CFI sold to CON-WAY

Hello all you truck driving folks!
I havent posted in a long time 'cause I've been haulin' frieght! But I did say that I would try to keep folks informed of progress for a rookie (me) in CFI.
I've been at it for 6 months now and my wife has just finished with her trainer so we have teamed just last week. So there seems to always be something new happening. Just befor ewe teamed we got the news that CON-WAY bought us (CFI). We are waiting to see how things turn out. The deal is supposed to finalize in Sept of this yr and then, according to rumor, CFI will be no more. They will change the names on the trucks and that will be that. I dont know what will become of the training program which, IMHO, was the best deal in the industry. (See my other posts and I challange you to find a better deal!) But I fear that this will all be lost in the merger and then all the deals will be pretty much the same crappy one sided all for the truck companys. It is too bad. But I guess all good things must end. Wonder why that is?
At any rate, I have had an allright time of it there. Not too many complaints but then no one would listen anyway. I am learning many lessons about the truck industry. Mainly, EVERYONE lies!

Well I just figured I would check in. So far my story has been one of success. One sour note. The trucking school I went to, Interstate trucking Academy or ITA, in Melbourne, FL., was decertified be the state of Florida and 733 graduates have to retest in Fl. So after 6 months of driving I have to retest and if i fail they will downgrade me to a class E operator! How beat is that? Bright side is Ive had 6 months of practice. I think I can pass. Aug 13 will tell.
Till then take care and be careful.

 

Hey Yall! Just figured I'd update this post.

The fact is my wife and I quit Conway at the end of July 08' to go to CDN Logistics out of Chi' town. Was supposed to have been more money. It was more per mile but the miles were shorter so we ended up making about the same. The home time was much better but then they laid us off because they averaged our running time WITH our home time and said we were running short miles. Whatever. CDN now only hires O/O and you would do well to stay away.

But I just wanted to post about Conway. Even tho we quit I still think they are a good company to work for. Especially after seeing CDN's facilities! Conways(CFI) main terminal in Joplin, Mo. is state of the art. They have about 20 bay repair shop, 4 bay trailer shop, and can get about 6 trucks in thier body shop. These shops are cleaned every day and you could just about eat off the floor. They have a trailer yard that could hold about 200 trailer, all paved concrete in excellent shape. They have 2 drivers lounges, a company store, 3 showers upstairs(mens< I think 2 womans) and I think 8 downstairs. A luandry, a bunkhouse(2 bunks) a half court basketball court and a full gym. If they take too long to fix your truck, they will put you up in a hotel in town. They also have a shuttle bus to take you from the term. to several places in town including the hotel and WalMart.

In the main building they have a cafeteria that serves breakfast and lunch at rediculus prices(low) Mon. thru Fri. Weekends your on your own bur the shuttle runs 7 days. One thing you cant do in Joplin is bobtail into town. Main building also houses the dispatch,doctor(free), payroll, safety, insurance, recruting and all the big wigs. Everything is very open door and very easy to access.

Teams(us) were paid (July08).43c. Not gonna get any more long winded. Other terminals had decent facilities but Joplin was the best. Even has a catch and release trout pond. Another cool thing was that you were paid ON DISPATCH. Which means as soon as that dispatch comes over the Qualcomm, that money goes in your check BEFORE YOU ROLL 1 INCH! Very cool. Bad thing is if your dispatched at 2300 hours on Sat. night on a 2 or 3 day run you dont get to start putting money on your next check till your done. But it all works out in the end anyway.

Now with all this your probably saying "Why you ever quit?!"

What I didnt like. When Conway bought CFI they took all the benifits and compared them and then took the worst of the 2 and kept that. That sucked. One poster here said "Get ready for some great benifits". Fact is Conway had better benifits but they didnt keep them. Fact is Conway had better home time but they thru that out too. Suffice to say that if it was less they kept it. Which is not what they told us they were going to do. They told us just the opposite. They said it would get better and if anything it either got slightly worse or just flatlined. The CEO lied and he knew it. He did a little message on the cell phone called a power report to give a heads up about what was going on in the company. After Nov. he was never on it again. 90% of the time he did it before. 0% of the time he did it after.

Their Schedules. They were notorius for giving you a run with just a few hours leaway on it. It was (for a team anyway) like having a gun at your head.

They changed my dispatcher. My original and best dis. quit and then they gave me an incompetent guy who I fired and then I got a woman that was basically a clone of the guy.

My asessment of them is not really negative tho. I think that it is a good company to start at but not to stay. I was there 1 1/2 years and I think that was enough. They still have(as far as I know) thier excellent training program which I would challange anyone to find a better deal.
They send you to Crowder College in Neosho, Mo. for 30 days for $3780 of which they will pay $2000. Room and board paid. 3 squares a day(you never have time for breakfast tho). Your physical & drug test paid.
Your comittment: You agree to come to work for Conway and pull 1 load. If after that you want to, you can quit, no strings.

Bottom line: I think its a good place for rookies to start and there are a lot of people that stayed for many years. Their trucks are in excellent shape and if thier not, they fix them right away. If your driving a broken truck, thats gonna be your fault.

Sorry for the long winded post. Just trying to give credit where its due and at the same time call a spade a spade. IMHO.

Thanks for the forum.