ConwayNow

[guest]

Looking for Info. on ConwayNow. After watching the video and talking to another member of this forum, I decided to give them a call. So far, I like what I've found. I had written them off for some reason that I don't remember (seems like I had the impression they didn't hire inexperienced o/o's, but they do). Does anyone have any good or bad info. on this company? I am especially interested in hearing from solo "d" units.

Thx in advance,

 

[Weave]

I was with CWN for about a year in 1999. The organization was great, I never once had any problems with them, their dispatch staff was friendly and they kept me moving fairly well at that time for a solo. So what was my "beef?" I don't think I did a single load that paid over $1.07 a mile, and the auto loads (there were TONS of them) paid less than that. They also had a habit of trying to waste my time doing a lot of "piddley" loads of less than 100 miles, (Can you do us a favor?) which was annoying.
But that was a long time ago, and times have certainly changed. If CWN has restructured their pay scale, I would definitely give them consideration. The best thing they had was freight transfer and pickup-delivery at CCX terminals for expedite freight, which helped to keep the truck moving, and CWN drivers were also welcome to use those facilities along with being able to park at the office in Ann Arbor when in the Detroit area. I enjoyed my time running with CWN, and learned a lot there, and think they would be a great pick to start off at. I moved on to bigger and better things as you know, but that's just business
-Weave-

 

[guest]

Thx Weave for the input, I thought you had said you worked for them once upon a time. The things you mentioned are what I liked about them. They seem to have a few tricks to help keep a truck moving and some of them seem to favor the solo driver, something that seems to be hard to find. One of the big things I liked was that they seem to run a lot in the south. Before I talked to them I had pretty much decided to give Nations a shot, since they don't rely totally on auto freight. I figured they might keep me in the south more because of that. But the problem I have with Nations is working through the brokers.

My understanding is that Conway uses dispatchers, of course from the sounds of it, I might prefer the brokers..lol. So far, dispatcher complaints seem to top the list with Conway. My understanding is that the pay scale may not be too much different. The recruiter told me some big numbers, but they were really too big to be true. A current driver for them confirmed that most of their loads seem to pay around 1.08, some pay more. The dispatcher told me 1.07-1.93 with 2500 mile per week avg..lol. If I could have, I would have signed on the spot :+ . I bet I can't get that in writing though...lol.

Any other ConwayNow drivers out there??,

 

[guest]

Update:
I got their literature in today. Which is VERY fast! I'm sure I didn't to talk them before Thurs. or Fri. of last week.

The pay rate shows that the minimum would be 1.07. That is for loads over 300 miles. Loads from 200-300 pays 1.21, there are several categories, but these are actually the 2 cheapest for a "d" unit. This seems to be pretty good with $100 minimum for any load.

Their Insurance seems dirt cheap to me. My cyphering x( shows around $3,100/yr = $258/month = $60/wk for all insurances...this includes $25,000 in physical damage. I did notice that Fedex seemed to be quite reasonable for their ins. too. I don't think anyone else has shared their prices.

I only see 3 things that I am a bit skeptical of.
1. They apparently decide where your layover will be. The recruiter told me that it is my option, but if you move on your own, they just don't pay any dh for it. That is fine by me. They do pay .20/m after the first 50 for dh. I can see how they would want to decide where your layover is if they have to pay to get out.

2. Their pay rates are based upon 58% of the revenue. That seems to be a liitle lower than most. I think the others who pay % pay around 60-62%. I'm not sure if they pay dh or not though.

3. They show a $2,000 deductible for cargo ins., to be charged to the O/O if the damage is determined to be the fault of O/O. Is this customary? I don't mind being responsible for the freight, but I've not seen any mention of anything like this in anyone else's literature.


This should pretty well wrap up my search for a carrier. I think I will post my top 3 picks soon and show my pro/con list for each of them. Let you guys help me decide .


Would still love to hear from some ConwayNow O/O's

thx,

 

[pelicn]

Arky,

Thanks for this info about Conway. Hubby (Nightshift) is out on the road right now so I'm not sure if he's had a chance to contact anyone yet. I'll point him to this post.

He'd be especially interested in the "running in the south" :7

 

[Weave]

The three things you had of concern Arky were all the same for me in 1999 there. Those policies are pretty much customary throughout the expedite industry. I just wouldn't expect too many (if any) loads from them that will pay over the $1.07, so that would be a good figure to use for your operating budget if you sign on there. And I'm sure you well know already that 2500 mile weeks might happen, but will be rare, certainly not an average. 1500-1700/wk would be more realistic. I never had any major dispatcher problems there, unless they have hired a bunch of jerks since that time. The cargo insurance deductible is very common, but even after 6 years of doing this I have never had a freight claim, and if you secure everything right you probably will never have one either. You mentioned in the other posting a concern if Expedite Solutions had any accociation with CWN, I think the only association they have is ES has some of their truck fleet leased to CWN, hence I'm sure the companies are friends with each other.
-Weave-

 

[guest]

thx Weave, that is what I would suspect with ES also.

A question: I mentioned quite a lot on here that came off the recruiter literature from Conway. Should I be more discreet with their information? I would think that it's pretty common knowledge, but I guess maybe I should ask before posting too much. I've noticed that others only give info. through email, etc. I wouldn't want to make 'em mad..lol. Might be needing a job one of these days .

 

[Weave]

I wouldn't worry about that at all. Like you said yourself, it's very common knowledge, and people do it often. I think there was a discussion about Tri-State's new pay plan a short time ago. I'll bet my britches too that FedEx changed some of those less than desireable policies of theirs based on EO postings, and I think by people posting what truly is going on, it helps the industry to have a set of common "standards" that companies, contractors, and drivers know of and are comfortable with.
Did you see how quickly Velocity Express got shot down here? The reason why is that what they are doing is considered to be well below the industry standards for contractors and drivers. I'm sort of a Ralph Nader fanatic in that I don't like seeing people get ripped off.
Simple power of freedom of speech that we Americans are consitutionally guaranteed, and it's something companies need to understand and deal with instead of shouting "lawsuit" whenever tpoics about their company are discussed among others on this or any other open forum. Beleive me when I tell you, that has been a major issue at EO, not only with companies but individuals too. I'm sure you've noticed the signature at the bottom of my posts- yes it is there for a very good reason
-Weave-

 

[The Gibster]

My wife and I run for ConWay Now and until most recently have been really happy. As a team we run 12-13000 miles a month and yes, the majority of those are 1.07 a mile. But, we get a lot of miles. When I spoke with Ed Conaway at the show he told me they pretty well stick to the 1.07 freight because they can get a lot of it and it keeps us really moving.

However, less than 5% has been auto freight, we haul some really goofy stuff - like 2 5gal buckets of grease for over $1000!

Now here's our rub with them. We do a lot of deadhead . . .they deadhead us up to 300-350 miles (to Laredo, Tx) to our layover. Then you get dispatched to a load and it's 100-200 miles additional.:-(

Sure, they pay .20/mile, often with no 50 mile min. for us . . .but that pays for fuel - nothing else. Not wear and tear of 'our time'.

And recently we're getting a bunch of loads running thru 55 mph truck states down 2 lane county roads. The problem is that the load is sold at 45mph average, and indeed it is physically impossible to maintain that average with the routing called for.

You then get a nastygram -"Why are you running late?" on the QC. The person tracking you just doesn't get it! I will mention we/ve always been early, never late . . .so why the nastygram?

My real concern is that we're getting more tight loads and if we are late, we have the chance of being fined by ConWay. When I question this of ConWay I get a lot of probabilities, generalities - "that probably won't happen". I'm thinking of an addendum to my contract.
(ARE ANY OTHER CONWAY'S HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS WE ARE, we'd love to hear from you).

The upside is most of the dispatchers are great, cooperative, the rest of the staff are helpful. It just concerns me to have a piano of sorts hanging over my head, if you know what I mean.

Hope this gives you some insight, I think these concerns are the same for teams or solo. Wish you the best of luck!

 

[pelicn]

Thanks for the info Gibster

 

[guest]

Yes..thx for the input!

I have often wandered whether or not the 45 mph could be held under circumstances like this. I went to the truck show in L'ville and going in the traffic was at a crawl on I-65. As I was slowly moving, stopping..waiting...creeping along, I was thinking...now, if I was carrying an expedite load this would be eating the clock up like mad..lol. It's my understanding that you can call dispatch and let them know of the problems and your ok. Is this not true? Please elaborate.

A question on the deadhead. The deadhead you incur moving to the layover, is that paid also? or just the dh between your layover and the next load?

Are you forced to go to the layover they tell you?

Thx again,

 

[Angela]

Hi ya Gibster!

A few of my teams have been complainging about the exact same thing. What I have been advising our teams to do when this happens is use the QC as your "put it in writing" method. I suggest when it is close and you have taken the suggested route and darn near kill yourself to get the load there through heck & high water (as I know all the good drivers do) and you still cant get that time clock monkey off your back. Send a message in stating that given the curcumstances of the load, weather, traffic, etc...that per your contract you have averaged the legal speed and done everything in your power legally to get the load there. If you have sent in your updates and there is nothing you did that would count against you they cannot fine you for the late delivery. I know Expedite is the emergency freight but I dont want a good team to be involved in an emergency trying to get it there. When our teams are getting those "nasty grams" they will put a call into me, I run the miles on my software and establish that they are getting the job done then put a freindly email in to dispatch letting them know the curcumstances, so the heat is taken off my team. Hang in there and keep up the awesome job....remember for every nasty gram that dispatch sends out they probably have a manager or someone on their back with their own nasty gram. Im so politically correct I kill me.

 

[The Gibster]

Howdy Arkla & Pelikan, and thanks Angela.

I've read the follow-ups and it's agreeing with the phone conversations that our other driver friends advise to do. The key seems to be to QC (qualcom) dispatch as soon as you are running the 35mph county roads with stoplights - BEFORE dispatch gets the late computer message and sends us the late QC message.

When I called our inherited recruiter (we started through Housworths and therefore didn't have a recruiter), i got a whole lotta probablies and generalities. So what's new for a recruiter?

The thing we didn't write earlier is that we had received a rash of "your late" messages in the past from a specific dispatcher and felt it was literally harrassment. Now here's the point. . .I called and wrote (put it in writing) to Ed Conaway, the big cheese. He touted an open door policy and I was going to hold him to it.

It indeed is an open door policy! Our concerns were answered to our satisfaction within 24 hours. Three cheers for ConWay. They do listen to their drivers (my opinion folks) if you'll communicate with them. And the subsequent quality and tone of the QC messages after that shows that the problem had been discussed with the dispatchers in question. You can't ask for more than that.

Like Angela said, the contract can be leaned on to support that we're doing everything 'legally' we can, but . . .so we do have some leverage in the event of the delivery actually being late.

We kinda shot ourselves in the foot in support of our 'late argument' to conway in that the load from Muskogan MI to Milan TN that we thought was going to be miserably late was actually on time. We had pulled it out of the fire with good old hustle.

I guess the bottom line Pelikan and Arkla is that you'll be busy and that ConWay does work with their drivers. And Angela it looks like the moral of the story is even when it seems impossible just keep going, and DON'T GIVE UP!

We wish you all the best of luck in the future in expediting and hope to see you on the road somewhere. I'd offer to buy ya a cup of coffee but, I dont waana be late!

 

[The Gibster]

Arky, I re-read your response and discovered I hadn't answered your question (my msg ran on, didn't it?).

Anyhoo, we're paid for the deadhead either way, to the load or to the layover. My understanding is (and there's a QC macro or 'canned msg' for this) that I can refuse the layover point and ask/stipulate another one.

We've always used the one supplied although, when it's hig miles away we call and challange it. It's usually confirmed. The other thing is the planner that locates our layover is Mike B.

Mike B. is a straight-up, no BS guy whom also mans the driver hotline. Bottom line is we trust him and his judgement. We've only been stranded three times for long periods,twice over thanksgiving/Christmas holiday periods. The third time dispatch called us with a long layover change from Dallas to OK City. "we're lookin' for folks who want to get out of Dallas"...we took them up on the offer. 3 others team had passed on the offer! And the next morning we had a substancial load outta OK City

Again I guess the bottom line is it's all good if you're able to work WITH dispatch instead of 'quasi - for them'.

 

[Angela]

Thanks for the words of encouragement! I love passing on wisdom from other drivers to our new teams. They will turn to me for this wisdom and unfortunately I havent driven (and trust me the workd isnt ready for me behind the wheel) so I am limited in the "true wisdom" I have. I do love working for Con Way just because of the open door. I think Ed is a stand up guy for having the guts to do this. You Rock!

 

[mcbride]

Hi again Gibster,

>Now here's our rub with them. We do a lot of deadhead . .
>.they deadhead us up to 300-350 miles (to Laredo, Tx) to our
>layover. Then you get dispatched to a load and it's 100-200
>miles additional.:-(

This is a major problem we have also heard and experienced with Con-Way. Our biggest concern with this issue is that may times you may be the ONLY truck in the location you have delivered at. They aren't able to predict or distinguish that this may be the case many times....this is very frustrating. Also you may elect to dead head to the designated "layover" location only to find out you are now behind several other trucks in the sequence of "first in" - "first out". (Which you know takes me to another whole problem...lol)

>And recently we're getting a bunch of loads running thru 55
>mph truck states down 2 lane county roads. The problem is
>that the load is sold at 45mph average, and indeed it is
>physically impossible to maintain that average with the
>routing called for.

Yes! This is maddening! If you happen to get a load picking up in the Chicago area going to Ohio or Michigan area...or worse yet, the back roads of Pennsylvania, you are in a world of trouble! The routing is a whole other issue. Con-Way for much of their locals is now using what is called a macro 38 which is a similar routing program that Fedex CC tried in 1999-2000. This routing does not use truck routes exclusivley and you will be routed thru residential sections and it uses parkways or other routes that we as trucks we aren't allowed to travel on. It uses the fastest route not the most logical or truck accessable.

>You then get a nastygram -"Why are you running late?" on the
>QC. The person tracking you just doesn't get it! I will
>mention we/ve always been early, never late . . .so why the
>nastygram?

Another big YES! What is up with this all of the sudden?? When we first came to Con-Way they never did this. We actually left FedexCC in large part because of this constant beeping...that I often felt as it was almost harassment! We have never been late BUT now they are beeping us with these "test" messages. We just had this happen on our last load and we were 3 HOURS early for the delivery after traveling from Mo thru Ill, In and Oh to deliver in Erie, Pa! ( I had to edit this because I forgot to put in this paragraph we were within 15 miles of the delivery when we got "tested" for running late!)

>My real concern is that we're getting more tight loads and
>if we are late, we have the chance of being fined by ConWay.

I don't know if they call it an actal fine..more like a penalty..they take part of your money.

>When I question this of ConWay I get a lot of probabilities,
>generalities - "that probably won't happen".

AND yes it has happened to people, they will take part or all of your money. It has not happened to us, as we have never been late, but it has happened to people we know. It is part of Con-Way's guarantee.

I'm thinking of an addendum to my contract.
>(ARE ANY OTHER CONWAY'S HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS WE ARE,
>we'd love to hear from you).

We're out now. LOL

>The upside is most of the dispatchers are great,
>cooperative, the rest of the staff are helpful.

Yes, "most" are...there are a few bad apples in there that they don't want to remove from the bunch though. Suprisingly, the NLM(National Logistics Managment or auto freight) department of Con-Way is really great. They seem to really have their act together but the down side of this is that it is all auto freight loads and we all know how maddening picking up and delivering to GM, Ford, and Chysler can be. This department is a great asset to Con-Way though because freight from this department will get you out of Az, NM, Tx, etc.

It just concerns me to have a piano of sorts hanging over my head,
>if you know what I mean.

Yup, sure do....sure do...

mcbride-
--What goes around comes around--

:)