Con-Way Freight_How do I get in ?

Flex is kinda like an extra board. A backup so to speak. Since LTL is volume dependent, there may not be enough work for the senior guys and when there is too much freight and not enough drivers thats where the flex guy comes in to pick up the slack. It all depends on your location and the amount of freight that comes through your area.

Flex also means you could work a 50 hr week or you could wok one day, just the luck of the draw and the only downside. but if you are able to ride the wave and get a definite start time, then life is good. There are days that I dont work, but Id rather be at home than in a truck in BFE you know.

There is linehaul flex and P&D flex. You could be doing either, just depends on the needs of the terminal. I was on P&D flex, now Im on linehaul flex.

Any other questions, Im sure me or jakebrake can answer. Good luck man, and all I can say is LTL is the way to go

 

Century Class is about dead on. The only thing I can add is how day/night flex is determined by most terminals.

Flex means you're on a call in basis by seniority number. Having a bid means you have a set start time or an assigned line-haul slot.

Most terminals run an 85/15 split - that means 85% of drivers have bids and 15% are flex. I'm not sure how the number of day vs night is determined but I'm guessing that's up to terminal management based off what they think the need.

I'll try to keep this as simple as possible explaining how you end up where on the flex. Say the terminal has 100 drivers so 15 will be flex and they determine the need 8 day and 7 night flex. Used to be the bottom 15 on the board would be the flex but now you can bid flex so it isn't necessarily the last 15 drivers but the same principals apply.

If you're the 100'th driver you'll be where there is a spot left - if 7 wanted days and 7 wanted nights, you would be last on days. If you're the 95'th driver but 8 ahead of you selected days you would be #3 of 7 on nights assuming nobody actually bid the flex which does happen now. Back when I was on the flex it rotated so if I was #6 and only 5 worked Monday I would be #1 for work on Tuesday, but now it's by seniority daily as it should be.

You would really have to talk to the drivers at the Tampa terminal to get the best info. It sounds complicated but it really isn't. It generally sucks being on any flex or extra board but once you have 3-5 years in 99% never quit.

 

At our terminal we call it the "hog board". It doesn't rotate, we dont have an A.M./P.M. flex either, once the top guy has his ten off then he gets called up again.. Come January they are finally splitting the board to A.M. and P.M. Flex. That should help quite a bit, maybe then the bottom guy wont starve. I'm just happy I'm not the bottom guy.

 

Worked at Con-way Freight for the past 17 years I have no complaints.Yes, I started on the flex board, took me 2 years to get starting time for city work,or linehaul bid. If this is the co. you really want to work for just stick it out, someone is always bound to leave(retire,quit,fired). Really great company.... they work with you.I have 2 kids, wife (who works part time) and a big house 2 cars the american dream.Thank you Con-way No you don't have to run over the road 1st. Just no yahoos.

 

Great post man. I've worked here for 8.5 years now with the first 4 being pretty rough. Good seniority seems so far away at first but after 5 years here there is no way I would have left for another driving job. With some of the line-haul runs at my terminal you can now easily crack 100k - that puts you in the top 5% of incomes. I really do like it here..

 

How many hours a week does one have to work to make $100,000/year? Can you do the math for me? Con-Way Freight is offering me the job and will hire me when I'm ready, but the terminal is two hours away. The closest one is one hour away, but they send their employees to be trained at the one that is two hours away. The boss also said that there could be 14-hour work days involved. That sounds pretty tough considering the long drive home. Was wondering if it is worth it and how common 14-hour work days are. ??? Also, what seemed strange was that the boss didn't have any paperwork to show me the health insurance premiums.

 

At top scale we can do it at around 65 hours on our longest 3 runs. The longest is 592 which pays $324 to drive. An hour for drop hook and fuel plus 2 on the dock puts you around $405 per night. I ran a 440 miler in 2010 and made 87k even though I left the hub as soon as I could. If you push your time on our longest run we have it figured at $110k even with vacation..

 

If it wasn't for us OTR suckers, you wouldn't have anything to haul P&D or LTL....

 

how do you figure that?

 

Most freight comes OTR before it goes to Freight. If not, why do they keep sending me there with loads? Look at the freight yard at night....you'll usually always see OTR trucks in there(Werner,Knight,CRST,England, CWTL, you name it). I drive for TL and haul many a load in between Freight terminals.

I call the Freight yard guys the worker bees. It's pretty amazing to watch them come in, with their little lunch boxes, and shuffle all that stuff around. And the little trucks are so cute....