Improving the lives of truck drivers and carriers is at the core of what Convoy is all about. This week, we could not be more excited to celebrate the dedication of all the carriers we work with. Happy National Truck Driver Appreciation Week!

Drumroll please….announcing the 2023 Haul Stars Awards Winners

As part of our celebration, we are proud to announce the winners of our fifth annual Haul Stars Awards*. This year we are recognizing eleven carriers for their outstanding work and industry leading quality. Each winner will receive their own commemorative trading card along with a $250 Target gift card, and a Convoy swag box.

We have two new award categories this year. The Electric Ace award, going to the carrier who completed Convoy’s first fully electric shipment and is charging forward to power the future of freight. This year also marks the first year that our shipper customers have officially joined us in celebrating these outstanding carriers. Target, Unilever, and Ardagh are each recognizing a top carrier with a Team Captain award, these are awarded to the top-performing carriers in Convoy’s network who hauled their loads over the past year. These three shippers wanted to join us in the celebration because of their deep appreciation for the carriers who keep their business moving.  

To continue with tradition, we will be presenting the award for Most Valuable Carrier to a carrier with impeccable quality scores who has gone above and beyond to make our app better. We will also be recognizing Division Champs, awarded the carrier in each region with the top quality scores. Join us in celebrating the eleven 2023 Haul Stars Award winners. You can read more of their stories throughout the week on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. 

Earn more with less hassle

Beyond recognizing these amazing Haul Stars Award winners, we’re celebrating all carriers with a special offer. This week, any carrier who hauls with Convoy is eligible to save $700 on a two-month trailer rental**. 

We’ve seen carriers increasingly looking for better access to trailers to grow their fleets as they expand their businesses. This year we’ve made access to Convoy trailers more flexible than ever. Our trailer return options on power-only loads have increased from 7 to 14 days and carriers can now rent trailers from Convoy for a month or longer. These are just a few of the ways Convoy is working to help carriers earn more with less hassle. 

Looking to rent a trailer? Claim the discount now.

TruckYeah, Convoy celebrates you

From all of us at Convoy, we want to thank each and every truck driver for keeping this country rolling. We appreciate your hard work, and look forward to seeing you on the road.  

*Haul Stars Awards terms and conditions apply.
**Trailer Rental Promotion terms apply.

Meet the winners

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Today we’re excited to announce a new real-time fraud detection system that has reduced cargo theft, double brokering, and other forms of fraud in our network by 90%, even as the industry experienced a 41% increase¹. This new system, which we’ve been testing with customers since January, combines machine learning technology, forensic behavioral data, automation, and industry collaboration to monitor risk in real-time, proactively block fraud before it can occur, and more quickly apprehend perpetrators. As a result of this work, we reduced the rate of theft and double brokering in our network to less than 0.001% across hundreds of thousands of shipments in Q2 2023. And at the time of this announcement, we haven’t experienced a single incident of theft in the second half of 2023.

A growing industry-wide problem

Every year, cargo theft costs shippers hundreds of millions of dollars—in 2022, the total value of stolen freight within the US was nearly a quarter of a billion dollars according to CargoNet. This industry-wide problem has only accelerated in recent years, with cargo theft up 57% year-over-year and trailer theft up 17% for the second quarter of 2023. Attacks have also become more sophisticated, with thieves using technology to target high-value loads and often working as part of larger cargo theft rings.

Traditional solutions to fraud prevention fall short in several ways:

1. Over-reliance on onboarding

Vetting carriers during onboarding is a necessary step to protecting against fraud. However, risk at onboarding is a single static data point, while a carrier’s risk profile and behavior can change over time. Effectively evaluating risk requires a more durable solution that relies on real-time data to continuously verify carrier legitimacy.

2. Failure to identify fraud networks

Traditional theft mitigation is akin to a game of whack-a-mole, in which individual actors are pursued for prosecution, but their connections to larger fraud rings can’t be established. A more systemic approach is required to identify these networks and proactively block fraudulent activity across all known members.

3. Insufficient driver data

Fictitious pickups, in which criminals use false identities to pose as legitimate carriers, were up 600% in 2022. Yet most solutions, including prominent industry data sources, lack information about individual drivers, which can be critical in securing check-ins at facilities and mitigating impact when adverse events occur.

4. Impartial assessments

Traditional risk assessments are often black-and-white decisions based on broad blanket policies and arbitrary data that have little correlation with cargo fraud. This results in frequent false positives that stifle the growth of legitimate carriers by blocking them from working with established brokerages. Instead, these carriers often resort to working with less credible brokers, exposing them to non-payments or misdirection schemes.

The problem is made worse by the fact that most fraud prevention efforts today rely primarily on manual process and human analysis, which can’t scale to effectively protect a freight network.

Introducing the industry’s first real-time fraud detection system

Over the last six months, our team has been working in collaboration with Fortune 1000 shippers and industry partners to pilot a unique real-time fraud detection system that addresses these shortcomings. At the core is machine learning technology that continually verifies the trustworthiness of carriers and identifies relationships between carriers, along with a dedicated team that provides decision oversight and input into the model. 

Before a carrier can join Convoy’s network, and once they’ve satisfied mandatory insurance, operating authority, and FMCSA carrier contact verification, they’re run through a proprietary risk assessment model. Borrowing concepts from graph theory and fuzzy logic, and using publicly available and proprietary data, this clustering model identifies latent connections between carriers and their personnel and then makes recommendations based on the risk level of those links. Identifying these connections is critical to preventing fraud since perpetrators often operate in networks or through the use of multiple identities.

Carriers flagged as high risk are immediately blocked from bidding on loads within the Convoy app. Those flagged with potential risk are asked to submit additional information to prove their legitimacy. And all carriers flagged with any level of risk are reviewed by a member of Convoy’s Trust & Security team to make the final decision on network membership. 

Of course, a carrier’s risk profile can change over time. Carriers who appear to be trustworthy during onboarding can quickly evolve into high-risk entities based on economic changes, sales of motor carrier companies, or onboarding of poorly vetted drivers. For this reason, our solution continually vets every carrier in our network multiple times per day before they can accept each load, using data from all interactions Convoy has with the carrier as well as publicly available information. Additionally, Convoy has built a multi-layered driver verification process to validate the accuracy of provided identification, with the capability to provide the validated assigned driver directly to facilities to verify before releasing a shipment.

Once a load has been assigned to a carrier, our systems track every step of the shipment lifecycle, looking for anomalies and proactively alerting our team to any suspicious activity. GPS tracking enables our systems to automatically determine if a shipment isn’t progressing to its destination as expected. Similarly, cargo sensors automatically alert us if a shipment is being unloaded in an unexpected location, enabling us to take immediate action.

Our solution is also an effective defense against the increasing threat of double brokering. At onboarding and throughout the course of their membership in Convoy’s network, carriers are evaluated for attributes typically associated with double brokering, behavior in accessing and navigating Convoy portals, and other attempts to mask their identity. Then, as carriers book shipments, our system evaluates their schedules for practicality. If deemed infeasible or high risk, loads are automatically removed from the carrier. 

Ensuring a positive, fair experience for carriers

In building a modern fraud prevention solution, we knew it was also critical to provide the tens of thousands of legitimate small carriers and owner-operators in our network, including those with new MCs, with a system that doesn’t obstruct the growth of their business. This is in contrast to many traditional solutions, which are often indiscriminate and haphazard in their approach to carrier vetting—using broad policies and arbitrary data to block by default rather than using precise, up-to-date forensic and behavioral data to block only when necessary.

For example, a well-known tactic in the industry is to use DOT inspection count as a deciding factor in whether to block a carrier from accessing their shipments. This unfairly penalizes new carriers entering the industry, as the median time for a small carrier to receive their first inspection is 154 days (more than five months). In addition, Convoy data indicates that just 56% of single-truck carriers are inspected each year, with 75% inspected over a two-year period. Blocking these small carriers based solely on an issue like inspection count unnecessarily stifles the growth of their business and exposes them to increased risks of unscrupulous broker behavior, as noted above.

Our approach was to build a solution that proactively monitors risk in real time, combining the automated decision making model described above with a dedicated team trained to provide technology oversight and to make fair and consistent decisions. We began by modeling behavioral details and other latent attributes that are more directly correlated with fraud than generic data points like inspection counts and location. We then employed custom heuristics to fine tune our recommendation engine in order to minimize the number of false positives.

To further minimize false positives and other similar issues, we designed a human-in-the-loop process where an audit team reviews our model’s decisions when there’s a higher degree of uncertainty. The team follows a thorough standard operating procedure to request additional information from carriers and make a decision on each case. These decisions are then fed back into the model to continually improve future recommendations.

Through these efforts, we’ve created the industry’s first always-on fraud prevention system that significantly improves cargo security without negatively impacting the tens of thousands of hard-working carriers in our network.

The critical role of industry collaboration

The development of our model, mitigation, and reaction techniques wouldn’t have been possible without the trend analysis, data, and products from companies including CargoNet, Central Analysis Bureau, Persona, and others. These organizations exemplify how technology innovation can be used to reduce losses from fraud and foster a greater sense of security and trust within our industry.

In addition, law enforcement continues to play a critical role in the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of bad actors—in the last six months, they’ve tracked down and apprehend members of multiple cargo theft rings across the US. Additionally, law enforcement adjacent professionals, industry groups, and our private investigator partners continue to provide incredible support to the development of industry-wide solutions to combat fraud.

As we continue to navigate the increasingly complex landscape of fraud and cargo theft, we look forward to expanding these relationships, which we believe can ultimately benefit every shipper, broker, and carrier in our industry.

If you’re interested in learning more about how our fraud prevention solution can help your transportation team reduce supply chain risk, drop me a line at trustandsecurity@convoy.com or contact your Convoy account manager.

¹ Convoy internal data comparing H1 2023 vs. H2 2022, CargoNet Quarterly Supply Chain Risk Trends Analysis 2022, 2023

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Today, we’re excited to roll out Convoy Just-In-Time, our latest truckload freight service that guarantees on-time performance within 15 minutes of the scheduled delivery time. This novel approach to just-in-time delivery provides manufacturers and retailers with the service quality compliance they expect, but with unmatched flexibility to handle fluctuating demand. Convoy’s internal data shows that shippers using Just-In-Time can reduce their annual transportation costs by up to 11% while maintaining higher service quality levels.

For many automotive and industrial manufacturers, precise on-time delivery is a critical requirement for their supply chains to operate cost-efficiently. Shipments that arrive early or late can result in production shutdowns that cost these companies on average $22,000 per minute. Similarly, consumer product companies often need to adhere to stringent on-time delivery policies at retailers’ facilities or incur fines that can increase the cost of each shipment by thousands of dollars. These same retailers then face out-of-stock or out-of-shelf inventories and lose out on realized sales. Data from the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates the US retail food industry alone loses $15-$20 billion per year due to unrealized sales caused by stockouts.

The traditional challenge with just-in-time freight is that it relies on asset-based carriers whose operations lack flexibility. To meet the stringent requirements of just-in-time shippers while maximizing fleet utilization, these carriers need to plan weeks in advance to position their trucks and drop trailers, and optimize the routing of these assets. This rigidity often leads to an inadequate response when demand fluctuates—any surge in volume can result in the need for expedited carriers, who charge a premium for their services. In worst cases, delayed deliveries can lead to manufacturing production shutdowns and loss of revenue from stockouts and unrealized sales. The combined costs of these events can increase annual transportation spend by up to 11% (this figure doesn’t account for the losses incurred due to fines resulting from delayed customer deliveries).

Convoy Just-In-Time takes a novel approach to these challenges by harnessing our network of more than 400,000 trucks, our pool of telematics-enabled drop trailers, and our machine learning models that automate the shipment lifecycle. When demand fluctuates, we can reroute trucks and trailers to facilities nationwide within days, providing shippers with the service quality they expect from just-in-time services, but with a level of flexibility that virtually eliminates the need for expedited services. In addition to cost savings, this approach reduces operational burden at facilities, particularly for load planners who no longer have to scramble to find expedited carriers.

Based on the successful testing we’ve done with automotive and industrial manufacturers as well as CPG companies and retailers over the last year, we’re able to offer shippers a guarantee that we’ll arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled delivery at least 98% of the time. In the rare event of an early or late delivery, we cover an agreed-upon portion of the shipper’s costs.

Carriers are required to use the Convoy app to haul with us, which means we have a 24/7 pulse on where the truck is and what it’s doing. We have achieved 99% carrier app connectivity which allows us to provide the most complete and transparent picture of shipment status and supply chain performance. We automatically collect 1,000 data points on every shipment and use it to power a sophisticated machine learning model that accurately predicts ETAs and proactively recovers from shipment disruptions. For shippers, all of this data comes together on the interactive Convoy dashboard, within their TMS, or through customizable email and text alerts.

If you’re curious to learn more about Convoy Just-In-Time, you can write to us or contact your account manager. 

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Convoy, the nation’s leading digital freight network, announced today a unique, in-app feature aimed at fighting human trafficking. The new feature enables the 80,000 carriers in Convoy’s nationwide network to immediately flag suspicious behavior and take action when they encounter potential cases of human trafficking.

Human trafficking is a crime of exploitation that affects individuals worldwide. According to the US Department of State, each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked, and this $150 billion industry is growing. Truck drivers traverse the vast expanse of the United States, venturing into truck stops and other less-frequented areas. This unique vantage point grants them enhanced opportunities to identify potential victims of human trafficking and promptly report any suspicious activity they encounter.

Convoy recognizes the critical role that technology and transportation professionals play in combating this crime. Building upon an existing partnership with Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), Convoy has integrated a one-click reporting feature within the Convoy app, allowing drivers to easily report suspicious activities related to human trafficking. This activity could be an individual not understanding where they are, an individual or individuals who were demonstrating an inability to speak freely or who’s communication was being monitored or controlled, a minor who is seemingly under an adult’s control for financial gain, and more. Through this new feature, drivers can now text, call, or submit a tip to the national human trafficking hotline operated by Polaris, facilitating a rapid and effective response to potential cases. By leveraging its network and actively involving carriers, Convoy aims to raise awareness, aid in the recovery of victims, and support law enforcement efforts to apprehend perpetrators.

“We commend Convoy for their ongoing commitment to combat human trafficking,” said Molly Griffiths, Corporate Engagement Manager at TAT. “By providing truckers with a simple and efficient way to report potential cases, Convoy is demonstrating their commitment to the safety and well-being of vulnerable individuals. We believe that this in-app resource will further mobilize the transportation industry in recognizing and reporting instances of human trafficking and sets a positive example for the industry on the role technology plays in making a tangible difference.”

TAT has been at the forefront of combating human trafficking within the transportation industry. Through their educational initiatives and mobilization of transportation professionals, TAT has significantly contributed to the recognition and reporting of human trafficking instances. Convoy partnered with the organization in 2021 to establish a certification program for drivers as part of Convoy’s Haul Stars program, a membership group representing the most elite carriers who operate the more than 400,000 trucks in its network. Training is crucial because it educates truckers — who are on the road all the time — but also because their calls and reports can help build a wealth of evidence and allow victims to seek justice.

“Convoy is proud to launch this new in-app feature that empowers carriers to take a stand against human trafficking,” said Amir Pelleg, Vice President, Carriers and Marketplace at Convoy. “By providing our carriers with a simple and efficient way to report suspicious activities, we are fostering a culture of vigilance and solidarity within the transportation industry. Together with Truckers Against Trafficking, we can make a real difference and contribute to rescuing victims.”

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Traditional dedicated contracts are largely inflexible, with asset carriers allocating a set number of trucks and drivers to a given agreement. The moment any additional trucks are needed, a traditional asset carrier would have to acquire more trucks, hire extra drivers, or relocate existing assets, which could take several weeks or even months.

Dedicated On Demand addresses these challenges through our automated routing technology and network of 400,000+ trucks. When volume surges, we quickly add trucks to the fleet of dedicated carriers and incorporate the additional freight via our algorithm-driven routing technology. And for drop freight, we automatically relocate Convoy trailers to the pickup location within hours. This helps shippers avoid the hassle and cost unpredictability of the spot market.

We know shippers value driver consistency to improve operational efficiencies, and with Dedicated On Demand they see the same carrier at their facilities 90% of the time. Shippers can also take advantage of Convoy Hi-Fi Visibility, which provides detailed, real-time updates on their freight, plus access to on-demand facility insights and benchmarking tools to further streamline their operations. 

Pairing the speed and flexibility that only Convoy can deliver with the service and cost stability of traditional dedicated freight opens up new opportunities for shippers. Dedicated On Demand can be used to cover long-term, consistent freight as well as short-term projects, such as transferring goods between facilities. And with more than 400,000 power units in the Convoy network, we offer the nation’s largest fleet of on-demand tractor capacity for hauling private fleet trailers.

Your ability to be flexible, adaptable, and on time tremendously helped us complete our mission of transitioning to the Atlanta building. Thank you again for being a great partner.”

A Fortune 500 multinational food shipper

If you’re interested in learning how Dedicated On Demand can help your transportation team expand your freight coverage, drop us a line or contact your account manager.

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Today we’re excited to introduce instant bid responses, a new feature in the Convoy app that helps carriers save time planning their schedules, maximize their earning potential, and get peace of mind in knowing that they have a load booked. This new capability is rolling out throughout January to the 97% of carriers and drivers in our digital freight network who use our app to find, bid on, and book loads.

Traditional freight brokering has typically been a time-intensive process. It requires carriers to first build relationships with brokers to gain access to shipments. And for every shipment, there’s back-and-forth negotiation over the phone, which can take hours or sometimes days. Apps like Convoy have eliminated much of this hassle by helping carriers find and book loads they otherwise wouldn’t have access to, while eliminating many of the pitfalls associated with phone negotiations, including haggling, language barriers, and gender and cultural biases. However, many apps still require carriers to wait several hours to learn if they won or lost a load, which leads to uncertainty and delays in finalizing their schedules.

Instant bid responses address these challenges by providing carriers with immediate feedback and reduce the response time on bids submitted from hours to seconds. Through this upgrade, approximately 98% of bids on Convoy-sourced loads will be immediately accepted, countered, or rejected, providing carriers real-time flexibility to quickly book a load or adjust their rates and submit new bids. 

The addition of in-app counteroffers provide real-time, actionable feedback on bids, reducing the risk of a carrier losing a load. To date, engagement with counteroffers has been extremely positive, with many bids receiving counteroffers that are subsequently accepted.

Instant bid responses use Convoy’s dynamic pricing models to quickly evaluate carrier bids and changing market conditions to determine which bids to accept, reject, or counter.

“Instant bid responses are an exciting evolution to the Convoy app experience for carriers,” said Grant Goodale, Carrier Experience Officer of Convoy. “Providing real-time responses to bids was one of the most requested upgrades from the Convoy carrier network, and we’re pleased to now be able to provide a better way for carriers to quickly and more effectively secure loads. At Convoy, it’s our mission to help carriers earn more with less hassle, and instant bid response is an important step forward in fulfilling that promise.”

Instant bid responses are rolling out now to all carriers in the Convoy digital freight network. 

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Standardization of data in the logistics industry

One of the biggest challenges transportation companies experience with emissions calculations is that greenhouse gas emissions have been calculated in many different ways depending on the company, provider, or partner. By receiving the GLEC Accreditation, Convoy can assure its shippers that they are receiving some of the most accurate and transparent carbon emissions data in the freight industry. Aligning our methodology to the GLEC Framework enables Convoy to provide insights to shippers to inform business decisions and steer efforts to reduce emissions.

“We’re proud to welcome Convoy as one of our partners accredited by SFC to calculate and report emissions following the GLEC Framework. Improving the standardization of logistics emissions is urgent, and this solution will help North American actors along the supply chain better assess their logistics emissions.’ said Rik Arends, Program Director at Smart Freight Centre.

Convoy’s approach to the GLEC Framework

Convoy utilizes fuel consumption data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smartway Carrier Tool and fuel efficiency data directly from the carriers. Carriers who register and join SmartWay Carrier Partners measure, benchmark, and track their efforts to increase efficiency and fuel economy, in addition to having the documentation to prove it. This data enables our shippers to calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for Scope 3 under the GLEC Framework.

“Our Smart Freight Centre (SFC) accreditation shows that Convoy is committed to aligning our work with globally recognized frameworks,” said Jennifer Wong, Director of Sustainability. “We look forward to continued partnership with SFC to bring transparency and drive climate action in partnership with our shippers and carriers.”

Trucking’s climate impact is significant and growing

The transportation sector is the largest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. In 2020, medium- and heavy-duty trucks accounted for 26% of all transportation emissions¹. Additionally, 35% of the time, trucks drive empty, generating more than 87 million metric tons of carbon emissions which pollute our environment every year.

Today, by aligning our carbon emissions methodology to the gold standard in logistics emissions reporting, the GLEC Framework, we can now provide our shippers and carriers with transparent reporting on carbon emissions.

Partnerships to drive change

The SFC Accreditation of GLEC-compliant tools and programs is part of the SFC’s advocacy work around industry standards to report and reduce emissions.

Convoy will continue to work with SFC and GLEC to support SFC’s goals of driving the adoption of a universal and transparent method of calculating freight emissions across the global supply chain.

Convoy’s accreditation by SFC is very encouraging for companies that have committed to acting responsibly and accurately measuring their CO2 emissions. “Accreditation is the first step as we work towards improving the quality and quantity of truck-level data. Convoy is focused on providing accurate, real-time transparency for our shippers into the emissions that flow within our network,” stated Jennifer Wong.

What it means for shippers

Shippers that work with Convoy can reach out to their account managers to partner with our sustainability team to better understand the carbon emissions in their operations today. In fact, Convoy can provide shippers with emissions reporting as far back as their first shipment in Convoy’s digital freight network.

ABOUT GLEC

Led by SFC, the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) was established in 2014 as a voluntary partnership and has grown to more than 50 companies, industry associations, and green freight programs backed by experts, governments, and other stakeholders. Together, they develop and implement global guidelines to calculate, report, and reduce logistics emissions that work for the industry.

ABOUT THE SMART FREIGHT CENTER

Smart Freight Center is a global non-profit organization dedicated to an efficient, zero-emissions freight sector. SFC brings together and works with the global logistics community to drive transparency, collaboration, and industry action – contributing to the Paris Climate Agreement targets and Sustainable Development Goals. Our goal is that 100+ multinationals reduce at least 30% of logistics emissions by 2030 compared to 2015 across their global logistics supply chains and decarbonize by 2050.

1. EPA, 2020, Fast Facts Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions. 

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The things we do when we don’t have visibility. Like driving a golf cart through the rain to see how many empty trailers are in the yard. Or losing 40 minutes on the phone chasing a carrier’s location. Or paying $18k in detention a month without knowing why. Or stumbling through a “he said, she said” with your 3PL because of poor facility performance. 

Now, imagine a world where you have real-time visibility into your shipments and yards and detailed analytics on your facility performance. In this world, a dashboard surfaces how many trailers are in the yard. A map shows where the truck is in real time, with notifications that tell you what it’s doing. A carrier’s review reveals that the $18k in detention is because there’s a broken robot in bay 5. In this world, data helps steer conversations and drive outcomes. And it’s right at your fingertips. 

This is Hi-Fi Visibility. A new class of visibility and transparency that our customers tell us they have never seen before — not from any other transportation provider in their routing guide.

Introducing Hi-Fi Visibility, an unparalleled level of depth and insights into your freight

Hi-Fi Visibility provides detailed, real-time updates across drop trailer pools and shipments hauled by tech-connected carriers in Convoy’s network. And it provides robust analytics that improve your supply chain health. 

Hi-Fi Visibility is made possible by three core capabilities. It starts with real-time data collection, which we’ve achieved through industry-leading carrier app use — an unrivaled 97% — across our network. 

Next, machine-learning models enhance the data, layering in real-time data from like shipments to predict delays and disruptions related to the driver, facility, trailer loading, and trailer matching. This way you don’t just know where a shipment is but also what it’s doing throughout the shipment lifecycle. Is the truck dwelling at a facility for so long that it’s putting a later shipment at risk? And the data refreshes every five minutes, improving the accuracy and visibility of ETAs, shipment statuses, and shipment delays as they occur. The result? Transportation teams get an accurate, granular source of truth.

And finally, we’re building tools like our online shipper platform that give customers on-demand access to their shipment statuses and insights in real time. Customers can also access this information within the tools they use every day, through APIs and TMS integrations.

Convoy’s Hi-Fi Visibility capabilities include:

• High-fidelity shipment tracking: Track your freight in real time, with the truck’s GPS location updating every minute. See predictive ETAs and status updates that cover more than 30 detailed reason codes. We’ll let you know if a driver has run into issues at the facility or with the equipment, the shipment, paperwork, and more. Shareable tracking links keep your customers, partners, and leadership up to date when it matters most. 
• Advanced insights and benchmarking tools: Save costs and improve operations with an interactive and on-demand insights dashboard that visualizes trends for more than 40 metrics per shipment, including spend, on-time performance, dwell time, carrier retention, and facility performance. Get ratings and written reviews directly from carriers on the ground. Benchmarking data shows how your facility performance stacks up to nearby facilities.
• A facility dashboard: Track the precise GPS location and status of your Convoy Go drop trailers in real time. See each trailer’s current status — whether it’s empty, loaded, or out of service — along with the trailer’s condition, speed, ETA, actual arrival, time in yard, and theft alerts, as well as future availability so you can plan ahead.
• Out-of-the-box TMS integrations and APIs: Get Hi-Fi Visibility in your everyday tools through integrations like live tracking on the Flexport platform, with more on the way.

Convoy customers can access high-fidelity shipment tracking and advanced insights today via connect.convoy.com. Benchmarking and the new facility dashboard will be available later this fall. Learn more by visiting convoy.com/supply-chain-visibility.

How Hi-Fi Visibility drives results

Reducing email volume, mitigating shipment delays, and improving efficiency

The problem: The tracking and accounts receivable teams at a consumer goods company were sending dozens of emails a day about critical shipments delivering into one of their major retailer-customers. Where’s the truck? What is it doing? Can you send me the bill of lading? 

The process: Instead of chasing information from inboxes and call-downs, the team ran a test. Would Convoy’s high-fidelity shipment tracking and digital bill of lading (BOL) features help reduce its email volume?

The outcome: In two weeks, the tracking team reduced its pre-pickup emails by 34% because Convoy’s high-fidelity shipment tracking starts tracking two hours prior to pickup. Tracking team members also received predictive to-the-minute ETAs and status updates with detailed reason codes, so they knew if a driver ran into issues at the facility or with their equipment, the shipment, paperwork, and more and worked to mitigate shipment delays.

The two teams reduced their overall email volume by 14%. The accounts receivable team printed BOLs directly from the shipper platform. Convoy provides a BOL on every load — the carrier’s payment depends on it. These results compelled the consumer goods company to expand Convoy’s tracking and digital BOL features to the rest of its teams.

Lowering dwell times, reducing detention costs, and improving access to capacity

The problem: At one of its biggest facilities, a manufacturer was experiencing high detention costs because of longer-than-usual dwell times. Also, carriers weren’t placing as many bids on loads for this particular facility in the Convoy app.

The process: Convoy compared drivers’ actual transit times to the facility’s appointment times, which were set by the manufacturer’s 3PL, and made a stunning realization. Drivers were so early for their appointment times that they waited hours.

In one scenario, a driver picked up a load at 9 a.m. and arrived at the facility for a 12:30 p.m. delivery — but the appointment time wasn’t until 6 p.m. He held onto this trailer for close to six hours longer than planned. He didn’t get the most out of his full 11 hours of service that day, which reduced his earnings.

The outcome: Convoy provided lane-by-lane transit recommendations that are now executed by the manufacturer’s 3PL. The manufacturer also lengthened the facility’s hours. These changes reduced excess transit by 53%, pickup dwell time by 60%, truck costs by 18%, and detention costs by 70% — monthly accessorial spend went from $16.3k per month to $4.9k per month, for $11.4k in savings month over month.

Like this case study? Then catch the on-demand webinar, with more details and insights.
Watch Unblocking facility bottlenecks using on-demand insights

TIP: Shippers that respect carriers’ time earn higher facility reviews, according to our Annual Freight Insights Report. And our research has found that 84% of carriers often or always read facility reviews before deciding whether to bid on a load (read: positive reviews improve access to capacity). Later this fall, Convoy’s on-demand facility insights dashboard will reveal how facilities stack up to other competing facilities nearby, with benchmarks extending to on-time performance, facility rating, and others, so shippers can continue to work toward the shipper-of-choice title.

Saving time, reducing email volume, and delivering confidence in capacity

The problem: In cases of unexpected demand surges, the transportation team for a large retailer sent emails and made calls to track down available capacity, costing the team its most precious resource: time. Time that its asset-based carriers used to physically check their yards for available trailers. By the time the team heard back, it had to run the loads as live, using unfamiliar spot carriers at a higher cost. 

The process: Another demand surge brewed a familiar scenario — the need for 10 drop trailers. But this time, the team was leveraging Convoy Go for nationwide drop capacity across primary, backup, and spot. Convoy’s drop trailers have GPS and cargo sensors that provide automated updates on trailer location, loaded status, condition, speed, ETA, actual arrival, time in yard, and theft alerts. This eliminates the need for people to manage trailers on the ground. 

The team looked at its facility dashboard to see four trailers already on site and six inbound trailers on the way within the next 24 hours. With confidence in capacity, the team uploaded a spreadsheet with shipment details for the 10 drop loads, then booked and assigned trailers in minutes — for spot drop coverage without the inflated spot costs. The team tracked 100% of these drop loads in real time on a map, with the truck’s location updating every five minutes.

The outcome: The ability to see current trailer status and upcoming trailer availability will be available to all Convoy shippers through the facility dashboard this fall. This means for upcoming drop shipments, customers can see future trailer availability and make a booking decision in minutes, through the Convoy shipper platform or through their TMS. 

Get Hi-Fi Visibility across your network

New to Convoy? Get a demo and learn more about shipping with us. Let’s talk. 

Already ship with Convoy? Log in to view high-fidelity shipment tracking and insights, or request access to your account today.

The post Radical transparency into shipment status and supply chain health. Introducing Hi-Fi Visibility appeared first on Convoy.

As part of our celebration of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, we are proud to announce the winners of our fourth annual Haul Stars Awards*. This year’s twelve amazing winners are also invited to participate in the Haul Stars program, which is a membership group representing the most elite carriers operating in our digital freight network. 

Each winner will receive their own commemorative trading card along with a $500 preloaded Convoy Fuel Card. Additionally, Haul Stars winners get a note from Convoy co-founders Dan Lewis and Grant Goodale and a Convoy swag box.

Join us in celebrating the 2022 Haul Stars Award winners. You can see more of their stories on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Carriers interested in learning more about joining Convoy’s Haul Stars program can contact haulstars@convoy.com. Plus, don’t miss the other ways we are tipping our hat to truck drivers during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. Eligible carriers will get paid via Convoy QuickPay within eight hours of completing a load, for free**, on loads booked this week.

*Haul Stars Awards terms and conditions apply 
**Free same-day QuickPay terms apply

The winners

The post Announcing the 2022 Haul Stars Awards Winners appeared first on Convoy.

Carriers get paid in eight hours for FREE with Convoy QuickPay for loads booked this week

Driving a truck is one of the most common and underappreciated professions in America today. Every day, truck drivers transport the goods that make life easier and more accessible for all of us. As the saying goes, “If you bought it, a truck brought it.”

Life on the road is challenging. Imagine spending multiple nights away from family each week, driving a large, heavy truck through inclement weather, and dreading the inevitable (and costly) mechanical issues common in the industry. Truck prices and insurance premiums are expensive, especially for new drivers. After a long day, many truck drivers even struggle to find a safe place to park their trucks so they can sleep. Between COVID, high fuel prices, and low rates, many trucking companies are struggling to stay in business. 

At Convoy, we are committed to improving the lives of truck drivers and carriers. Our team obsesses over enhancing the trucking experience and making it easier to earn more with less hassle. In the past year we’ve expanded the ways our carriers can get paid, added new benefits to our TruckYeah savings program, and made renting dry van trailers more flexible than ever. In celebration of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, we’re giving eligible carriers free* same-day payments via Convoy QuickPay on loads booked between today and Friday. 

From all of us at Convoy, we want to thank each and every truck driver for keeping this country rolling. If you happen to see a truck on the road today (or any day), give them a smile, say thank you, and give them space to safely merge onto the freeway. You might even get a trucker salute in return!

Grant Goodale,
Convoy co-founder and CXO

— — —

*Terms apply

The post Celebrating National Truck Driver Appreciation Week appeared first on Convoy.

Why have our incidental costs increased so much? What is going on with the dwell times in San Antonio? It can take shippers months to get to the root cause of problems like these. Without detailed visibility into what’s happening at the facility level, shippers don’t know what they can’t see.

But what if feedback was available across your entire network? What if you could see not only what was happening but also what you could do about it? What if your freight provider came to you and said, “Hey, we noticed a spike in incidentals at one of your facilities, and driver feedback indicates this is because of a broken robot on bay 5. It has cost you $18k in incremental spend in the last 30 days. How much would it cost for you to fix it?”

For this beverage manufacturer with the broken robot, the facility wasn’t reporting the issue to management, and they didn’t know what they couldn’t see — until we surfaced it. Convoy leverages robust data sets from our tech-connected carrier network of more than 400,000 trucks, boosted by an analytics and visualization platform that turns this data into real-time insights.

Starting today, Convoy shippers can get on-demand access to facility insights to help:

• Identify trends that help save costs. Track your incidental spend per shipment for each facility and break out incidentals by type, day of the week, or even time of day. 
• Drive operational performance. Get granular visibility into each facility’s average dwell time and on-time performance, including filters to quickly see the lowest-performing facilities in your network. 
• Get timely carrier feedback. See carrier retention, verbatim reviews, and star ratings for each facility.

Watch this video to hear Abhi Krishnappa, one of Convoy’s engineering managers, tell you more about what’s new.

So how exactly can facility insights help drive performance and control costs? Here are a few real-world examples.

1. Why did my incidental spend jump month over month at my highest volume facility?

The problem: A shipper noticed an unexpected 23% month-over-month increase in incidentals per shipment at their highest trafficked facility.

The process: They looked at the facility’s scorecards and discovered dwell time nearly doubled when volume increased by almost 20% within the same time frame.

The insight: The volume was taxing the facility’s ability to get trucks in and out, increasing dwell times for carriers and therefore detention costs — the number one incidental contributor — to the shipper. The shipper, in partnership with their Convoy account team, decided on a solution: a combination of load balancing and rerouting shipments to other facilities.

TIP: Dwell time is the single most important determinant of facility rating, according to Convoy’s Annual Freight Insights Report. Long wait times frustrate carriers, who make a living moving freight, and can end with bad reviews like “had to wait 3 hours for what was supposed to be a preloaded trailer. Never picking a load from here again.” According to Convoy research, negative facility ratings can increase the rate per mile from 5% to as much as 20%.

2. How can I reduce detention costs at this problematic facility?

The problem: A shipper struggled with bottlenecks and backups at their loading docks, but anecdotally, they couldn’t point to any specific problems or patterns. 

The process: Data within the incidentals scorecard of their dashboard showed detention started to increase at 1 p.m., reached its max point between 2 p.m. and  3 p.m., but returned to normal by 6 p.m. With these times of day, the shipper and Convoy together looked at shipment volume and detention costs, uncovering that they were paying an extra $40 per load, on more loads, during their peak hours from 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The insight: Convoy recommended the shipper shift some of their morning picks and drops to the afternoon and evening, which was projected to save up to $150,000 per year.

TIP: The most commonly used words in one- and two-star reviews tend to be “wait,” “time,” “hours,” “slow,” and “long.” A suggestion from our Annual Freight Insights Report: Build processes and make improvements that get carriers in and out. Some customers put funds aside for extra dock space. Others, like in the case above, optimized appointment times for their busier days. Others provided more communication and extra signage so carriers know where they should wait, park, and drop trailers.

3. How much more efficient are my drop shipments compared to my live shipments? What would the budget impact be if I shifted more loads to drop?

The problem: This shipper wanted to convert more live loads to drop-and-hook but needed to better understand their live versus drop performance before making the switch. They knew drop as being the most efficient way to ship but couldn’t quantify the difference — Convoy’s insights dashboard could.

The process: The shipper simply toggled between drop and live loads to discover that, although both live and drop shipments were performing better than the industry average, their drop incidental frequencies were half of live’s, and the average incidental per load shipped was 34% less for drop.

The insight: By increasing the shipper’s load allocation to flexible drop, which provides nationwide drop capacity across primary, backup, and spot, from 6% to 25%, the shipper’s estimated cost savings totaled nearly $86,000.

TIP: Another benefit of converting more live loads to drop loads — drivers prefer them. According to our analysis of carrier reviews for our Annual Freight Insights Report, “easy” was the 7th most common word in facility reviews for drop loads in 2021 but ranked 64th for live loads in 2021. Also, drop loads received more five-star reviews than live loads did. 

4. Why do I have excessive dwell times at this particular facility?

The problem: For this shipper, facility insights helped expose excessively long dwell times for both pickup and drop-off, along with the resulting detention costs.   

The process: Convoy’s analytics team compared the driver’s actual transit time to the facility’s appointment times, with a stunning realization. Drivers were arriving so early for their appointment times that they were waiting for hours. For example, a driver picked up a load at 9 a.m. and arrived at the facility for delivery at 12:30 p.m. — but their set appointment time wasn’t until 6 p.m. The driver held onto this trailer for close to six hours longer than they needed to.

The insight: The shipper’s 3PL managed planning and transit time planning — and the shipper didn’t know about these transit inefficiencies (and their resulting operational and cost impacts). Convoy provided lane-level optimized transit recommendations that led to the shipper expanding their facility hours, implementing our recommended transit time (that their 3PL now executes), which reduced excess transit by 57.3% and pickup dwell time by 57.1%. 

TIP: Carriers can haul up to 11 hours a day, as permitted by hours-of-service regulation, but Dr. David Correll, a research scientist and lecturer at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, estimates that long-haul truck drivers spend, on average, 6.5 hours per day working. “This implies that 40% of America’s truck driving capacity is left on the table every day,” he said in his testimony for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The industry as a whole needs to be better about respecting carriers’ time, and according to our Annual Freight Insights Report, facilities that are successful earn the highest reviews.

Facility insights brought to you by the nation’s most tech-connected carrier network

Our vast network of small carriers and owner-operators totaling more than 400,000 trucks nationwide provide meaningful insights through the Convoy app. We require app usage to haul loads — this is how we provide GPS tracking on 95% of live loads and 100% of drop loads. It’s how we collect robust data around dwell times, detention costs, and more. To date, we’ve captured more than 2.7 million facility reviews in the Convoy app. 

As you’ve read, facility insights and carrier reviews help distinguish a well-functioning facility from one that needs improvement.

Shippers use facility insights to improve their own operational performance and the facility experience for carriers. They can better their chances of becoming a shipper of choice and actually improve their access to reliable capacity. When used wisely, facility reviews and ratings can become a competitive advantage. 

Shippers aren’t alone in finding this data invaluable; carriers do, too. For Convoy specifically, 84% of carriers often or always look at ratings and reviews before moving forward with a bid on a Convoy load. Positive ratings and reviews can compel drivers new to your facility to give it a try. For you, that means securing new reliable capacity can be the difference between “I hope to continue working with them” and “Never picking a load from here again.”

Tap into facility insights with Convoy

New to Convoy? Get a demo and learn more about shipping with us. Let’s talk. 

Already ship with Convoy? Log in to view facility insights or request access to your account today. With every shipment, facility insights are being updated on your insights dashboard.

The post “The robot in bay 5 is broken”: 4 ways you can use facility insights to drive performance and control costs appeared first on Convoy.

Over the next decade, the $1 trillion that companies spend each year to truck freight around the country will shift from traditional, offline approaches to digital-first strategies. These smart systems are easy to use, full of rich data insights, and optimized by machine learning algorithms. This pattern of digitization has played out in nearly every other industry, and it’s happening in trucking right now.

The trucking industry links more than 100,000 shippers across the domestic supply chain with a diverse base of more than 1 million carriers and 3 million drivers. It operates in silos with minimal data, opaque pricing, millions of empty miles, and lots of waiting around. This system no longer keeps up with the dynamic requirements of a healthy supply chain.

Trucking is shifting to connected, transparent, and data-rich systems that efficiently orchestrate across shippers, carriers, drivers, trucks, trailers, docks, yards, and more. Carriers and drivers experience higher truck utilization, fewer empty miles, and less wasted time. Shippers benefit with better reporting, more visibility, and real-time pricing and decision-making at lower total costs.

Freight Trucking in the New Digital Supply Chain

Convoy has spent the last seven years building this future of trucking for our customers by connecting small carriers and owner-operators onto a digital platform. This unique access to capacity and a rich stream of data for every load allows us to rethink how we run our trucking services and leads to countless innovations. We aren’t letting up anytime soon, and our recent announcement shows that some of the best investors in the world are behind us. Here are six critical areas in the transition to digitally-driven freight solutions.

1. True elastic capacity
2. Guaranteed coverage for contract freight
3. Democratizing access to freight to maximize efficiency – all carriers and owner-operators available for all freight
4. Reducing total costs with the data and insights generated from transportation
5. A ‘No empty miles’ mindset
6. Self-driving trucks teaming up with human drivers

1. True elastic shipping capacity

The one thing we can always count on in a complex supply chain is volatility. Whether it’s a backed-up facility, a swing in demand, moves outside normal patterns, or a new phase of the freight market cycle, transportation teams are constantly working to maintain access to high-quality service, reliable capacity, and fair prices.

We have invested in creating true elasticity — the real-time ability to dynamically activate trucks, trailers, and drivers to match needs — to provide a high level of service to customers and absorb the swings they experience in their business. For example, over the past several years, our Convoy Go program has become the most flexible drop & hook trailer option on the market. To achieve this, we use technology to continually analyze the number of trailers customers need at a given facility to satisfy upcoming loads. Our systems automatically route and rebalance thousands of trailers and trucks across a geography to ensure customers always have what they need. This elasticity lets facilities operate at peak efficiency, despite unexpected levels of demand. 

The investments we’ve made over the last seven years – in more than 50 machine learning models, predictive trailer routing, and automated backup and spot services for drop freight – provide the foundation for this future, enabling transportation teams to quickly flex their capacity in ways never before possible.

2. Guaranteed coverage for contract freight

In a fragmented industry where freight capacity and service levels are inconsistent, shippers maintain relationships and solicit bids from dozens or even hundreds of carriers to have redundant options, even in a small region or lane. Despite this significant undertaking, coverage can still be unreliable, and reacting to routing guide failure is a regular challenge for every transportation team. 

It’s critical that guaranteed coverage and its game-changing benefits become a reality for shippers. Coverage failures would become rare, dramatically simplifying procurement and operations. Systems would become more tightly integrated, and processes at facilities like dock scheduling and loading would be optimized. All of this would result in significant savings on the total cost of freight.  

At Convoy, we operate a network that reaches tens of thousands of owner-operators and small trucking companies every day — fully automated and more extensive than the traditional approach. Through this network, Convoy can match the needs of our customers in any market condition. Customers adopting Convoy’s Guaranteed Primary program are already receiving these benefits today, including keeping products on shelves, transparent pricing, and cost savings. 

Over the last 18 months, market volatility in freight RFPs has accelerated the shift toward this future state. Freight providers increasingly offer alternatives to the standard freight RFP tools and processes, and shippers are adopting dynamic pricing programs with guaranteed coverage, including Convoy’s Guaranteed Primary and Dynamic Backup.

3. Democratize access to freight to maximize efficiency – all carriers and owner-operators available for all freight

90% of trucking companies have fewer than six trucks and hundreds of thousands of drivers are owner-operators of their own rigs. These entrepreneurs are the backbone of the American supply chain, yet they face challenges not shared by larger counterparts: lack of access to consistent freight and high-quality, high-volume loads from national shippers, an inability to secure efficient drop and hook freight, or attractive dedicated or contracted runs, and opaque or unfair financial treatment. 

As more small carriers and owner-operators use technology platforms to plug into freight opportunities and plan their schedules, they will gain access to the same opportunities and safeguards as large trucking companies. Convoy’s app empowers drivers to service loads from the largest shippers, proactively plan their routes to know when they’ll be home with their families, and lets drivers create schedules that keep their truck full and earnings predictable. It’s still early; there is much more potential to help drivers and small businesses make decisions on the options that impact them most.

Since 2015, Convoy has been building toward this future. Programs like Convoy Go provide small carriers with access to more efficient and lucrative power-only loads. Hassle-Free Detention and QuickPay help carriers get paid quickly and easily. TruckYeah Savings provides financial economies of scale that enable carriers to save on fuel, factoring, and equipment. And through Convoy for Brokers, carriers have more ways to maximize utilization with loads from other 3PLs that have adopted Convoy’s platform to cover their demand. 

4. Reducing total costs with the data and insights generated from transportation

The data and insights generated through freight transportation create substantial value beyond the transportation of goods. Transportation teams increasingly rely on insights gathered from analyzing tender practices, facility operations, driver feedback, and more to increase efficiency and drive down costs. These insights are just the tip of the iceberg.

Digital freight networks like Convoy have systems orchestrating every step of the shipment lifecycle with real-time connectivity from tenders and spot boards to the inside of trailers and the cab of each truck. There is incredible potential to optimize inventory, warehouses, orders, and more by providing quick and accurate signals through real-time APIs, not human transcription. 

Today, some of Convoy’s customers run their daily list of orders through our systems, where we use our signals to consolidate orders into fewer trucks and more efficient routes with lower total costs. This is one benefit of dozens our industry will unlock in the years ahead.

5. Support sustainability in freight transport with a ‘No empty miles’ mindset

Waste benefits no one — it’s bad for carriers, shippers, and the environment. Today, 90% of S&P 500 companies invest in and report annual corporate sustainability goals, up from 20% a decade ago. In March, the SEC announced a climate disclosure proposal tying greenhouse gas emissions and indirect emissions to risk management. As sustainability continues to gain momentum in modern business practices, freight logistics represents a massive, largely untapped opportunity in sustainability. 

With 35% of all heavy-duty truck miles still being driven empty, technology-driven freight operations will become a meaningful and measurable contributor to companies’ sustainability goals. If the industry can achieve the same efficiency improvements that Convoy has seen on bundled shipments, which was shown to reduce the average empty miles of participating carriers from 36% to 19% (a 45% reduction), it would reduce carbon emissions by 40 million metric tons annually. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 8.6 million passenger vehicles off the road. 

Since our founding in 2015, Convoy has been a pioneer in sustainable freight. We’re leading the transformation toward a more sustainable future of freight through investments in technology like automated reloads, multi-load batching, and efficient appointment windows.

6. Self-driving trucks team up with human drivers

The mainstream adoption of self-driving trucks is many years away. As autonomous driving technology matures, the first way this technology will benefit the industry is by allowing trucks to run longer than the current limit of 11 hours of service per day that drivers must follow. Drivers will remain in the truck, but be able to hand off navigating the highway portions to the vehicle so that the human driver can go off-duty, rest, and reset their service hours (read more about my thoughts on self-driving trucks and human drivers here).

As self-driving trucks enter the market, we will see years of mixed fleets containing traditional and autonomous trucks of varying degrees, as well as mixed rules and regulations for fleet operators to follow. Whether a truck can drive autonomously will vary by its load, technology, location, current weather conditions, traffic situations, etc. Doing this effectively will require technology and techniques like machine learning and AI to consider these variables and optimize. This will be a significant opportunity for Convoy and an exciting area to partner in.

This shift in fleet management is a natural fit for digital freight networks like Convoy. The machine learning investments we’ve made in automated brokering and asset rebalancing are the foundation to managing the mixed fleets of the future.

The road ahead

This change is happening today, and I’m grateful for all our stakeholders’ involvement. To our drivers, dispatchers, transportation planners, logistics managers, procurement officers, supply chain executives, brokers, and partners – your insights and feedback continue to drive the work we do every day. 

The post America Needs a Digital Supply Chain and Trucking is Next appeared first on Convoy.

Mark your calendars… Convoy will be at the 2022 Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) in Louisville, Kentucky from March 24-26!

As many of you know, MATS is the largest trucking show in the world. The three-day event offers over one million square feet of exhibit space, over 40 special events, thousands of exhibitors, and tens of thousands of industry attendees.

Where to Find Us

Convoy will be in room NW202 and the mezzanine space on the second floor of the North Lobby. To get there, make your way over to the North Lobby and follow the signage up the escalators to the second floor.

What to Expect From Convoy

Demo the Convoy App & Get Ship Done

Learn how Convoy is dedicated to helping you earn more with less hassle. Whether you’re looking for a demonstration of how it works, or if you’d like to ask any questions, we can’t wait to meet you and tell you more.

TruckYeah—Free Merch!

As always, we have trucking awesome gear to share with attendees. From hats to shirts, to safety vests, and much more, we have what you need to walk away from the event with a one-of-a-kind experience and memorabilia.

The Convoy Lounge

Whether you’re looking for a rest stop or a unique experience to connect with our team, the Convoy Lounge will entice you to spend all day with us. To gain access, show us the Convoy app on your phone and step inside this exclusive room. Inside, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with Convoy managers—who knows, your feedback could spark the next Convoy innovation! Plus, you can take a load off in our theater room and enjoy complimentary refreshments.

Play Games & Win Prizes

Feeling competitive? We know you are looking to have fun at MATS, and we made sure to deliver! 

Convoy RC Truck Rally: You’ve got skills to pay the bills when it comes to moving 53’ trailers in some of the toughest conditions. Now show off what you can do on the small scale. Race a radio-controlled big rig through our course to win a prize, with the fastest times getting the grand prize daily.

Post your pics: Snap commemorative pictures in front of the Convoy photowall and share them on your social feed for a chance to win a Convoy prize package.

Spin the Sixth Wheel during Convoy Power Hour: You all know the Fifth Wheel, but every day from 3-4pm you can get your hands on the Sixth Wheel. Step right up, give it a whirl, and win some limited edition Convoy SWAG, gift cards, and some even bigger prizes.

Attend Grant Goodale’s Seminar

Small fleets and owner-operators are the lifeblood of America. These important carriers transport the goods we rely on, but they still face problems every day. Join Convoy’s Carrier Experience Officer and co-founder Grant Goodale to learn how we use technology to help these vital small businesses to thrive now and in the future.

To experience this conversation firsthand, join us Saturday, March 26 at 10:00am in the Pro Talks Theater in the South Wing Meeting Room, B104.

We hope to see you there!

The post Visit Convoy at the 50th Annual Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) appeared first on Convoy.

Today, we launched three new features that take this real-time visibility one level deeper while helping shippers save time:

• An improved Shipments dashboard that gives real-time visibility into driver ETAs and exceptions with reason codes, eliminating the need for load update emails
• A tool that locks in instant quotes for up to 24 hours and lets you tender in your own TMS
• A new locations filter within the Insights dashboard that allows you to drill into operational and performance metrics by facility

You’d be hard pressed to find this end-to-end visibility anywhere else, and it’s all because our shipper platform is built on top of the most tech-connected network in the nation. It’s how we deliver to-the-minute tracking on 95 percent of loads. 

Watch this video to hear Conrad, one of Convoy’s product managers, tell you more about what’s new.

See driver ETAs and exceptions with reason codes in real time

There are many ways to track a truck’s location: a provider’s own mobile app, a phone’s location services, ELDs, TMS platforms, and even more. And since not all providers require that drivers use any one of these tracking methods, they also offer another option — drivers can call in and leave their location update with a person, who manually records the information. 

We have to wonder: Is this real-time tracking? Is it true visibility? Tracking across platforms and people makes for inconsistent and inaccurate tracking data. And today, visibility isn’t just about where the truck is — it’s about what the truck is doing, and if there’s an issue, what your provider is doing about it. 

At Convoy, tracking is centralized around our GPS-enabled app, which is how carriers engage with us. This is how you can track Convoy shipments in real time on a map. It’s how you can extend that real-time visibility to your customers and facilities with shareable tracking links.

And starting today, you can get real-time visibility into driver-late exceptions. You’ll not just be able to pinpoint where your truck is on a map, but why it’s late (mechanical breakdown, delay from previous stop, and beyond) and what your dedicated customer experience team at Convoy is doing to resolve it.

Updates are available here as soon as Convoy receives them, so both your team and ours are on the same page. This means no more emails asking for load updates. And if you’d also like to automatically receive these notifications, send us an email at load-status-reports@convoy.com, and we’ll get you set up.

But wait, there’s more! The other feature we’re launching today is an improved Shipments dashboard, now providing detailed ETAs for all of your Convoy shipments. When you can see in real time, you can plan ahead. Check out the Status column to see what’s new. 

Alright, ready for the next feature?

Lock in instant quotes for up to 24 hours and tender in your own TMS

Many shippers use email to gather and compare spot quotes from multiple providers, then, when it comes time to tender loads, they’ll use their TMS or another system. We wanted to make this process a little easier. 

Say you’re in the process of collecting quotes. You start with Convoy and get an instant quote with guaranteed coverage, but you want to see what other providers are pricing the lane at. Since you’re not quite ready to book, simply choose “Save for Later” to lock in that quote for up to 24 hours.

When you’re ready to book, you can come back to the Convoy website to tender your saved quote or snag the quote ID number, which you’d then use to tender the load through your own TMS. You can customize the quote ID number to follow your own naming convention, too. 

Drill into operational and performance metrics by facility

Now, you can see operational and performance metrics by facility, using the new locations filter within your Insights dashboard. Those metrics include shipment volume, rate per mile, spend across spot and contract shipments, Convoy’s on-time pickup and delivery, accessorial spend, dwell time, and more.

Analyze facility performance to maintain positive ratings and reviews from carriers in the Convoy app. Forward-thinking shippers use facility insights to become a shipper of choice and improve access to reliable capacity in any market. An important stat: 84 percent of Convoy carriers “often” or “always” look at reviews before booking a load at a facility they aren’t familiar with.  

The ability to capture these metrics, along with carrier ratings and reviews, is just another benefit of our shipper platform being built on top of the most tech-connected network in the nation.

These features are available now 

New to Convoy? Let’s talk. 

Already ship with Convoy? Log in to view these real-time visibility features or request access to your account today.

The post View real-time driver ETAs and exceptions, lock in quotes, and more — new from Convoy appeared first on Convoy.

“It is my honor to extend congratulations to the 2022 Best Places to Work winners,” says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer, Built In. “This year saw a record number of entrants — and the past two years fundamentally changed what tech professionals want from work. These honorees have risen to the challenge, evolving to deliver employee experiences that provide the meaning and purpose today’s tech professionals seek.”

Built In determines the winners based on an algorithm, using company data about compensation, benefits, and company-wide programming. Through its selection process, Convoy has been recognized on the following lists:

• Best Large Companies to Work For Nationally
• Seattle Best Places to Work
• Seattle Best Large Companies to Work For
• Seattle Best Paying Companies
• Seattle Best Perks & Benefits

“Thank you to Built In for recognizing Convoy and other tech employers making a difference,” says Sunita Solao, Vice President, People at Convoy. “At Convoy, we are committed to fostering a culture where people find joy and energy in our purpose and are valued and celebrated for their unique perspectives and contributions. We’re grateful to our Convoy teams who work hard to deliver on our mission to transport the world with endless capacity and zero waste.”    

Convoy is growing; if you are interested in joining a high performing, fast paced innovator and want to have an outsized impact on a diverse and dynamic team, we’d love to hear from you. Visit our careers page to learn more about our open roles, including product, engineering, operations, data science, and more. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to discover the work we’re doing and read about life at Convoy.

The post Built In Names Convoy in its Esteemed 2022 Best Places to Work Awards appeared first on Convoy.

“Our sustainability awards program prioritizes meaningful impact metrics that ‘move the needle.’ Given the massive carbon footprint of the trucking industry, Convoy’s ability to reduce empty miles and carbon emissions by 45% is truly worth celebrating,” commented Matt Harney, Founder of SEAL Awards.

Winners were selected by a panel of ten sustainability and ESG experts. At Convoy, our work is built on the mission to transport the world with endless capacity and zero waste. We are committed to creating a more efficient and sustainable freight trucking for everyone and are grateful to SEAL Awards for their recognition.

“To be recognized as a winner of the 2021 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards is a tremendous honor for Convoy as we continue to focus on driving new efficiencies and reducing waste in the U.S. trucking industry,” said Convoy’s Head of Sustainability Jennifer Wong. “Today, 35% of the trucks you see on the road are driving empty, generating more than 87 million metric tons of waste; if the industry as a whole were to adopt Convoy’s technology, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 40 million metric tons – the equivalent of taking 8.6 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year. Convoy is pioneering the movement in efficient freight and this award inspires us to continue innovating new sustainable opportunities for truck drivers and shippers.”

Convoy is recognized among other industry-leading organizations and high-growth startups, including Disneyland, General Motors, Salesforce, Samsung, Skullcandy, Mapistry, and Polestar.

Learn more about Convoy’s sustainability efforts and mission.

The post Convoy Wins 2021 SEAL Business Sustainability Award appeared first on Convoy.

This was yet another year where nothing went according to plan, with COVID-19 variants, supply chain congestion, labor shortages, severe weather events, and more. So with this year’s report, we thought we’d focus on a place where shippers can retain control in an otherwise uncertain environment: their facilities. 

To create this year’s report, Convoy’s data science and shipper insights teams dived deep into more than 2.7 million star ratings and written reviews from our freight network. They even analyzed the use of more than 40,000 emojis!  

The result: Convoy’s 2021 Annual Freight Insights Report, featuring:

• How facilities rated in 2021, amid the pandemic, port congestion, and labor shortages
• The single most important determinant of facility rating 
• The five characteristics of top-performing facilities
• How seasonality affects facility ratings and how you can prepare
• Unedited facility reviews shared from our driver network
• How logistics teams can use data to improve facility performance

Download the full 2021 Annual Freight Insights Report now.

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“Out of all of these categories, Convoy performed #1 versus their competitive set. These attributes are critical to Unilever from a Service, Cost and Warehouse Efficiency standpoint. We cannot thank Convoy enough for the superior performance in H1!”

– John Schilli, Sr. Transportation Manager, Unilever

“An award for performance from a strategic shipper like Unilever is a humbling achievement, particularly in this unprecedented tight market. Delivering increasing capacity to meet growing demand, while building long-term efficiencies in Unilever’s supply chain is our focus. This is a testament to the precision of our digital freight network paired with our dedicated team members who service this account, including the drivers on the road.”

– Mauricio Guerra Escamez, Director of Account Management, Convoy

This is the second award Convoy has received from Unilever since working together. In 2017, Unilever awarded Convoy the Partner to Win Visionary Award. Since 2016, Convoy and Unilever have been innovation partners developing new, flexible alternatives to traditional drop-and-hook, as part of a shared commitment to customer service and reducing waste in the supply chain.

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“This award is for our partner who provides nationwide coverage and truly differentiates themselves through their excellent performance. Thank you for your support, engagement and reliability throughout the year. Convoy proved that even in challenging years, they can deliver on commitments and expectations.” 

– Fabio Baldassari, Director of Procurement Logistics, Niagara Bottling

Since Convoy started working with Niagara in 2016, the goal has been to make Niagara’s supply chain more efficient and more sustainable through the reduction of empty miles. Through a joint partnership approach, significant operational efficiency gains have been achieved, saving both companies time and resources. 

“It’s an honor to be recognized by Niagara as the 2021 National Carrier of the Year. Winning this award three out of the last four years speaks volumes to the importance of this partnership. It’s always amazing when you get the opportunity to work with a partner that wants to deep dive into unique challenges they are facing in the supply chain, and you get to tackle them together through innovative problem solving.”

– Zach Knobel, Director of Account Management, Convoy

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The new program is called Convoy for Brokers. It enables brokerages to post loads directly to our digital freight network, access our elastic capacity, and expand their carrier base while maintaining their relationships with shippers and carriers and ensuring the privacy of their data. For carriers in our network, the new program expands opportunities—providing access to more loads in our app so that they can fill their schedules, increase earnings, and reduce empty miles.

Today’s announcement is part of our commitment to building a future of freight based on collaboration and transparency. We believe that carriers, brokerages, and shippers working together is the foundation of a healthier, more resilient supply chain that benefits all parties involved.

We’d like to share a bit more about the market dynamics and discussions we’ve had over the last 18 months that led to today’s announcement, and provide an overview of the new program and its benefits.  

Brokers: The Challenge of Efficiently Accessing High-Quality Capacity

There are more than 18,000 registered freight brokers across the US, and every one provides a critical logistics service—arranging for trucking companies to haul shipments for businesses of all sizes. When you account for independent brokers as well as brokerage arms of asset-based carriers, upward of 43% of truckload shipments are currently run through brokered transportation.¹

With all the market volatility over the last 18 months, brokers have become even more important. Their relationships with carriers provide shippers with flexible capacity to handle fluctuations in demand, often with short notice. 

Brokers have faced challenges, however, when it comes to how quickly they can access supply and how effectively they can manage quality control within their carrier base:

• Efficiency – Brokering loads often involves hours of back-and-forth emails and phone calls with multiple carriers. This limits broker productivity, and as lead time is consumed by manual activity, truck costs increase. 
• Quality control – Brokers often operate with limited information about the safety and performance of their carrier base. Even when the information is available, it quickly becomes outdated. This increases their risk of customer service issues and cargo claims. 

Another headwind brokers have faced over the last 18 months is the imbalance of supply and demand. In many industries and metros across the US, the supply of trucks has been outpaced by surging demand—this leaves many brokers struggling to find capacity and results in a higher incidence of service failure.

In our conversations with brokerages, what we’ve heard is that they need a more efficient way to secure high-quality capacity.

Carriers: The Need for Additional Flexibility

Owner-operators and small carriers are the lifeblood of the American supply chain. Truck driving is the #1 job in 29 states, and the vast majority of the 3 million trucks running freight in the US are owned by these small fleets and independent drivers. 

Over the last half-decade, Convoy has had the privilege of working with tens of thousands of small carriers, providing them with access to high-quality loads that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Through our machine learning technology, we help keep carriers’ schedules and trucks full by automatically finding backhauls to match their headhauls—improving fleet utilization and helping carriers earn more to grow their business. 

Yet even with thousands of loads running through our network every day, there’s still more we can do to help carriers more efficiently run their business and maximize truck utilization—on a schedule that works best for them and on the lanes they like to run.

Introducing Convoy for Brokers

Based on feedback from the carriers in our network, we started to explore partnerships with truckload brokerages that could bring additional shipment volume into our network. And through discussions with the forward-thinking team at USA Truck, we began work just over a year ago on a new technology solution for brokers that could address their needs for efficiency and quality. Over the last year, we’ve piloted the solution with USA Truck and many other freight providers. Today, we’re making the solution available to brokers nationwide. 

Convoy for Brokers consists of three things:

1. An online platform where brokerages can post their loads and manage incoming bids.
2. TMS integrations that enable brokers to book and manage loads using their existing tools and processes.
3. A pay-as-you-go pricing model with zero upfront costs. Brokers are only invoiced after loads are successfully booked—there are no additional subscription or posting fees. 

Brokers directly manage their shipper and carrier relationships – in other words, they remain the broker of record on the loads they run with carriers in our network. Convoy’s technology and digital freight network simply facilitate the process—automating the matching of loads to trucks as well as carrier payment.

 Below is an overview of how the program works.

Convoy for Brokers helps truckload brokerages cover more loads by expanding their carrier base, and it saves them time and money through automation of the brokerage process and competitive bidding on their loads. For carriers, the introduction of brokers into our digital freight network translates into more loads on more lanes, while still getting the benefits they’ve come to expect from Convoy, including hassle-free detention, in-app lumper codes, facility insights, and two-day QuickPay. 

These benefits are enabled through five technology and business model innovations. 

First, through our online platform, we enable brokers to match their loads at scale. As soon as they post a load into our network, they can see the bids as they come in through a user-friendly dashboard. Brokers get full control over the carrier they select to run their loads, and they can confirm loads in as little as 3 minutes. This enables them to flex their capacity much more quickly as their customers’ demand fluctuates.

Second, our pre-qualified carrier network provides brokers with capacity that they and their shippers can trust. Our industry-leading carrier safety standards use data and machine learning models to ensure that every load is hauled by an extensively vetted, high-quality carrier. The result is a crash rate 16% lower than the industry and a cargo-claims rate 20x lower.

Third, Convoy for Brokers provides industry-leading shipment visibility. With more than 95% of loads in our network consistently connected through our carrier app, brokers can see the precise location of their shipments on a map and share this information with their customers.

Fourth, we automate the document management process. Brokers can eliminate manual paperwork with online access to shipment documents, including BOLs, proof of delivery, and inventory photos, which can all be uploaded directly from Convoy’s carrier app.

Finally, we automate carrier payment. Through Convoy QuickPay, carriers can get automatically paid in two days with no hidden costs and no additional paperwork.

The Future of Freight is Built on Collaboration and Transparency

Our mission at Convoy is to transport the world with endless capacity and zero waste. This isn’t an aspiration that we can ever hope to achieve on our own. Instead, it requires cross-industry collaboration and transparency to a degree that hasn’t traditionally existed in freight logistics.

That’s why we’re so grateful for the tight collaboration with the team at USA Truck. Their hard work and commitment to piloting new technology and approaches was an important catalyst for today’s announcement. George Henry, Senior Vice President at USA Truck, put it best:

“While there are some areas where we compete with Convoy, there’s more opportunity for both of us when we work together. Convoy for Brokers complements our existing truckload offering—it’s helped us support additional growth in our load volume and increase the productivity of our team by making it easier to access trucks through Convoy’s digital freight network.”

Through our work together, we’ve been able to accelerate the program over the last year and forge partnerships with other forward-looking brokerages like AFS Logistics and many others. Our efforts to date have been a model for how freight industry collaboration can benefit all parties—carriers, shippers, and brokers—and we’re excited for the opportunity to build new relationships with additional brokers in the months ahead.

If your brokerage could benefit from more efficient access to a massive, high-quality fleet, we invite you to learn more about Convoy for Brokers at convoy.com/brokers. 

¹ Convoy analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Census, 2017 industry revenue statistics.

Brooks McMahon

Brooks McMahon is Vice President of Partnerships at Convoy, where he and his team are responsible for developing and growing strategic partnerships, and helping launch and develop new initiatives. Previously, Brooks served in a variety of senior management roles at companies including Marchex and Getty Images. Brooks earned an MBA from the University of Washington and a BS from Santa Clara University.

Madhu Dutta

Madhu Dutta is Director of Engineering at Convoy, where she and her teams are responsible for Convoy’s emerging technology products. Previously, Madhu served in a variety of senior technology roles at Capital One, Amazon and Microsoft. Madhu holds an executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from University of Toronto.

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