Ep. #84: Robby Nathan, Founder & CEO, Envoy AI

So, um, you started a business called Load Delivered, and it was a great success in the industry a little bit before my time, um, I think.

Uh, well, before I got into Mollo at least, and, uh, did very well and eventually sold it.

But that was not your first foray into the business, right?

No.

I started as a twenty-two-year-old carrier rep.

I walked out of college with a philosophy degree, didn't know what I wanted to do, uh, traveled in China for, for about a year, and then I started out on a freight brokerage floor as a carrier rep.

I was answering phones, I was making calls, I was dispatching trucks, and I was learning how to operate in TMS systems.

So you spent four years studying philosophy and then started talking to truck drivers and booking loads?

Absolutely.

It was actually a, a jarring moment.

I remember, uh, when the, the gentleman across from me said, "You're not allowed to make outbound calls.

You're only allowed to answer truck drivers and dispatch them and, and give them directions." And so I wasn't even allowed to do selling.

I was just allowed to, to give directions.

And when you think about that and, and the world today, uh, there shouldn't be a dispatcher giving directions anymore.

Uh, and there maybe shouldn't even be an outbound, you know, individual making calls or receiving calls.

Or if there should be, perhaps they should just be, you know, have a...

some sort of co-pilot alongside them.

That's so funny because you just jogged my memory.

[coughs] I completely forgot, like, you know, when I started in '06, uh, just those first couple years, I remember in loads, there was like a, a sp- there was a spot in our TMS where you could upload directions to the facility.

And, and we would actually spend time, like, on the phone with the driver explaining, "All right, you're gonna turn left on this street and then go and turn right." Um, uh, just such a world of difference from where we are today, right?

Uh, y- absolutely.

And, uh, actually, one of the activities of a dispatcher was to document the directions and fill the TMS, TMS up with as many directions to the core facilities as you could.

Uh, so you think about the time allocation then and now what, uh, operators are able to do with their time.