Never Stand Still

Run Up to Labor day 2002

Well here we are guys the end of an era we are getting ready to embark on the last chapter of the book which is now dated because it's all in the history books now. The last chapter of the book is almost worthless because it's just a commercial for the future of CNF company which has already played out. CNF company is no more and the entire thing has totally run it's course. The book at this point dates it's self.

Basically the mid 1990s the writing was on the wall for CF and the other union carriers except ABF. Roadway and Yellow and CF were all in a race to the bottom and basically there era was ending. CF was becoming obsolete, Roadway was becoming obsolete, Yellow was becoming obsolete. ABF was a little smaller then all 3 of those and better run.

CF towards the end the union strike of 1994 put a real bad taste in CF managements mouth and they pretty much decided that they were done with the Teamsters and done with CF. They had the non-union Conways which were making money and run leaner and more with the times and CF Inc did not need CF Motor Freight any more.

CF lost about $46million dollars in April of 1994 during the union strike and CF Inc. management was very displeased and dissatisfied.

CF Motorfreight management was becoming old and obsolete and Donald Moffitt wanted to retire and he needed to groom someone so he brought Rodger Curry over from Emery now that Emery was on track and decided to tell Curry to give his best and one more try to make CF Motor Freight back to what it was.

Robert Lawrence who was the old president of CF Motor Freight retired he was old and obsolete and basically CF Inc. put him out to pasture. They originally asked Robertson the head of Conway if he wanted to take a stab at running CF Motor Freight, but he had no interest in running that company he wanted to stay on the winning team.

So Moffitt thought Curry could fix CF Motor Freight then Curry could become CEO of CF Inc and Moffitt could retire.

The 1994 Teamster strike pretty much killed CF Motor Freight after that it was just a down ward spiral. CF lost $46million dollars and then they cancelled a $50million dollar expenditure on new equipment and never bought another piece of new equipment ever again.

Moffitt wanted Curry to fix CF Motor Freight in 6 months which never happened, Curry got in at CF Motorfreight and brought along his side kick Patrick Blake and Blake scraped Freight Flow III which was the current restructuring model. See the old CF spoke and hub system this system:


was now obsolete the Conways didn't use a spoke and hub system and the Conway's released trailers to hit the road at midnight not until they were full or first in first out like the freight flow system at CF worked.

Plus Robert Lawrence was busy closing terminals everywhere and some of his terminal closures were stupid Curry had wondered why Lawrence was closing terminals in big major cities where CF had potential customers Curry wondered why Lawrence was closing terminals in areas that had lots of business for CF and some of the closures were stupid because closing terminals was also expensive and didn't save the company money when it cost the company tons of potential revenue. So Robert Lawrence did some screwball things that hurt CF Motor Freight and Curry had to try and clean up some of his mistakes.

In 1995 Freight Flow III which was a slimming down of the spoke and hub system was abandoned and with mixed reviews from the Teamsters Network 2000 was born. Curry wanted to put Network 2000 in place in July a slow traffic month, but the negotiations with the Teamsters caused that to be pushed back to October and Curry didn't want to wait another year to put Network 2000 in so he pushed the button on it and had it implemented in October of 1995.

Basically the way it worked was they were cutting out the hub and spoke system and freight was loaded and delivered by priority also trailers were released at midnight not whenever they were full which was how CF used to do it. CF also used to do first in first out not any more they were going to copy the Conways and get a trailer on the dock get it loaded within 6 hours not 24 hours and get it out. Well anyhow Network 2000 was a total flop and disaster and around that time Roadway in Akron, Ohio spun off Roadway Express and the parent company Roadway renamed them selves Caliber Systems and Roadway Express was spun off left to fend for them selves and well we all know how that ended up basically fighting for survival.

Once CF management saw Roadway's parent company spin off there core business they decided they were done with CF Motor Freight they were done with the Teamsters they were done trying and they gave up on CF Motor Freight and took the easy way out the spun it off from CF Inc in 1996 and then decided to drop the name CF Inc and rename them selves CNF Transporation Inc which was Menlo Logistics, Conway and Emery Air Freight.

It was like the 1990s hit and almost instantly CF Motor Freight just died in a way although the company was becoming obsolete.

The book because it was written in 1999 and published by CNF it pretty much stops talking about CF Motor Freight because after 1996 CF Motor Freight was no longer part of CNF.

Basically it was going to get to the point where CF Inc had it's day and the new age was coming in and it was time for CF Inc to go bye bye and basically start a new company and start selling off some of the old companies.

CF Motor Freight was left to fend for it's self between 1996-2002 there's no book on CF Motor Freight between those years, but it's funny because in the 1990s they were prepping CF Motor Freight for "the next decade and beyond" but there was no next decade for CF Motor Freight.

@bzinger had asked way back if CF were around today would they have made it and the answer is no they couldn't and didn't.

The were cut from there parent company and left to die a slow death. Talk to anyone who worked at CF between 1999-2002 they will tell you the equipment was getting old and shot who was management? the parent company spun them off and left them for dead it was over.

The new age was ushered in, in the year 2001 when a company from Memphis, TN known as FedEx bought out Viking, American Freightways and Watkins and created a juggernaut LTL company known as FedEx Freight.

CF Motor Freight could not compete with FedEx Freight or there parent company CNF Transport Services Inc.
So Labor Day 2002 came around and CF Motor Freight management up in Vancouver, WA decided to call it quits and park it and call it a career.

The terminal yards filled up the equipment was parked:

and the auctioneers were called out.

The future was to much to bare for CF companies like CCX, FedEx Freight, Dayton Freight, Old Dominion, Saia and Estes and Overnite were growing and on the move even Yellow and Roadway were starting to run scared and Preston had gone under in 1999. It was the new age and the new era and CF was just a relic of the past at this point the company was something in it's day, but it's day was over and it could no longer compete.

 

So anyhow what do you guys think of the CF story?

 

I agree the 1000 truck mega sleeper cab fleet is eventually going to prove inefficient.

 

There is very little about the closure because when the book was written CF was still in business. However the book is a corporate history of CNF not CF so once CF was spun off they said good riddance.

I don't know who to talk to to get in touch with someone who worked in management even if it was just lower management for CF between 1996 and 2002 and get the nitty gritty of how it was at CF.

I do have to read the last chapter and I'll do kind of an epilogue, but the 11th chapter is kind of a waste its just a commercial for CNF Company which is ironic because CNF Company has also met there maker.

Like @LoneCowboy said it doesn't take a lot of time for times to change.