Threat of Convoy & Uber Freight

No. Use Convoy maybe once every few mos. Haven't wasted my time signing up for Uber, even though they send me a weekly invite to do so.

 

Rates are driven by supply and demand, unless you have contract freight. No one brokerage firm serving the spot market, has "higher paying" rates, that I've seen.

 

Another reason I don't use CONVOY more often is because they want you keep their app running in the background with your location service turned on in order to feed you with notications of available loads.

In addition, they really don't have that much available on the lane I run and the trailer I have.

 

It could be quite a threat to load board establishments. To us, it is a not as much a threat but a trend. So much more convenient to click vs. call and talk...but it comes with a price of missing on opportunities of befriending worthy brokers. The most important thing to remember remains intact: these are still freight scraps.
BTW. Some megas: JB Hunt, Schneider, XPO are going this route too.

 

Uber has competitive rates lately. Convoys rates usually very low and they don’t have much freight anyway. I turn off location service if I don’t haul their loads.
Bad part with Uber that you don’t have designated broker in case of you have issues, and many times you do have issues. Usually detention, because when you come to shipper/receiver they don’t know what’s going on. And it takes them time to figure things out. They do pay detention though with $70/hour rate. Uber is only broker who paid every detention without issues. With other brokers (including convoy) you’ll have to fight for detention.

 

Yeppers, I ran a load recently for England Logistics. They have their own proprietary load app too.

 

How did that work out? I ran a couple of their loads and their rates in my area are way below spot and what other brokers are offering. The last load I ran for then was a complete cluster F. They had the delivery time wrong, I sat for 12 hours and England wouldn't pay me detention even though it was their fault. I said never again.

 

It was fine. It was a short 180 mile load to get me home. Paid $600. Easy in and out at both locations. No issues whatsoever.