Con Way / Consolidated Freight

Con-way is a good company as far as I'm concerned.

But, the buy out of CFI. And the fact they will allow the current CFI management to retain the truckload end of it causes me concern.

Standard & Poors rated this merger/buy out as "negative". They see no long term benefit for Con-Way, and consider it a bad mistake.

 

Have heard it takes 5 years to get to full pay and then a few years after that they will try and get rid of you. They like their drivers young,inexperienced, and obedient. They have you run to a terminal and do loading and unloading and then come back. At least that is what I have heard.

 

Conway drivers always are happy and friendly. I would assume this means that they are happy where they are.

 

Why wouldn't they be happy? They contract out a lot of "^%$#" freight, to other companies. So Conway drivers get the easy freight. Rightfully so in my opinion, it's their company...but still.

Another choice item. All outside contractors leave as much as an hour after a Con Way driver going to the same location. Yet are expected to be at that location at or before the regular Conway Driver.

Of 6 trucks leaving the LA area this past winter. The ONLY truck to make Portland on time the next day. Was a CFI truck driven by yours truly and my co-driver, even though our trailer had to be reloaded twice, and eventually had some freight removed. We were then pronounced ready to go..in the middle of rush hour.

The remaining "Conway" drivers wimped out and went into a motel. Due to "bad" roads. Of course, having a Fed-Ex fold it up half way down a mountain doesn't inspire many doubles endorsed drivers to keep moving.

 

Fedex and Conway both get Werner, etc. to haul their illegal load or loads that pay less than the actual mileage. Fedex fold up a set of doubles? Not surprising since they have a bunch of steering wheel holders that don't know any speed except 65.5, as fast as they can go, with cruise control set, a problem with most company drivers.

 

I have worked for Conway Truckload division, and for the record would not go back to them, but that is another story.

They do not farm out "illegal loads" to outside carriers. Their loads are legal and for the most part on the light side.

You are routed at approx. 50 mph, in theory plenty of time to make it, except when most of your trip is back road, such as Dallas to Denver, or Abilene to Denver.

The truckload freight is run in 53' dry vans, not in doubles. They do run the doubles from terminal to terminal, but I do believe that is done by their own guys.

 

NOT Illegal .... &*^% In other words crap loads. And the majority of ours were heavy or loaded incorrectly from the get go, forcing a reload. I played this game for 2 hours at one terminal...with 2 supers watching the scales as I rolled across. And they still refused to remove what was asked...until I flat refused to go across their scales again until it was off.

As far as "legal" goes. They may dispatch you out at 50 mph at 6am with a 6pm arrival time. But if they mess the load up and are forced to reload. They will NOT change the arrival time automatically. You will literaly have to make them change it.

No way anyone at the terminal you load at will willingly take the heat for a late load. You must walk in and ask for a new print out with new times. Even then, you may be forced to call dispatch (your company) to effect this change.

I travelled this road on and off for 3 years. And NEVER left a terminal before or at the same time as THEIR trucks did. We/I was always one of the last to leave, whether the truck was loaded correctly or not. And I ALWAYS had to ask for a reprint of the bills.

At least with FedEx, if they told you the load had to leave at 9am, you could bet it was ready at 7am....not 10am like Conway.

CYA at all times.

 

I did not work there terribly long, but I can tell you that my experiences where far different from yours. I guess we were lucky.

I agree with you on Fedex being a much better place to pull out of than Con-Way, they seem to be more efficient and driver friendly.