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_(song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_\(song\))

Give it a listen. It's pretty bad...

