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

Why just city drivers, the same should be done for linehaul. I can't believe some of the trailers we get from outbound. There are certain terminals I won't touch anymore.

Have you ever seen a 300-400 item bill where nothing was palletized, just sitting in the trailer? The city driver will let the customer throw all the boxes on the trailer and none of it gets divided and organized on outbound. They'll throw plywood up and load behind it. I've actually spent 4-5 hours on the fac going thru a pup looking at every item collating them, putting them on pallets and shrink wrapping them a few times. Took so long I missed a few trailer departures. Funny thing, the majority wasn't even manifested, like someone didn't want to take credit for putting it on the truck. The shipments were still logged back on the previous sic's dock. I could have broke 2-3 trailers in the same time easy. My fos just looked at the trailer and walked away saying he understood if I was there the rest of the night. That right there, shouldn't happen on the fac. Its not the doing it part because it has to be done, its the doing it on the fac. That freight should have been properly palletized before it left the terminal, firstly to protect it and secondly to make sure if arrived at its destination in a timely matter. If it couldn't be done in a timely fashion on outbound the customer should have been notified before the shipment was accepted that it may be delayed because it was handed over loose.

But I've also seen a trailer with freight laying all over the place but it really looked like it had been loaded correctly. It really had me wondering about the driver.

 

i know what you mean... i had 500 rolled up area rugs once, going to 3 different locations, it took up half the trailer.. and i was at the first fac, so i had to sort all of them in piles and then put them back in because the o/b guy was too lazy.

And what i was saying earlier, about cracking down on bad loaders.. it wouldn't just be the city guy getting the heat, i was saying if he issues the exception; they should trace it back from inbound, all the fac's it went through, and all the way back to outbound at the original terminal... only ones with an exception though, you shouldn't have to keep records of every single piece (maybe just keep them until its scanned after final delivery)... Everyone bangs something up every once in a while, big or small... but if the same person shows up like 10 times in a month, then obviously its a problem.. and that's way too many times to blame it on "someone else loaded it, i just scanned it."

 

JFKFC199 and Kimoyo,

The last couple of posts you guys made are spot on. I've seen everything you guys mentioned numerous times. I've seen guys at the fac before the handhelds sign on freight as Donald Duck or something because they don't want their name on anything.We've discussed the accountability issue many times and as Kimoyo said, there really is no way to hold the proper person responsible.

 

Oh there's a way. And there's a way to make this company the best out there. But you need one person with the right understanding and enough of company support to show the rest of the company how it should be done. You won't get it perfect because there are always loses and some inefficiencies but you can get much better than it is now.

When I started my terminals linehaul supervisor (I think that's his position) told me he compared the fac to controlled chaos. He saw the look on my face and said I'd understand when I got out there. Its not because I didn't understand what he was saying, I fully understood the term probably much more than he ever would, but to use it as a description for a work environment had me questioning what I was getting myself into. And Thursday last week I actually stopped for a second, looked at the fac, thought back about what he said and fully believed it was incorrect. It looked like nothing more than a total mess out there.

I fully believe that the fac is the starting point to look at going backward to outbound and forward to inbound in order to improve claims and times. They think outbound is the key so they have every scm positioned there but that's not the solution in my opinion.

 

I've done linehaul and p&d work , still doing p&d work and really it depends on the company and not the city driver for example . I work for fedex ntl and I went to a pick up and the lady told me that she over 50 boxes of printers and fax machines. In two seperate locations , so I called my dispatcher and told them and he said tell her that she needs to have all the items on a pallet shrink wrapped and in one location before we can pick them up . So really if the company itself or your dispatcher because some dispatchers know ahead of time about a customers who loads without pallets they usually send a empty over to them so they can nose their freight up so it will be easy on the line haul division.

 

That's the company problem I've never worked for a company who didn't have u log with your employee I.d to do work for city operations , linehaul operations or jus regular dock work , and really until the company stops that from happenning its going to keep on happenning.

 

Apparently if you roll a rig it's policy that you are terminated. But I think it's that way with most companies.........

Lets kick this around for just a minute........ If you roll their rig, jackknife or otherwise destroy THEIR property and you don't have a smoking gun that vindicates you like a video, missing steer tire or other MAJOR equipment failure..... you're gone, done, fried chicken, out of there. You will be debriefed and released no matter what they tell you right now. It will not matter WHAT you've done for them in the past !

Your best defense is a good offense..... say only the minimum like ya, I'm ok ( assuming you are ) and nothing else except, "I don't know"

I have seen many a good driver tossed aside like trash and I'm sure I'll see more...... oh yeah, if company hits company, you're both gone.

Don't think so?? A driver was 300 miles away heading in..... he came across a long stretch of straight road.... he exceeded the co. speed limit by 2 mph for 1 hr. and gained 2 miles......he was within 15 miles of the terminal and came across Joe Blow whom was moving his couch down the hwy. in his pick up. Joe's couch fell out and our guy hit it....destroyed it ! Carrier said " If you didn't speed over there then you wouldn't have been here to hit Joe's couch" "You're fired"

So don't think they won't pull every trick in the book......

 

Can one of the conway guys explain to me the difference between the line haul drivers and the LTL drivers? Also,is there a difference in pay? I have been an OTR driver for 4 years and want to know how hard/easy would I be able to hook up with conway. My company does alot of their line haul routes as we are a subservice carrier to conway,as a matter of fact I am sitting in the lot of the aurora il. terminal waitin for my load to be finished. I understand the pay is a lot better and is it true they are home everynight? Is that true for the line haul drivers? Any help would be appreciated. BTW I am in the detroit area of michigan I know their is a terminal in belleville.

 

Line-haul is the terminal to terminal movement of freight - P&D or city is picking up and delivering shipments to a given area of a terminals service territory. Line-haul pays better but you work more total hours too. All of our drivers are home daily. Probably not hiring right now but they usually do in the spring/summer.

I've run line-haul for a couple years now and the money is really nice but I miss working days at times. It's all based on seniority - if the terminal has 100 drivers and you're number 99 you don't have many options. You pretty much take what's left. If you're number 60, you would probably have the option of city or line-haul and maybe even different options for line-haul destinations. Been here 7 years now and am above the middle at a big terminal so I now have a lot of options. It takes some time though..

 

hey jake,thanks for the info! So If I were to apply,I would have to apply for a driving position and do not have a choice as to whether or not I am line haul or P & D? Is that right?