Convoy Go Levels The Playing Field For Small Carriers

Convoy, the trucking services company, announced Thursday (April 18) the launch of Convoy Go, a nationwide drop and hook marketplace that lets carriers and owner-operators haul pre-loaded trailers and enter the drop ship market.

In a blog post, Convoy said it launched Convoy Go after data revealed that as much of a third of the cost of delivering freight via truck in the U.S. is the time spent waiting for appointments or at the dock waiting to load or unload. That results in increased transportation costs, lower earnings for the drivers and less trucking capacity for shippers.  Convoy Go aims to solve that problem by reducing the time a carrier is waiting around.

“Convoy Go reduces driver wait time in facilities from an average of 3 hours to less than an hour and provides 5 to 10 hour appointment windows, offering drivers more flexibility to optimize their schedule,” the company said in the blog post. “Together, this translates into increases of carrier productivity of up to 50%.”

To enable the service the company leverages its Universal Trailer Pool, which is a nationwide pool of Convoy-managed trailers that can be used by any driver in the Convoy network, with no direct rental fees. Carriers can find, book and complete a load all using the Convoy app. Convoy has been piloting the service since 2017, and as of this week it is available to all shippers across the country.

Convoy said Convoy Go gives truckers access to the drop shipment market, which has long been the domain of the big carriers. Any carrier can now participate in the market with its drop and hook marketplace. Carriers are now able to pick up a pre-loaded trailer and get on the road without having to wait. The company noted that during the pilot carriers and shippers, most of which never engaged in drop and hook loads, saw shorter wait times and flexible appointment windows, which increased productivity.