CF After 1999 and before Labor Day 2002

MikeJ

TB Veteran
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Hi guys and gals,

I've been writing a report on the 1999 book published by CNF entitled Never Stand Still , I'm sure some of you know the book and some of you, like it and I'm sure some of you don't care for the book.

Personally it's chalk full of information, but it's a hard book to read and the book is sloppy with it's dates it jumps around way to much with it's dates, and it is a hard book to read and I think a lot people don't like it because it's just CF management patting them selves on the back.

Anyhow, the book stops in 1999, but between 1999 and 2002 what was CF like and what eventually lead to there demise.

Right now I'm in the early 1980's right when CF rolled out all the regional carriers and was trying to buy AEI Air Forwarding, because CF was in the air freight business for a little while. CF was like Union Carbide and had there hands in lots of things.

Anyhow just interested in knowing what it was like at CF between 1999 and 2002 what was the company up to what was it like to work there so on and so fourth.

Thanks guys
Mike
 
Mike.
Cf was a hard place to work at that time because most of us knew our time was short our equipment was worn out.But for the most part it i enjoy coming to work and i still think it was and still is the best place i every worked at i put 25 years of my life at that company a lot of good and a lot of it bad but never a dull second.In 1982 Cf gave birth to a monster by selling Freightliner and with the money they started a sorry company by the name of con-way and to this day i have no use for and never will and I'm truly glad to see them gone.As for the book I really enjoy reading it lot of history in it and a lot of things i didn't know about the company and it's founder Leland James.
 
Mike.
Cf was a hard place to work at that time because most of us knew our time was short our equipment was worn out.But for the most part it i enjoy coming to work and i still think it was and still is the best place i every worked at i put 25 years of my life at that company a lot of good and a lot of it bad but never a dull second.In 1982 Cf gave birth to a monster by selling Freightliner and with the money they started a sorry company by the name of con-way and to this day i have no use for and never will and I'm truly glad to see them gone.As for the book I really enjoy reading it lot of history in it and a lot of things i didn't know about the company and it's founder Leland James.
Thank you for your reply. I know a lot of people really liked CF and Con-Way on the other hand had many enemies. CNF Management though had cash burning a hole in there pocket from the sale of Freightliner and from what was in Never Stand Still they made there regional system out to be better then sliced bread!
 
What the book didn't tell you was how Con-Way was in the red until a couple of years before the spinoff CF payed for everything they had from equipment to the salarythat was payed.
 
What the book didn't tell you was how Con-Way was in the red until a couple of years before the spinoff CF payed for everything they had from equipment to the salarythat was payed.
In that book they act like Con-Way was the best thing since sliced bread. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't CF also have some trouble with there air freight investments also not really working out?
 
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Towards the end, what put them down was a combination of things. They started putting salesman as terminal managers. Time critical deliveries which looked good on the books, proved unprofitable because they had to unload trucks just to get one box out, delaying drivers from leaving the yard in the morning. At that time, they had the Hewlett-Packard account which gave them as much as 25 full trailers every day at our terminal. Yellow went in and under cut their bid. That 's what finished them off. At that time large desktop computers were selling like hotcakes and the initial computer buying frenzy was enormous. Most all the things they said about disability was bull. Yellow is still operating and paying their disability claims. A few years before they went down, they told us one morning that CF was spun off from the corporation. No body seemed to care, but I knew that we were going to be abandoned. Yellow also told us that they were going to be spun off from their corporation, and they were. Again, nobody at yellow took it seriously. Yellow followed CF, but instead of shutting down, they are using more and more non union drivers , which CF didn't do.
 
Towards the end, what put them down was a combination of things. They started putting salesman as terminal managers. Time critical deliveries which looked good on the books, proved unprofitable because they had to unload trucks just to get one box out, delaying drivers from leaving the yard in the morning. At that time, they had the Hewlett-Packard account which gave them as much as 25 full trailers every day at our terminal. Yellow went in and under cut their bid. That 's what finished them off. At that time large desktop computers were selling like hotcakes and the initial computer buying frenzy was enormous. Most all the things they said about disability was bull. Yellow is still operating and paying their disability claims. A few years before they went down, they told us one morning that CF was spun off from the corporation. No body seemed to care, but I knew that we were going to be abandoned. Yellow also told us that they were going to be spun off from their corporation, and they were. Again, nobody at yellow took it seriously. Yellow followed CF, but instead of shutting down, they are using more and more non union drivers , which CF didn't do.
Schneider and CRST have special single axle tractors that they use to pull trailers for YRC which I am sure you are well aware of.
 
In that book they act like Con-Way was the best thing since sliced bread. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't CF also have some trouble with there air freight investments also not really working out?

If I remember correctly, In the early to mid 90's Emory had a large government contract (postal?) that was canceled for some reason by the government. Emory was stuck with some high dollar leases on aircraft they weren't using. I remember hearing that those leases caused Emory to hemorrhage cash to the point that there was talk that it might take the whole corporation down.
 
Were any of you guys in Palo Alto California in 1993 when the Teamsters toilet papered CF's building out there? Just wondering.
 
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