The Convoy digital brokerage has been attractive to many an owner-operator since its founding several years ago for a variety of reasons. The broker's freight under contract from big shippers like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble, for one, draws the carriers in, but it's the reduction of friction in negotiations and load procurement that company co-founder Grant Goodale hears about most frequently in his relatively new role with the company -- CXO, or Carrier Experience Officer.
Carriers appreciate the "ability to take care of problems through the Convoy app and book and bid on loads through the app," he said, without the necessity of time-consuming phone calls and price haggling. Features within the application that suggest load combinations/series to "build batches of work," he added, deliver on a fundamental need for any owner-operator business, to "earn more with less empty miles."
Goodale co-founded the company with Convoy CEO Dan Lewis with a mind toward reducing friction in the carrier-shipper connection process. They've made big strides since then, with Goodale serving as Chief Technology Officer as the active carrier base has grown to the "tens of thousands" at this point, he said, with around 300,000 active power units utilizing the network to some degree.
Convoy CXO Grant Goodale
""I’ve ridden with our carriers before," he said, but not quite in the same way he did from San Antonio to Louisville: Goodale worked with three different carriers to stitch together runs to get him to MATS over the course of the week prior. "It was an amazing opportunity to reconnect with the carrier base."
The lanes:
San Antonio to Dallas with Thomas Singletary, owner of five-truck Tithing Transportation and the Tithing Foundation, dedicated to securing OS&D (over, short and damaged) freight to donate to charities.
