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"The dilemma here is that fixing these things with software is very hard, almost always requiring practical operation experience in trucking in addition to deep

"The dilemma here is that fixing these things with software is very hard, almost always requiring practical operation experience in trucking in addition to deep tech knowledge." But...why? Surely we have the tech, data, processing, and decades of collective analog wisdom to do this. If Amazon can optimize their entire delivery network, why not trucking? (I get it's still a challenge but surely not insurmountable? And likely incredibly profitable as a saas... so what are some of the less obvious complicating factors?)

gazelle21 3y ago
[dead]
bombcar 3y ago
The biggest factor is that you don't have one company owning everything, like Amazon does with their network. You can call UPS and get them to take a pallet somewhere, and it stays in the "UPS delivery network" but the vast majority of freight is not shipped that way (it's quite expensive). For full truckloads you're usually dealing with a broker who finds a company or independent operator who is willing to take the load to where you want it, or if that is not available then the broker will find a chain of companies that will get you the result you want. This often involves calling or faxing to various "hubs" that he thinks will work. For LTL (less than truckload, think pallets) it is even worse - your pallet will be taken to a local warehouse by a local driver, and then combined with other pallets to another warehouse, and potentially a whole chain of these. The brokers work even harder on these. It is not insurmountable, but "modernization" doesn't get you much of a benefit at all until it's all modernized, so there's not much budget for "lets' modernize and have no benefit for 20 years".
dchuk 3y ago
Change management is really damn hard. And I don't necessarily mean technical change management, I mean changing the behavior of millions of employees, many who often only know working for that one fleet their whole career, because their parents worked there before them.
the_third_wave 3y ago
OT: there is a 'dead' comment by a user going under the handle gazelle21 [1] at the same level as this comment which seems to have been insta-killed which most likely means this user has been shadowbanned. The actual comment does not merit killing as it is related to the subject of this discussion and does not contain anything 'sensitive' or 'triggering' unless the sensitivity levels have been turned up higher. Going through this user's comment history I notice that most of the comments and al the submissions - going back to 2019 - are 'dead' but - and this is the odd thing - some are alive. I did not see any warning from dang to this user that he was about to be banned if he did not change his ways nor did I see any particularly shadowban-worthy comments or submissions. The user's 'karma' level is positive so that is not the reason for the untimely expiration of his comments either. Why was this comment killed? I have been told that shadowbanning is not practised here but can not think of anything else other than this user being watched by a number of particularly vengeful detractors who jump to the down-vote/flag options any time a post or submission appears. The comment itself fits the discussion so that can not be the reason. What is? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gazelle21 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gazelle21

gazelle21 3y ago

[dead]

bombcar 3y ago

The biggest factor is that you don't have one company owning everything, like Amazon does with their network. You can call UPS and get them to take a pallet somewhere, and it stays in the "UPS delivery network" but the vast majority of freight is not shipped that way (it's quite expensive). For full truckloads you're usually dealing with a broker who finds a company or independent operator who is willing to take the load to where you want it, or if that is not available then the broker will find a chain of companies that will get you the result you want. This often involves calling or faxing to various "hubs" that he thinks will work. For LTL (less than truckload, think pallets) it is even worse - your pallet will be taken to a local warehouse by a local driver, and then combined with other pallets to another warehouse, and potentially a whole chain of these. The brokers work even harder on these. It is not insurmountable, but "modernization" doesn't get you much of a benefit at all until it's all modernized, so there's not much budget for "lets' modernize and have no benefit for 20 years".

dchuk 3y ago

Change management is really damn hard. And I don't necessarily mean technical change management, I mean changing the behavior of millions of employees, many who often only know working for that one fleet their whole career, because their parents worked there before them.

the_third_wave 3y ago

OT: there is a 'dead' comment by a user going under the handle gazelle21 [1] at the same level as this comment which seems to have been insta-killed which most likely means this user has been shadowbanned. The actual comment does not merit killing as it is related to the subject of this discussion and does not contain anything 'sensitive' or 'triggering' unless the sensitivity levels have been turned up higher. Going through this user's comment history I notice that most of the comments and al the submissions - going back to 2019 - are 'dead' but - and this is the odd thing - some are alive. I did not see any warning from dang to this user that he was about to be banned if he did not change his ways nor did I see any particularly shadowban-worthy comments or submissions. The user's 'karma' level is positive so that is not the reason for the untimely expiration of his comments either. Why was this comment killed? I have been told that shadowbanning is not practised here but can not think of anything else other than this user being watched by a number of particularly vengeful detractors who jump to the down-vote/flag options any time a post or submission appears. The comment itself fits the discussion so that can not be the reason. What is? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gazelle21 https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gazelle21