Con-Way LTL

Let me clear up a few misconceptions in this thread.

Our hostler, yard hostler or whatever you call it is an annual bid position. So alot of guys bid it when the want off the street or they have accumulated alot of accident points and are close to being fired or something. The only time you will hostle is if they are shorthanded or the hostler is off for the night or on vacation. You wont just land into a hostler gig. You will be hired as a DSR who gets thrown to the city or linehaul based on the terminal needs, what you requested as your first choice and the company needs. Extraboard dsrs(drver sales reps) can work the city one day, linehaul one day, hostle one day, work the dock the next. But you will got get the hostler gig as your everyday job.

Conway does hire experienced and non-experienced drivers alike. It really doesnt matter as you'll be going to the bottom anyway. And sometimes a new driver might get the position, they have no dirty habits and can be molded to drive the company way. It just depends on how many drivers the terminal needs at the time.

Conway does hire newies for linehaul..You''ll see them ever night off the extraboard running over flow loads to the FAC or hub as some companies call it. i was hired off the street with zero experience..Did city for a month, been in linehaul ever since.

You DO NOT go OTR first..that is absolutely false. Some LTL companies have a wildboard that does layovers for their linehaul runs.. This does not exist at con-way. Our linehaul operation is monday nights through saturday morning pretty much exclusively. We run overflow runs on the weekends and a few terminals run linehaul on sunday, but no hub operates unless really backed up and they need to get the freight moved. Every run is either a meet and turn or a run to a hub...Very very rarely does a driver do a layover.The other meeting terminal might not have the manpower to cover a run, then the other driver has to go straight through.

I am a 2 yr inexperienced driver who grosses around 11-1300 a week depending on dock time. Sure as hell of a lot more than even alot of experienced otr drivers.

Hopefully this clears up alot of the con-way misinfo out there!

 

p/d drivers get overtime after 8 and 40.. linehaul drivers do not get overtime unless they are on the kronos time clock for more than 8.5 hrs on the dock. Newbies hours are hit on miss depending on the area you live in and the volume of freight that terminal moves.. the extraboard guys at my terminal do well, even better than I on a bid..they work the dock, drive to the hub, work the dock again and drive home, where as I just come in hook my set, drive to the FAC and work the dock. Not interested in dock work before my run.

 

Thank you for that answer. So as a "new driver", I should expect to mainly work the dock? Also do you know how soon I should apply? I don't start my CDL Classes until July 22, but I am worried that position won't be around when I am done with school. I am sure they would not hire me without my CDL so should I just wait to apply?

 

Yes, alot of dock work, but if you are getting paid 20/hr to start who cares..Thats a driver with a cdl though..Straight dock workers only get around 14/hr though. Con-way has a CDL training program, so I say apply anyway and see what happens... Or if they have a dock position appy for that then when you get your cdl, inform them that you'd like to be a driver.. What terminal is close to there? I looked on google maps, but I couldnt determine which.

 

I will post the information. It is not coming up on the Con-Way site now.

 

Conway is probably my least favorite LTL, but hey, a job is better than no job. They had an ad posted in Seattle for a city driver so I went in to introduce myself, and didn't really like the reception I got...basically blew me off and told me to fill out an app online. I never liked going over to the Portland terminal either for interline check stops. They think they're the military or something.

 

Brandon, who do you like for LTL? Who do you work for now? What has your experience been as a new driver?

 

I apologies for my earlier misinformation. Everytime someone mentions Conway the first thing on my mind is Consolidated Freightways.

 

Conway is owned by CNF who owned CF, Freightliner, Emory air and Conway,

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaEmery started in 1946 and was the first freight forwarder to receive a carrier certificate from the United States Government. For 40 years, Emery was the largest freight forwarder/integrated air carrier in the US.
In 1987, Wilton,CT-based Emery acquired Purolator Courier, Inc., a leading provider of logistics services between the U.S. and Canada. In 1989, Emery was acquired by Consolidated Freightways, Inc. which gained U.S.-rights to the Purolator name. In 2011 Purolator was renamed Purolator International.

Conway was started as a regional Carrier by CNF and at that time Consolidated
was the largest LTL carrier in the US. These guys know LTL freight and at one time Consolidated had 223,000 employees but when they close their doors they had only about 15,700 workers. Consolidated was the first truck line that used a ten wheel freightliners pulling a trailer. Consolidated used so many trucks they bought out white Freightliner to build trucks only for them. They were later sued by US Government for having a Monopoly and was ordered by US Government to build trucks
for general sales and they were allowed to have one out of every 7 trucks they built. They also built their own trailers under the name Pine, CNF built truck and trailers for Consolidated that were the lightest truck and trailers that had a payload of 53,000 pounds and were legal in lower US states and Canada plus Alaska all but not in Georgia. Consolidated owed Georgia 2.7 million for over
weight tickets and after fighting Georgia for 2 years finally won. The problem was CF trucks had a air control for tandems where the driver could control air from drivers seat also CF trucks had no brakes on steering axel and Georgia law stated that if an axel had not brakes on it there was a 0 pound allowance. CF made their own tires and fuel. Any thing they used they would buy that company out. The reason I'm saying this is Conway will grow the same way they grew Consolidated but this time without the Union. CF was under contract with the Teamsters union and they wanted to run their company without the Teamsters telling them what they could. At one time they had over 600 terminals in the lower US but they had the money and closed down most of their terminals. I am told that Conway is ran about the same as they ran CF. CF had no problem going bankrupt as most money they owned they owned to themselves and just the land where their terminals were was worth many hundreds of millions of dollars so money to start US wide Conway was not a problem. As the saying goes, "they run a tight ship"
Also From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emery_Worldwide
Consolidated Freight bought Emery, the link above tells the story.
Emery started in 1946 and was the first freight forwarder to receive a carrier certificate from the United States Government. For 40 years, Emery was the largest freight forwarder/integrated air carrier in the US, The Government closed Emery but CNF still made money, these guys can't loose.

It is my guess that Conway will grow into the largest truck line in the US, these guys know how to operate and most of the board members were the sharpest in the Industry. CNF sold most
of Freightliner along with other companies, why?, Most don't understand including me too but I do feel they will grow Conway the same as they did CF and other companies like freightliner. I bought stock in Conway early knowing their past history and their keen operational ability. 91% of Conway stock is
held by institutional & mutual funds. Conway made (these numbers are in the thousands) 2010 3,985 in 2011 88,443 then in 2012 104,546 That is an impressive growth. Gross profit in 2012 was 3,367,543 Total assets in 2012 is 3,141,464
So I would say if you work for Conway you've got a stable career but be advised,
Conway knows how to get maximum labor for their buck. Also it is commonly known that some drivers make $1,500 a week or higher. The highest paid that I know of are the regional drivers
that make nightly turns to out laying terminals and some make two turns a night and get paid for each drop and hook and that is 8 drops and hooks if they are pulling doubles but at one time they were talking about paying hourly pay so I don't know if that's changed. These drivers know how to get the best out of logging these working times at terminals. Some terminals have changed operations but most as a rule are ran the same way. If you work there, you work and most run out of hours before a week is finished. It does not take long working 15 or so hours a day to run out of hours. I'll take one run; Charlotte to Atlanta, driver drives to Atlanta and brakes down his unit and may work on the dock for a few hours then hook his set and go back to Charlotte. I've see drivers work 15 hours just turning Atlanta and that takes a man. If they have changed operations I would like to hear from one of their drivers.

 

So you base your opinion of the company based on your impression of the reception you got at one terminal? we have over 300 terminals in the US..but thats funny.