Will this help or push rates into the crapper?

Far as I know, Uber Freight and Convoy (the other big, app based broker) are only offering semi-truckload van and reefer loads. The rates are reflective of the market being served. I've been signed up for both nearly 2 yrs and only hauled one for Uber. Just like all the regular live phone-in brokers, nobody holds a gun to my head forcing me to accept their offers.

All of truck transportation is not one market. If a segment is not profitable, it's not the shipper's fault if you keep serving it and go bankrupt.

 

I got the point.

Uber Freight is paying its carriers MORE than they are getting paid, overall. They are running at a huge loss just to gain market share.

Say you have a solid contract and a Mega comes in and bids 60% of what you are offering. Regardless of the level of service you offer, you will lose that contract. You move on to greener pastures, but Mega comes in and does it again. Eventually the Mega has enough of the market that they can start influencing/controlling the whole thing.

This is the whole point of antitrust and dumping laws.

 

I haven't seen Uber paying any more for loads than Convoy. In fact I've seen the same shipper post the same loads on both apps, and Uber is offering carriers a bit less than Convoy. If a load has been listed for a few hours, I can call Convoy and ask if they will offer a little more, and usually the answer is yes. I don't have that ability with Uber.

Where I see an advantage for O/O's using these apps is loads with short notice. Rarely on either app do you see loads posted more than a week ahead of time. Most of the best paying loads I get through Convoy are to be picked up the next day and even the same day on occasion. For shippers that truly want to utilize the spot market rate this is the best way to go for them, and impossible for the mega carriers to compete with. They don't have trucks sitting around waiting for loads, and O/O's do just that. For them an idle truck is losing money, and they need to keep it moving, even if they need to dead head a few hundred miles to get a load. Uber and Convoy also have a lot of loads with very small windows from pickup to delivery. My best paying loads through both are those with a pick up and delivery time that is just about equal to the length of time it will take to get between both locations. If the shipper is slow loading by even a couple hours, it messes the delivery time up, but since I'm already booked on the load and not responsible for the shipper, it's no skin off my back and no penalty for a late delivery.

 

The megas are gonna get “mega’d” by the big tech companies. Where’s that leave us smaller folks who normalled get mega’d? Mega mega’d?

 

Someone posted this on Facebook. Did anybody else get this survey?

 

laughed out load!

 

Wow. That’s genius on convoys part. They don’t even have to steal it in the background, you send it right to them! Lose all your good freight and shippers to Convoy because they know just who to call and how much to bid.

 

Sad thing is there are people in this industry nowadays that are stupid enough to fall for that.