Convoy heralds enhancements to Convoy Go drop-and-hook service

Seattle-based digital freight network Convoy announced today that it has rolled out various enhancements to Convoy Go, its drop-and-hook service.

The company describes Convoy Go as a drop & hook marketplace that enables any United States-based carrier or owner-operator to begin hauling pre-loaded trailers and be able to operate at the same level as large asset-based carriers. 

Ways in which Convoy Go enables a carrier or owner-operator to operate at the same level as larger asset-based carriers, according to Convey, is in terms of fleet utilization, service levels, and access to shipments. The offering creates a “grab and go” system in which carriers bring their power unit, pick up a pre-loaded trailer, and get on the road. This is done through its Universal Trailer Pool, which is Convoy’s national pool of company-managed trailers that can be used by any Convoy network driver and do not include rental fees.  

The new enhancements for Convoy Go include: predictive trailer routing, automated reloads with batched routes, and improved telematics in its smart trailers. And company officials said that Convoy Go was the first drop service to offer loads to tens of thousands of owner-operators and small carriers in 2017, improving capacity, and then expanding nationally in 2019, providing scale. What’s more, Convoy Go has thousands of digitally-enhanced trailers in its fleet and is the company's fastest-growing offering, with more than 80 shippers and shipment volume increasing 245% year over year and is available to shippers who move at least 250 full truckloads per year in the U.S., according to company officials.

“Supply chain teams prefer drop for its speed and simplicity, but traditional drop programs are rigid and don't respond well to market volatility,” said Ziad Ismail, chief product officer at Convoy, in a statement. “With recent enhancements to Convoy Go, we're addressing the biggest challenges of drop-and-hook freight, providing flexibility to scale up during demand surges and a level of trailer visibility never before possible. This has driven unprecedented customer demand for our drop service and contributed to strong business growth over the last year.”

Convoys new additions to Convoy Go are comprised of the following:

• Predictive Trailer Routing: This enhancement proactively routes empty trailers to customers’ facilities, while simultaneously rebalancing Convoy Go’s trailer pool. To accomplish this, Convoy uses a machine learning model, predicting several weeks in advance how many trailers customers will need across hundreds of facilities nationwide, historical shipment data, and GPS into an optimization model that analyzes billions of route permutations to select the most efficient solution;
• Automated Reloads with Batched Routes: Convoy’s automated reloads now support batched routes for drop, which combine three or more runs into a single multi-stop job, providing even greater efficiency for carriers and service quality for shippers. In addition, automated reloads can now combine multiple drop and live loads into a single trip, further reducing empty miles and improving asset utilization; and
• Smarter Trailers, Powered by the Internet of Things: Every Convoy Go trailer is now equipped with advanced telematics, which, combined with Convoy data, provide unmatched visibility into every load. A machine learning model then analyzes this data to ensure shipments are progressing as planned, automatically flagging issues that require Convoy to course-correct.