Aifleet’s bold move: cutting its fleet size to survive in freight recession

Aifleet, the task capital-funded startup that looked to AI arsenic the cardinal to a breakthrough attack successful moving freight profitably arsenic a technology-driven carrier, is making important cutbacks but continues to operate.

In an interrogation with FreightWaves, aifleet laminitis and CEO Marc El Khoury said the cutbacks volition instrumentality a fleet that a fewer weeks agone stood astatine astir 180 and bring it down to a fig that helium said would beryllium acold little than that. The size of the unit cutbacks “won’t beryllium 100, but it volition beryllium adjacent to that,” El Khoury said. The occupation reductions volition besides see bureau personnel.

In an interior memo to aifleet employees obtained by FreightWaves, El Khoury told the unit that “as of aboriginal past week, we were actively pursuing respective viable paths to proceed backing operations successful our existent form. However, conditions evolved abruptly (memo’s emphasis) connected Friday arsenic a cardinal supplier terminated our contract.”

El Khoury declined to place the cardinal supplier.

In the memo, El Khoury described the reductions successful fleet size arsenic “drastic.” “We cognize the steps we volition request to instrumentality volition beryllium incredibly hard, but the extremity is to springiness aifleet the accidental to survive,” El Khoury said successful the memo.

But successful the interrogation with FreightWaves, El Khoury stressed aggregate times that aifleet is not shutting its operations.

“We’re afloat operational,” El Khoury said. “We’re supporting our customers. We’re deploying caller automations and AI capabilities.”

But the bottommost enactment counts also. “Our focus, similar immoderate institution retired determination successful this precise pugnacious freight market, has to beryllium connected profitability,” helium said.

The institution leases each its trucks, with nary trucks owned.

Aifleet has ever operated connected the ratio of 1 tractor to 1 trailer. Its drivers are W-2 employees. El Khoury said successful an interrogation with FreightWaves successful July that nary of the drivers astatine aifleet are proprietor operators nether lease to the company.

One strategy aifleet expects to undertake is to trim its spot marketplace vulnerability and determination even  much into a declaration freight model. El Khoury said helium expects what had been a bearer with a 70-30 divided betwixt declaration and spot, with the erstwhile holding the bulk share, to determination up to a 100% declaration carrier.

“It is going to alteration week implicit week and time implicit day,” El Khoury said. “But present we person the accidental to enactment with our customers to person the close complaint per mile exposure, supply our customers with the close capableness and get the close complaint connected our side.”

El Khoury said aifleet has “the champion outgo per mile successful the industry,” which helium estimated was astir 20% little than what helium said was an manufacture average.