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XPO | Poised for the Kill!!!

midirat1255 said:
Yeah...finger cramps...a real b@tch at times...may have to start using "Naturally Speaking"....

The Nattie Light and Xanax helps tho'

The whole 'novel' thing may just be another phase in my heretofore illustrious career...

Let me see...uummm...Hows this??...

A novel based on a truck driver employed in the LTL industry in an 'in the can' economy working for a company he or she sometimes does not understand and where there are many companies going bankrupt...subsequently finds a trucking forum where there are people working at his or her company and some of them are managers. They all b@tch and complain at times. At other times they support each others as if they were siblings...and yet at other times get on each others nerves...and the hero of our novel gets on the forum and writes novels...

On second thought...forget it..

Things like those never happen!!! What the hell was I thinking??!!...

Oh Well!!!..

Rat :loser:
Click to expand...

Nobody would EVER believe a word they read. I know there are times that I can't believe a word the higher-ups tell me.


Just an example: The 24 hr. call-off notice. I have been here going on 9 yrs and never heard of such a rule, but I have been told it has been around a long time. OK...my bad. But upset management when I told them that my crystal ball was broken and I could no longer see into the future. So I guess you are supposed to come to work, feeling like crap and or on meds to help you feel better. But either way, you are not your sharpest, and maybe causing an accident. Oh yeah...safety first. Keep trucking...no matter how bad you feel.

And yes I know you get 6 occurences a calender year. That's not the point!!!
 
magicman1966 said:
Nobody would EVER believe a word they read. I know there are times that I can't believe a word the higher-ups tell me.


Just an example: The 24 hr. call-off notice. I have been here going on 9 yrs and never heard of such a rule, but I have been told it has been around a long time. OK...my bad. But upset management when I told them that my crystal ball was broken and I could no longer see into the future. So I guess you are supposed to come to work, feeling like crap and or on meds to help you feel better. But either way, you are not your sharpest, and maybe causing an accident. Oh yeah...safety first. Keep trucking...no matter how bad you feel.

And yes I know you get 6 occurences a calender year. That's not the point!!!
Click to expand...

Lets put this squarely at the feet of the person responsible....

Bruce Freaking M.

He couldn't cut it as VP of Operations so CW 'promoted' him to VP of Human Resources. This guy is a royal screw up...I have met him and conversed with him. He is so out touch with reality as far as what we do it isn't funny!

He is the typical 'glass house' exec who has nothing better to do than spew nonsensical edicts that adversely affect thousands of people. Why the hell CW keeps this loser around is beyond me.

Rat :loser:
 
BoxBoss said:
I am always a bit amazed by this thought process...If YRC were to go out, and I don't believe it is going to be them that goes, it will be somebody else, you all act like they are going to take the union with them...they don't even make up a viable % of the teamster's union anymore...It might be less than 10%, But I am not sure...Anyway, you think your company is going to spank your wages and benefits if YRC goes under..?? What would that be inviting..?? Think about it....A bunch of pissed off employees x a union desperate to increase membership = ????

BINGO..!!!

That thought process is in place to scare you, and to make them feel good about their union, that's it...use common sense..
Click to expand...


i think the key word someone mentioned was "leverage". if yrc goes down, con-way will have more of that. They might not lower our wages on the spot or make any changes at all right away, but as time goes on.....the union companies getting weak and few

look for example at a couple of recently enacted policies:

-making senior drivers drive older trucks

and

-the new "attendance" and "6 events to get terminated" policy. (maybe not totally new, but nevertheless rehashed and re-inforced)


They got a little leverage with a crap economy. Nobody is going to quit a job because there are no other jobs out there. Driving an old junkie and getting payed beats being unemployed, and coming to work feeling sick beats being unemployed as well.

All this with a natural occuring, out of anybody's control, unpredicatble recession that recently clouded our great nation :USA:

it frightens me the changes con-way would do if they got any more leverage. i feel like the union co's kinda keep things balanced.

if your telling yourself right now that my above arguments can go to hell, then i just have ONE THING to ask you"

If other truck companies didnt pay in the $20-25/hour range(mind you which all started withe the unions), Do you honestly believe that CWF would pay us this much? same with the bennies if we would even have any. before you answer....think of a company like wal-mart

wal-mart has no other major competitor in it's industry. Business is great and the company is financially healthy. Having no major competitor, they dont have a standard to pay to, so they made one. next time u go to wal-mart ask an employee how much he takes home a month, it might be less than what some of these senior line drivers make in a week. same deal with their bennies, or lack thereof.

dont get me wrong, im no union advocate by a long margin, but i believe they are a necessary evil, kind of like taxes, i wish i didnt have to pay it, but our society wouldnt function without tax money.
 
YellowColoredTrucks said:
look for example at a couple of recently enacted policies:

-making senior drivers drive older trucks

and

-the new "attendance" and "6 events to get terminated" policy. (maybe not totally new, but nevertheless rehashed and re-inforced)


They got a little leverage with a crap economy. Nobody is going to quit a job because there are no other jobs out there. Driving an old junkie and getting payed beats being unemployed, and coming to work feeling sick beats being unemployed as well.

If other truck companies didnt pay in the $20-25/hour range(mind you which all started withe the unions), Do you honestly believe that CWF would pay us this much? same with the bennies if we would even have any.
Click to expand...


First off you gotta forget the senior drivers with years of service having any particular benefit...those days are gone..as demonstrated during Black Friday during which time many people with years of service were terminated for no other reason other than corporate greed! CW has no morals when it comes to recognizing the accomplisments of their people!

Rat :loser:

Service and dedication mean nothing...they can't be evaulated by numbers....
 
midirat1255 said:
First off you gotta forget the senior drivers with years of service having any particular benefit...those days are gone..as demonstrated during Black Friday during which time many people with years of service were terminated for no other reason other than corporate greed! CW has no morals when it comes to recognizing the accomplisments of their people!

Rat :loser:

Service and dedication mean nothing...they can't be evaulated by numbers....
Click to expand...

when did this black friday you speak of occur? what happened and what was the explanation?
 
YellowColoredTrucks said:
when did this black friday you speak of occur? what happened and what was the explanation?
Click to expand...

It happened in Dec 08. CW terminated a number of people to lower their staffing numbers to 03 levels, as John L. stated we were at those levels then so should our numbers reflect in the amount of people employed at Con-Way
However we are not operating the same way we did in 03.

There is much more BS now than in 03. It takes more people to generate and count the useless numerical information we so desperately hang on to...

At any rate...during Black Friday Con-Way terminated many people with years of service and some close to retirement just to replace them with others people who would do the job for less!

Like I said Con-Way has no moral or business ethic...when it comes to their people!!!

Rat :loser:
 
YellowColoredTrucks said:
i think the key word someone mentioned was "leverage". if yrc goes down, con-way will have more of that. They might not lower our wages on the spot or make any changes at all right away, but as time goes on.....the union companies getting weak and few

look for example at a couple of recently enacted policies:

-making senior drivers drive older trucks

and

-the new "attendance" and "6 events to get terminated" policy. (maybe not totally new, but nevertheless rehashed and re-inforced)


They got a little leverage with a crap economy. Nobody is going to quit a job because there are no other jobs out there. Driving an old junkie and getting payed beats being unemployed, and coming to work feeling sick beats being unemployed as well.

All this with a natural occuring, out of anybody's control, unpredicatble recession that recently clouded our great nation :USA:

it frightens me the changes con-way would do if they got any more leverage. i feel like the union co's kinda keep things balanced.

if your telling yourself right now that my above arguments can go to hell, then i just have ONE THING to ask you"

If other truck companies didnt pay in the $20-25/hour range(mind you which all started withe the unions), Do you honestly believe that CWF would pay us this much? same with the bennies if we would even have any. before you answer....think of a company like wal-mart

wal-mart has no other major competitor in it's industry. Business is great and the company is financially healthy. Having no major competitor, they dont have a standard to pay to, so they made one. next time u go to wal-mart ask an employee how much he takes home a month, it might be less than what some of these senior line drivers make in a week. same deal with their bennies, or lack thereof.

dont get me wrong, im no union advocate by a long margin, but i believe they are a necessary evil, kind of like taxes, i wish i didnt have to pay it, but our society wouldnt function without tax money.
Click to expand...

Ok, I understand what you are saying...But:

There is no policy that makes senior drivers drive older trucks...There was a mandate to park all the new trucks, get everything we can out of the older units, and then get rid of them and have a fleet with an average age of 4 years...
A structured attendance policy was long overdue, it provides clear rules on attendance and everyone knows where they stand..Everyone here constantly gripes about a lack of clear work rules..
Wal-Mart is a virtual monopoly at what they do...My sister has been with them for 15 years, I have a pretty good idea about their payscales...And you're right, it ain't pretty...
Yes, unions did start the ball rolling that put wages where they are today...But check out the history of union companies for the past 25 years...UPS (Brown) is an exception to the rule because they do indeed run the tightest ship in the shipping business...They have a hard core management style, they have exceptional production standards that have to be maintained, and they pay well to achieve those... have you ever seen a Brown van driver with his belly hanging over his belt..?? Seriously...
Their contract is very different from the NMFA that guides YRC and ABF..It isn't stuffed with alot of BS work rules that stifles the company's ability to run efficiently...And there are some on these boards that tell me alot of that has gone away from the NMFA, but I haven't seen a recent contract to verify that or not..
You're not scared of Con-way leverage...Were you scared of that leverage 6 months ago..?? No, you, like many of us, are scared about what is going on around us and less freight on trailers...I know I am..and you are justified in that feeling..
 
BoxBoss said:
Ok, I understand what you are saying...But:

A structured attendance policy was long overdue, it provides clear rules on attendance and everyone knows where they stand..Everyone here constantly gripes about a lack of clear work rules..
Click to expand...

I far as I recollect we always did have a structured attendance policy...so why the need for a new one?

Especially this new assinine requirement for 24 hours notice...I cannot speak for others but I have never been given 24 hours notice for an upcoming and unforeseeable emergency or sickness.

Just to go a little further with this ignorance...

I had bronchitis last year...went to the doctor...received two prescriptions...given a work release by the doctor for a two day period...

Guess what...it counts as an inexcusable absence even though it was mandated by duly licensed physician...if it had been three days I could have hidden behind the FMLA rules and it would have been excused as mandated by federal law. However I am not that way. If I am not sick or otherwise concerned by an emergency then I am at work.

This Bruce M. assinine one-size-fits-all attendance policy is just some more of Con-Way's (⊙▃⊙)fied BS...

We are people and we sometimes have unforeseen things that happen...if this company or any other cannot ascribe to those inevitabilities then they need to close up shop and get the hell outta the people business!

If there are problems with certain individuals then deal with them accordingly...afterall that is just one aspect of the duties relegated to the HR dept...don't try to reduce your workload on the backs of the innocent...

The mandate of this policy is the epitome of blind corporate ignorance!

It amazes me sometimes how these people can be so stone cold f*ck nuts!

Rat :loser:
 
BoxBoss said:
I believe I said I was unsure, please go over to one of their forums and ask them, I know it is in that neighborhood...That is per them, by the way, not something I am throwing out...
Thank you for reiterating my formula...It is exactly what I said...

maybe we can just be losers together...

Things kinda slow over on the SAIA forum..?? Just like in real life..??
Tense times for all...
Click to expand...
Things are just fine over at the Saia forum and at the company!! We have extra weekend runs and I do believe we made a nice little profit!! I am not bound by a name and only read that forum!! I like to see what everyone else is talking about! From your post you go to other forums also!! If you want to be a loser I’ll let you take the lead!! Tell me what it's like!!
 
BoxBoss said:
I believe I said I was unsure, please go over to one of their forums and ask them, I know it is in that neighborhood...That is per them, by the way, not something I am throwing out...
Thank you for reiterating my formula...It is exactly what I said...

maybe we can just be losers together...
Click to expand...
DANCING CHICKEN said:
Things kinda slow over on the SAIA forum..?? Just like in real life..??
Tense times for all...
Things are just fine over at the Saia forum and at the company!! We have extra weekend runs and I do believe we made a nice little profit!! I am not bound by a name and only read that forum!! I like to see what everyone else is talking about! From your post you go to other forums also!! If you want to be a loser I’ll let you take the lead!! Tell me what it's like!!
Click to expand...

:shutup2:

You would most likely have more info on that subject than anyone here!

Rat :loser:
 
BoxBoss said:
I am always a bit amazed by this thought process...If YRC were to go out, and I don't believe it is going to be them that goes, it will be somebody else, you all act like they are going to take the union with them...they don't even make up a viable % of the teamster's union anymore...It might be less than 10%, But I am not sure...Anyway, you think your company is going to spank your wages and benefits if YRC goes under..?? What would that be inviting..?? Think about it....A bunch of pissed off employees x a union desperate to increase membership = ????

BINGO..!!!

That thought process is in place to scare you, and to make them feel good about their union, that's it...use common sense..
Click to expand...

What amazes me is that some still believe that Con-way will always keep our welfare in mind and that our upper management leaders are not paid to be opportunists or to be honest.

If they see a way to cut labor costs by whatever means, and they don't, they would be negligent.

If there is a sudden reduction in freight capacity with an associated influx of available labor, supply and demand shift. There will more willing to work for less.

And who would not take advantage of that?
 
YellowColoredTrucks said:
i think the key word someone mentioned was "leverage". if yrc goes down, con-way will have more of that. They might not lower our wages on the spot or make any changes at all right away, but as time goes on.....the union companies getting weak and few

look for example at a couple of recently enacted policies:

-making senior drivers drive older trucks

and

-the new "attendance" and "6 events to get terminated" policy. (maybe not totally new, but nevertheless rehashed and re-inforced)


They got a little leverage with a crap economy. Nobody is going to quit a job because there are no other jobs out there. Driving an old junkie and getting payed beats being unemployed, and coming to work feeling sick beats being unemployed as well.

All this with a natural occuring, out of anybody's control, unpredicatble recession that recently clouded our great nation :USA:

it frightens me the changes con-way would do if they got any more leverage. i feel like the union co's kinda keep things balanced.

if your telling yourself right now that my above arguments can go to hell, then i just have ONE THING to ask you"

If other truck companies didnt pay in the $20-25/hour range(mind you which all started withe the unions), Do you honestly believe that CWF would pay us this much? same with the bennies if we would even have any. before you answer....think of a company like wal-mart

wal-mart has no other major competitor in it's industry. Business is great and the company is financially healthy. Having no major competitor, they dont have a standard to pay to, so they made one. next time u go to wal-mart ask an employee how much he takes home a month, it might be less than what some of these senior line drivers make in a week. same deal with their bennies, or lack thereof.

dont get me wrong, im no union advocate by a long margin, but i believe they are a necessary evil, kind of like taxes, i wish i didnt have to pay it, but our society wouldnt function without tax money.
Click to expand...


Wished I'd said that.
 
midirat1255 said:
I far as I recollect we always did have a structured attendance policy...so why the need for a new one?

Especially this new assinine requirement for 24 hours notice...I cannot speak for others but I have never been given 24 hours notice for an upcoming and unforeseeable emergency or sickness.

Just to go a little further with this ignorance...

I had bronchitis last year...went to the doctor...received two prescriptions...given a work release by the doctor for a two day period...

Guess what...it counts as an inexcusable absence even though it was mandated by duly licensed physician...if it had been three days I could have hidden behind the FMLA rules and it would have been excused as mandated by federal law. However I am not that way. If I am not sick or otherwise concerned by an emergency then I am at work.

This Bruce M. assinine one-size-fits-all attendance policy is just some more of Con-Way's (⊙▃⊙)fied BS...

We are people and we sometimes have unforeseen things that happen...if this company or any other cannot ascribe to those inevitabilities then they need to close up shop and get the hell outta the people business!

If there are problems with certain individuals then deal with them accordingly...afterall that is just one aspect of the duties relegated to the HR dept...don't try to reduce your workload on the backs of the innocent...

The mandate of this policy is the epitome of blind corporate ignorance!

It amazes me sometimes how these people can be so stone cold f*ck nuts!

Rat :loser:
Click to expand...

the other day i was sneezing, coughing and had a mild cold, nothing that would stop me from doing my job if i had to, but i had available days off, it was slow and there were tons of drivers under me who would have loved to take my run (at a lower rate of pay might i add)... i obviously did not have 24 hours ( i thought it was 10?) before my shift to "schedule" and even if i did would probably have been denied as most days of the year are full and have the max number of ppl off (3-5 depending)

so i came into work and sneezed (could not help it) into the tractors that we all share, in the drivers room, on my paperwork, while swiping in chronos etc....

rat used the perfect words when he called it a one sized fits all assanine (⊙▃⊙)-like policy.

when we *****ed and moaned about this to my terminal manager, he responded that you have 6 of these to get terminated. It was almost like it was justified. well i know for a fact that im not wasting one for a simple cold, incase something really serious happens down the road eg: my wife giving birth, my wife or myself involved in accidents, food poisonning, diarrhea, private family issues, car breaking down in vegas etc etcc...


i think i might have thought up a strategy to use.

There is no policy against scheduling a day off and then canceling it right? then depending on how high up you are on the ladder and PTO days you have...all you have to do is "schedule" every day of the week off, i guess reason doesnt have to be given at this point, but for ***** and giggles you can say your psychic powers predict XXX happening on this day. You go to work as usual if nothing happens you just come in to work and say i cancel my pto day for today or call in a couple hours before and say im coming in to work, cancel my pto day.

This way if something does happen your covered with a schedule pto day and wont have to do anything further.

i JUST thought of this so there might be some holes in my theory, but off the top of my head only thing that can stop you is if your not high up on the seniority to even schedule so and so day and if u dont have pto days available.
 
midirat1255 said:
It happened in Dec 08. CW terminated a number of people to lower their staffing numbers to 03 levels, as John L. stated we were at those levels then so should our numbers reflect in the amount of people employed at Con-Way
However we are not operating the same way we did in 03.

There is much more BS now than in 03. It takes more people to generate and count the useless numerical information we so desperately hang on to...

At any rate...during Black Friday Con-Way terminated many people with years of service and some close to retirement just to replace them with others people who would do the job for less!

Like I said Con-Way has no moral or business ethic...when it comes to their people!!!

Rat :loser:
Click to expand...


i thought they terminated/layed off from the bottom of the seniority list...
atleast here in california im shure they did
 
BoxBoss said:
Ok, I understand what you are saying...But:

There is no policy that makes senior drivers drive older trucks...There was a mandate to park all the new trucks, get everything we can out of the older units, and then get rid of them and have a fleet with an average age of 4 years...
A structured attendance policy was long overdue, it provides clear rules on attendance and everyone knows where they stand..Everyone here constantly gripes about a lack of clear work rules..trust me this is not the reason that conway added this new policy ( to appease us because we were griping about the lack of clear work rules)
Wal-Mart is a virtual monopoly at what they do...My sister has been with them for 15 years, I have a pretty good idea about their payscales...And you're right, it ain't pretty...
Yes, unions did start the ball rolling that put wages where they are today...But check out the history of union companies for the past 25 years...UPS (Brown) is an exception to the rule because they do indeed run the tightest ship in the shipping business...They have a hard core management style, they have exceptional production standards that have to be maintained, and they pay well to achieve those... have you ever seen a Brown van driver with his belly hanging over his belt..?? Seriously...
Their contract is very different from the NMFA that guides YRC and ABF..It isn't stuffed with alot of BS work rules that stifles the company's ability to run efficiently...And there are some on these boards that tell me alot of that has gone away from the NMFA, but I haven't seen a recent contract to verify that or not..

yes yes and yes, i agree with you on everything you said about the unions and their total inefficiency, i worked union freight for >3 years so i can speak from experience, but i am not here to argue that, matter of fact i think were not supposed to on this particular board. oh trust me i can go on and on and argue against all the lame union work rules and inefficiencies, but this is not the time nor place.

You're not scared of Con-way leverage...Were you scared of that leverage 6 months ago..?? No, you, like many of us, are scared about what is going on around us and less freight on trailers...I know I am..and you are justified in that feeling..

you are partly right in that this recession has exponentially raised my fears, but i think many will agree with me that we dont want con-way to get anymore leverage, my perfect answer to this would be my earlier post where i compared unions to taxes: a necessary evil.
Click to expand...


i understand the old trucks rule, and i even explained to other drivers that if you stop and think about it, from a business perspective it might make sense, and if you owned a company you would probably do the same, but i wonder if the economy was booming and anyone can quit today and start at say for example fedex across the street, if con-way would even think of putting these dinosaurs in service.
 
YellowColoredTrucks said:
i understand the old trucks rule, and i even explained to other drivers that if you stop and think about it, from a business perspective it might make sense, and if you owned a company you would probably do the same, but i wonder if the economy was booming and anyone can quit today and start at say for example fedex across the street, if con-way would even think of putting these dinosaurs in service.
Click to expand...

If the economy were booming, the old trucks would have been sold off and we wouldn't even be having this discussion..
 
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