Con-Way Owner/Operators

Sorry for the response delay. Yes I am still pulling for Con-way and yes it s great. Truck gross through last week was $106,000 with roughly 51k net after ALL expenses. ( including maintenance and cosmetics not pulled out of maintenance acct..ie truck washes, oil changes, tires etc).

 

Above advice is not entirely true. Refusing loads is completely within your right. Typically it won't effect your overall miles when averaged out. They will book freight for you out of an area even if you refused something they already had. BUT, THIS IS A CARD THAT SHOULD BE USED WITH BOTH RESPECT AND COMMON SENSE. If you set a load criteria that is very specific with no wiggle room and refuse anything that doesnt perfectly match that criteria then yes your miles can suffer. You have to look at it from a macro point of view. Some loads will yield money hand over fist and others will be scraping the edges of the jar to make money. I've refused loads and never felt "punished" for it. I can always point out all of the recent heavy loads or extra down time runs when I call to discuss a bad load. I don't start the conversation with, "I'm refusing this ish!" I call to discuss my concerns and find out first if it can be relayed somewhere or followed with something light or long. With any conversation it doesn't always go well, but I try. I've had issues with a few people where I got unnecessarily rude.....and I've called back later to say I was sorry. Its amazing how far you get when you conduct your business with ettiquite (sp?).

 

I'm not sure how many Con-way contractors follow this thread. That said, I was wondering how your load weights have been looking lately. Have you noticed a frequency increase in 40k + loads? How do you handle them? I've typically subscribed to the logic that heavy balances out with light/medium and at the end of the day you need to average it out. I really don't set load criteria other than transit time. I figure that this is fair to the company and that it also means that I typically crank 3600 miles per wk. (YTD is 3579) However IMO, it feels like the weight have crept up and lighter has become a rarity. Its weird but lately I get happy at 36-38k. Perhaps the planners have realized I don't complain about weight and have somehow noted that? They seems to track everything else, so why not this too? Also it seems like every contractor I talk to claims they DON'T take anything over 40 and hardly ever anything over 36. Maybe its possible that their refusals have led the company to identify us that don't complain and in turn our average is up? Just a theory, but plausible.