Con-way Freight Reviews

Pros

Decent place to work over all, friendly and helpful co-workers. They keep you busy with some OT for most of the year. Home nightly and you can switch between nightly linehaul and city p+d once a year. You can also bid a start time once a year. Inexpensive benefits.

Cons

Flex board is not that fun. You really want to get a bid. During the winter, January at least, there is little work for the flex guys. They have to sign up for partial unemployment. If you have a bid, you will usually get your 8 hours, but that is about all.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to lower our prices again to get back market share and keep everyone working and the company profitable. It worked for awhile, let's do it again. There is profit in volume if you do it correctly.

Pros

Pay
Other drivers are friendly and helpful

Cons

Everything else:
Equipment is falling apart not unusual to breakdown 2 or 3 times a week
Management treats employees like just another number just a way to get a bigger bonus
New and Incoming management are completely incompetent due to current hiring policies

Advice to Senior Management

Hiring policies for middle management need to change. Stop hiring these incompetent college graduates who have no ideal what is involved in the job and has no geographical understanding of the areas in which we work. Changing middle management would go a long way for employee happiness.

Pros

Pay was good, and that's about it.

Cons

I was with conway for 6 years, 1 year on the dock as a part time dock worker, and 5 as a driver. I've experienced and witnessed so many issues between employee and employer you'd think I'd been there for 30 years. Forced overtime, when guys with less seniority are punching out on the sneak. famous response from one of my supervisors when questioning something "You can do anything you want on your last day". It boggles the mind how they keep any employees. The ones that last keep their heads down and do as their told. Following the rules of safety when it suits them. Driving broken or shoddy equipment when told, no headlights, no problem. You're only driving 20 miles away. Being told that I should have my cell phone on in case I was needed on a Saturday, I was only getting married that day. Not going to rant any longer, but in all, you're just a number at Conway. And beware as you approach top scale, because they can fire you, and hire someone new off the street for 6 dollars less an hour. I was off a year with medical issues, was coming back to work and was sent to have a DOT physical, on the paperwork that I had filled out multiple times over the year, I checked a box incorrectly on the paper, answering yes instead of no. Got called in the next day and was fired for falsifying documents. I wonder if they wanted to get rid of me. That is how my career at Conway ended.

Advice to Senior Management

Practice was you preach, Want us to work 14 hours a day, why don't you try working more than 8 just once a week? The drivers are the heartbeat of your company, without them, there is no Conway. Why not try treating them like it? It's pathetic how disconnected management is to the employee. I didn't even know who the terminal manager was until 4 months into my job. You're just a number until they need something from you they can't just take. When you have the upper hand you're their best friend. if not, you're just another number.

Pros

Relatively good pay and stable benefits in an economy where neither are guaranteed. Utilization of technological advances to streamline work processes.

Cons

Upper management disconnect from working realities.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on results given rather than processes.

Pros

Decent Pay, Starting to get better equipment, Can switch between line-haul and city p&d once a year, steady work, high turnover which means you gain senority quickly. Aside from the senority the high turnover is also a con.

Cons

overtime after 50hrs should be after 40hrs or after 8hrs, insurance should be company paid, management disconnected, if you don't wear a white shirt then you don't know what you are talking about is the attitude here, they say safety is top priority but I've seen different, some management allowed to speak to an employee any way they wish without any consequences, only allowed a 30 min lunch in a 14 hour period, no breaks in between.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to be more involved in what is going on at your service center. Listen to what the drivers have to say, we are the ones who run this company, we are out on the front lines everyday and we see what is going on. Try to stop the high trunover by making this a place people want to spend 30+ years of their lives working.

Pros

Con-Way Freight is a non-union company that takes very VERY good care of their employees. I feel as if my pay is competitive and the recognition I recieve from my superiors is always positive! Con-Way is committed to success and I am proud to be part of their equation.

Cons

Benefits! While the benefits are adequate for my family, the premiums have gotten to be very costly due to the ignoramous in the White House! Thank you Mr. Obama for doing your part in making companies struggle for survival! I love my company and need the government to BACK OFF!

Advice to Senior Management

This is tough! Within my department, management is wonderful! Outside of my department, management is very disconnected with their personnel! I cannot tell you how many times the SCM will walk past you as if you don't exist. I have even been totally ignored after speaking to our SCM! It would appear that if you have to have a crude, hateful attitude to be selected for any management positions on the operations side of the business.

Further, If companies like YRC (Roadway, USF Holland), etc.... are struggling for survival, WHY would we fill our ranks with their failures. Our sales force in one region is run by one of their former execs and he hires his buddies, from those same companies, when we have openings within our company! Does it make sense to take on those that were part of a failing enterprise? I don't think so! I'd think we would want fresh ideas, fresh faces and PROVEN success! These sales people sold Yellow into the ground. I hope they don't do it to us! It would be very sad!

Pros

Pay- is half way descent
benefits- medical, dental, vision
getting updated equipment
home everyday
get the holidays off depending on if there is work or not

Cons

Benifits are getting worse, keep getting raised
Still do not have our 401(K) back like we have been told for three years
Black out days for when you want to take a vacation, why can't they stop having blackout days and go to only letting so many off like every other day.
Long hours are expected to work a vast amount of OT, (but managent and HR departments go home at 4 and 5 everyday)
Management has made it to where it has maade employees very competitive against each other, used to work as a team and everyone got along and got the job completed in a good amount of time.
Management gets bonuses, when they say they don't.
Management drives around fancy BMW or new cars but we are still driving 1995 tractors, that are falling apart.
A vast amoung of money is spent on expenses that are not practical, (pizza constantly for the office group, or constant meal expenses for management, etc.) and the drivers get to witness the empty containers all the time.
Let certain people get away with things that shouldn't
used to be able to promote within the company, the last to years we have hired outside the company, for supervisors and up.
An HR generalists even stated that a driver is hired to be a driver. So that tells us drivers that we can't have the knowledge of being in upper management.
Wishy washy supervisors that don't know anything about this company and are making the wrong decisions and the terminal manager doesn't step for fear fo stepping on his supervisors toes.

Advice to Senior Management

Con-way used to be an awesome company to work for. Every since we took a paycut things have shifted in an awefull direction. Management forgets that drivers are the back bone of the company and that this company would not succeed if it wasn't for the drivers and everyone in the Con-way Family as a team. Con-way has made it to where everyone is working against eachother and no one wants to help another out anymore. Con-way used to take care of their employees and back them up, we took the paycut and a lot of us were ok with it to help the company out. Now that we still don't have our 401(K) back that has been promised and promised, and no raises for three years, that has totally taken an impact. This company wants the workers to go all out and compete against eacthother, but they don't want to give the employees honest answers or their incentives that used to be very good. Con-way needs to re-evaluate the people that are running it these days and figure out what is more important, the success of the company or the back stabbing and image that goes on. We don't even care about the customers anymore, just ask them, they feel as if they are just a number.

Pros

The pay starting out here is very good wont complain about that but It don't last for long being HONEST!!!

Cons

strikes: They are VERY strick: it came down to me hooking up my dolly and the pintle hook came up and busted off the gladhand off my trailer and I was doing it as trained and under Idle speed and those glad hands are made of pot metal cheap crap but anyways they gave me a strike for it and terminated me for being honest and as in conways terms "Intergrity-Do the right thing" lost my job. SO for advice if you haven't crashed with sumone else or killed someone the best thing to save your job is "LIE" or fix it yourself without no one noticing cause coming forward with them just gets you terminated! Thanks Con-way!

Advice to Senior Management

One core value to Con-way freight: "Integrity" PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!!! or rip that star DOWN!!! Very dissapointed with conway Period!!

Pros

Job Satisfaction, Great Tools to get your Job Done, Compensation, Leadership, Sales Focused Company, Great Service to Sell, Accountability, Promotions

Cons

Rapid Implementation of Ideas without modeling
Some Micro Managing
Key positions have a few weak leaders
Drivers are somwhat too empowered

Advice to Senior Management

You are an industry leader don't change a thing by continuing to lead and not follow. The focus and direction that upper management is now providing will defintiely position the company for many more years.

Pros

Dock to Driver Program. I learned to drive from some great veteran drivers for free. Much better deal than paying $3-5k to a 2 week wonder "puppy mill" or 6-12 months of indentured servitude at an OTR.

Safety Compliance

Cons

Seniority Respected when the SCM feels like it.

Ever changing employee handbook that is treated like a state secret.

Getting asked to work 1st, 2nd and 3rd shift in the same week when on the extra board.

Middle Management is always pushing for more.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit hosing the employees. If you have enough $ for Dock automation, rack trailers and new Cascadias you can afford to turn the 401k back on. I saw the writing on the wall and checked out with a bit over 2 years in. I took a 10% pay cut for 90% less stress.