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As some of you know I operate a small refrigerated freight carrier company. We have 6 over the road trucks and refer trailers. I just got a call from my dispatcher panicked... within 48 hours the rates have ABSOLUTELY tanked, so much so that we are electing to sit in Salt Lake City and Denver. We have been getting between $3.00 - $3.30 per mile, rates are now $2.00 per mile and lower. We simply can not make a profit at this number, we are literally losing money with every additional mile. The funny thing is this is across the board, the spot market is very quick to react to market conditions and there is very little fat. What this tells me is there is NO freight to move ( we move food) and there is a serious excess capacity with trucks. Between fuel cost, increased and unwarranted insurance increases they are KILLING small carriers such as myself. I also heard that Walmart and swift are cutting a huge % of their company drivers and back filling with owner operators. My gut is the insurance and maintenance costs coupled with downed trucks because of the lack of parts makes it hard to make a profit.

I hired back a driver that went to a company that had 46 truck fleet and 18 of the trucks were down waiting for parts (3-6 weeks for some longer for others)

As some of you know I operate a small refrigerated freight carrier company. We have 6 over the road trucks and refer trailers. I just got a call from my dispatcher panicked... within 48 hours the rates have ABSOLUTELY tanked, so much so that we are electing to sit in Salt Lake City and Denver. We have been getting between $3.00 - $3.30 per mile, rates are now $2.00 per mile and lower. We simply can not make a profit at this number, we are literally losing money with every additional mile. The funny thing is this is across the board, the spot market is very quick to react to market conditions and there is very little fat. What this tells me is there is NO freight to move ( we move food) and there is a serious excess capacity with trucks. Between fuel cost, increased and unwarranted insurance increases they are KILLING small carriers such as myself. I also heard that Walmart and swift are cutting a huge % of their company drivers and back filling with owner operators. My gut is the insurance and maintenance costs coupled with downed trucks because of the lack of parts makes it hard to make a profit. I hired back a driver that went to a company that had 46 truck fleet and 18 of the trucks were down waiting for parts (3-6 weeks for some longer for others)

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[–] • 0 pt

Wow, RD, let's work on this. maybe you can get the word out among your transportation colleagues.

Here's some more explanation - I forgot to mention Gates: https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/convoy-the-uber-for-trucking/

So what about Convoy made you join?

They would have to usurp DAY and 123loadboard to be taken seriously.

I assure you that they are serious - or they wouldn't be pouring money into it. There IS a reason for that - The question is: What is the reason?

I also noticed that they secured $250m in funding which is loose change for the collection of men you listed. If they were serious they would have bought DAT or brokers such as Teinity, TQL or Landstar. When you see this…the end is near.

Is is it "DAY" or "DAT?" What does that stand for?

Do you mean "Trinity" Freight? And do you mean Trinity Freight or Trinity Logistics?

Is this the TQL you mentioned? https://www.tql.com

If you could tell me the names it would help a lot. It's very possible they are invested under different names - like how Koch and Omidyar bought telecoms a few years ago.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Sorry, I was typing from my phone and phat fingered it, but I meant DAT loadboard. My dispatcher must have signed us up in an effort to view more loads. When I logged in, the available loads were non existent. I can't imagine it costing $250 Million to build? I am actually looking at the site now and trying to find a load out of Denver to ANYWHERE for refer, they have 13 loads all under 100 miles paying a few hundred bucks....worthless! This tell me they have ZERO broker adoption. I dont see how they keep the lights on.

If they bought a Brokerage suck as Trinity Logists, TQL or Landstar and pushed those loads to convoy it might work? As it sits now, they are a non entity.

[–] • 0 pt

Interesting. Def something going on but what?