I remember when the company started the dockworker hiring blitz. I met a gentleman that had previously worked at Old Dominion. He said it was night and day compared to working the dock at OD. Where OD demanded the care of their customers freight, Con-Ways' Modus operandi of, "just jam it in" was a shock to him. Cross dock does not work if you must adhere to a score card that will punish you for ensuring the customers freight is un-damaged, due to having only enough load trailers to fit the freight by cube and weight. How many times has a line driver heard this, " I don't care if there is still three drivers from your barn here, you only have one trailer left to load into, your just gonna have to rework that trailer". Plus OD does not jam pack sub service trailers, that seem to always arrive late. The way we run our operation of P&D during the day, and linehaul at night, does not cut it for a nationwide LTL carrier. Works great for a regional carrier. Some of these LTL companies run P&D all day and night, and pump out line runs all day and night.
The freight assembly centers have also become a cesspool of people standing around not producing. These are the same drivers that bitch and complain about working to many hours. These are the same idiots that seem to damage the most amount of freight. A happy customer is a return customer. To many idiots are messing up our golden egg.