Con-Way Freight or UPS?

No, they didnt cut their wages. When I worked there 12 years ago I made around $12 an hour. Their top pay for loaders is around $17 now. And the drivers only make about a dollar an hour more.

 

100% correct on that. My first time alone was to a residential place where I couldnt even back the trailer down the driveway. It was a 7000 pound skid full of flooring materials. Myself and two workers had to unload it, took about 2 hours to do so. We had to leave it in the driveway and they would bring it to the house the next day. Wouldnt even matter if we had a lift gate since Con-ways lift gates were only up too 5000 pounds I believe.

Some places will unload or load it for you if they have a forklift. Certain places are required to unload or load you. Usually if it were an easy pallet like 50-600 pounds I would use my pallet jack and take it off myself, It never bothered me. I had a 53ft trailer full with 28 pallets, not too heavy but all it was was me and one other guy, I'd take it off the trailer and meet him half way and hed use his pallet jack to bring it where he wanted it.

You might get an inside delivery as well, during my training, the trainer and I brought in a popcorn machine to a movie theatre, where it wouldve taken two of us to do it, and it REQUIRED the lift gate trailer so we got one. Later that day, we had a doctors office delivery where we used the lift gate(on our own to make it easier) brought the pallet to the front door, then used the hand truck to bring the boxes in.

Plenty of good exercise doing local and LTL work. Although there are some local places out there that are 100% no touch freight, but it doesnt bother me if I have to touch or no touch. I used to work as a driver for FedEx ground in a step van.

Freight is different than UPS Parcel. Freight used to be the old OverNite company. From what Ive heard and any one who knows can correct me if I am wrong, but Ive heard that OverNite used to be a bit of a shady company. From what I heard from my friend who works at UPS freight said that a lot of the old timers that were there when the company was OverNite very very unhappy that it was bought out by UPS. They dont even like being part of the union, hence why so many of them keep leaving and why positions keep opening up at UPSF. This is all what Ive heard

Pay is different too, you start at 15 a hour for the first 75 days. Then it goes to 16 something, and tops out at about 24 a hour. You will make more money at freight than con-way in the long run, but at con-way you will make more money faster. It takes con-way 5 years to hit top rate, and UPSF its 3 or 4 years. This is where I am from so it could be different elsewhere

 

My friend who works there now hasnt said anything bad about the place, they give him 40 hours a week on the dock, he doesnt mind because he worked roadway express dock for 19 years. He had less experience then me driving and we both had interviews the same day for UPSF, I didnt get the job because UPS will NOT hir you as a driver if you have parking tickets. UPS parcel is extremely hard to get into to, a friend of mine who worked with me at con-way, before we worked there together(started same time) we both interviewed for UPS temp package car drivers. He took the job worked his time and they got rid of him after the season. Hes a hard worker too, only reason why con-way kept him when he kept failing his road test.

I had 6 months experience when i had my UPSF interview, they didnt care about that, as long as you pass the roadtest and show your skills. Just be careful because you might not get back on after this month at UPS

Con-way as a flex, you will want to work as much as you can because you might not work the next day or two. Depending on how your terminal is. So you might work 14 hours one day, none the next, and however else the week goes. At least you get that overtime in. Once you hit a bid, they keep your hours down or try too

 

Boonie heres something else to think about....From what Ive been told, UPS does not rehire people anymore. So if you go to Parcel, and it doesnt work out for whatever reason, UPS Freight can not hire you. This is what my terminal manager told me.

 

If you are going to work out of the Louisville terminal, your wait time should not be too long. My wait time was 11-12 years but I was at a very small terminal with about 80 package cars, 4 feeder drivers and 1 overnight guy who ran to Ohare each night..... Lousiville is a HUGE place and I'm sure you can get something quicker there.

2 of the guys who worked with me back in 97 transfered to the Williow Springs terminal in Chicago and in 3 months BOTH were driving feeder trucks (but it is UPS's largest terminal too) All they had to do was drive 100 miles to work each night and then 100 miles home. But it paid off and both now live near the terminal

 

You are correct, as I left back in 2000 (with a 2 month notice as well) and when I went and applied for a package car driver position they had open last year they told me they cannot rehire anymore, even tho i did as I was supposed to, something in the companies policy and union contract is what the terminal manager told me. It made sense

 

From what I hear is that so many people want to work for UPS they can get away with stuff like that, it stinks but thats just the way things are. So i wouldnt want to burn your bridges just yet on that