Con-Way Freight vs. FedEx Freight for new driver?

Discussion in 'Con-Way' started by Jeff505, Mar 29, 2010.

  1. JFKFC199

    JFKFC199 Bobtail Member

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    I heard that this is the guy's second roll... not sure how true that is.... and wasn't there another one recently at the same exit ?
     
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  3. jakebrake12

    jakebrake12 Road Train Member

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    I know that a roll over is not an automatic - fortunately it was never me but I know drivers that have had recent ones and are still here. One also had hazmat. As far as I know, it's all based off the point system unless it's a major major crash like the one out in Indiana last year.
     
  4. JFKFC199

    JFKFC199 Bobtail Member

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    If you're lucky enough to get someone to vouch for you, you won't get any penalty... When i was brand new here, i was talking to a guy that rolled one.. and the SCM came to the scene and said it would've happened to anyone.
    I'm not 100% sure, but i think the situation was; he had a regular lead and a safe-stack kite, and someone did a horrible job loading it... so when he got off the exit at normal speed the momentum was going with the heavy side and it just rolled.
    At first i thought those trailers were a really good idea, but after hearing that i don't trust them.
    I guess it just depends on the situation.
     
  5. jakebrake12

    jakebrake12 Road Train Member

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    Yeah - I was running a 2010 for a while before it was assigned and my truck came back. It only works with the cruise on which I guess is alright - I played around with it a little with one of our drivers in front of me and it definitely will slow you down..

    Since roll overs came up here it's a little ironic that I say this, but I don't like the roll over prevention system at all. It was explained to me that if one side of the suspension detects too much pressure it activates. There's a ramp I take every night that has a real hard left curve and about 20' worth of holes on the passenger side you really can't avoid - about halfway over the holes the system activated and it tries to straighten the truck out. It scared the hell out of me and the last thing I want is my truck trying to straighten itself out while I'm trying to take it through a curve. I would also worry a little about a sensor malfunctioning on slick roads locking you up.

    It's another flavor of the month safety thing one of our pencil pushing geniuses in safety was amazed with on paper - they think we're idiots, which some indeed are, so they think it will prevent accidents. Our DOT accident frequency is 1 for every 1.9 million which is pretty good if you ask me. This stuff will go the way of 2003's safety rage here - the Vorad collision avoidance system. A few months after they were installed they were deactivated because they did no good.

    The Freightshakers are nice to drive though - I hope we get a few more here so they fall down to the run I like and I can snag one..
     
  6. jakebrake12

    jakebrake12 Road Train Member

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    If the accident you're talking about was the one on the Mass Pike exit 11 I had pictures emailed to me of that one - the truck and lead (you are correct in that the lead was not an e-track) were laid over and the kite was still upright. Heard a few different scenarios of what caused the accident but am just glad the driver was alright.
     
  7. nikondvr

    nikondvr Light Load Member

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    Jake,

    This rollover did indeed involve hazmat. One of our rookie drivers had his rear trailer roll over on him after he left the Charlotte, NC terminal about six months ago. He had stopped at a light and proceeded through it to the left from a dead stop. Of 20,000 lbs. in the trailer 15,000 were on the right side. The slope of the road made the turn have a right lean as he went through the turn and it rolled over. Several drivers saw it happen and vouched that he was barely moving coming off a dead stop. That and the way the trailer was loaded they didn't charge him at all.
    On the collision avoidance, the cruise doesn't have to be on. I was going into a left curve where there was a right turn lane right in the curve. Car in front of me entered the turn lane and slowed down so the radar saw it as being in front of me and way to close for my speed. Stupid thing hit the brakes and startled the daylights out of me. I didn't even know it could do that. I don't like it when some pencil pusher decides to take control away from me, the driver. If you don't trust me to drive it then get someone else to do it.
     
  8. kebo072

    kebo072 Light Load Member

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    And now that they have the handhelds that show who loaded what in the trailer and when. They should go back and reprimand( for lack of a better word) the person who loaded it that way.
     
  9. JFKFC199

    JFKFC199 Bobtail Member

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    I agree... I also think anytime a city driver issues an exception, the names, or employee #'s, of all the people that touch it should go in the PRO history (it shows what terminals it went through, why not go a step further)... At the end of the month, if your name comes up X amount of times, then we know who is making the rest of us look bad.

    And as for the freightliners, i only ever got it to slow me down while the cruise control was on... No forced braking though, it just shut my cruise off. Its annoying, but not anywhere close to how annoying that line detection thing is.
     
  10. jakebrake12

    jakebrake12 Road Train Member

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    You can turn the lane searching thing off with the switch on the dash - it comes back on in like 15 minutes so you have to keep turning it off.

    The only time it will hit the brakes on a straight is with the cruise on - and it definitely applies the brakes. The roll over thing activates with too much pressure on one side of the suspension and that's what activated on me running over a bunch of holes on a ramp.

    Nikondvr,

    I make a turn nightly that's banked the wrong way - slow slow slow is how I take it. The scenario you described is something that worries me about newer drivers here. They don't want to make waves and in some cases don't know any better. A 20,000 lb kite is really heavy for a back box and if 15,000 lb was on one side it had to be leaning bad. When I have a heavy trailer leaning bad I always break the seal and pop it open - had one last week and fixed the load myself before I left. Turned out it had a bunch of steel bundles on one side so I moved half of them over to the other side before leaving. I also always open any heavy one bill trailer also to make sure the freight is blocked and braced.
     
  11. kimoyo

    kimoyo Bobtail Member

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    And how are they going to do that?

    On the fac, people reload and change things all the time. What you loaded one way can easily be pulled out and reloaded another way. Heck, I've seen stuff loaded by someone else and pulled out and left on the dock by another driver.

    Whats even worse is how you close a trailer now. FOSs will sometimes ask a random dsr to close a trailer even if they haven't loaded a single bill on it. Whenever you close a trailer you certify by clicking a square that you personally know its been loaded properly. Forgetting about knowing weights, if there is plywood up at the end you can't even tell whats going on past the last row. What are you supposed to do, tell the FOS no? Every time I get asked to close/certify a trailer I pause a second. If they actually tried to reprimand someone, the first guy they should logically go after is the one who certified the trailer. And that guy may not have loaded a single skid.

    And to add to it, how do you really know what was placed where after a roll. Just because freight starts one place doesn't mean it will end up there. The handhelds can't tell you if freight was up top or on the bottom. You can't even be sure where freight is loaded on the trailer. I've seen half a bill loaded in the nose and the other half in the tail and scanned on in the middle. You can't even be sure if freight is on the trailer or not going by the manifest, especially from certain terminals.

    This isn't even addressing the issue that it very well could have been the driver's fault.

    With the Con-way's current model there is no way for true accountability, if its even possible.
     
    Elvenhome21 Thanks this.
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