CFI Trucking/Conway Truckload/Herb Scmidt What A Ripoff of Conway Truckload drivers? Joplin Missouri

Accurate and reliable pay

Usually get home on day requested

Equipment is well maintained, they usually do what we ask within reason, although we had to fight to get our drive tires changed at 4/32 on this dedicated route. Although the reticence may have been related to wanting us to get it done in Joplin, but we never went thru Joplin.

First in, first out dispatch. Decent team runs. You can call phone number and get information on your pay and board status.

They dont nit pick your logs as long as your mathematically legal. But they have recently begun to match qc to the logs by location in a general sort of way, not in nit-pick sort of way.

They have been extremely honest and expect honesty in return. They have sometimes been arrogant and condescending, they are also very polite and listen, depends on who you get I imagine.

Under the current economic downturn, solos are getting somewhere around 1500-2000 miles a week, teams are averaging 3500 including hometime. If you dont include hometime you avg around 4500 miles a week, that avg appears to be rising right now as the economy is beginning to slowly edge up, but mostly due to CWTL picking up freight lanes of companies that have gone bottom up.

You get paid once a week, which reduces your taxes.

They pay practical miles, which is usually nearly right on the money.

They pay tolls except the one in Ontario, Canada.

Paid Holidays of $60 per person, you get a safety bonus as well NE and Canada crossing pay. Canada crossing pay only applies though if your loaded.

No per diem pay! Yeah!

They are beginning to aggressively foster a corporate attitude. I was frustrated after waffling policies concerning fuel additives and how you get reimbursed for buying them. I told the payroll lady in a normal tone of voice, I guess I will just let the GD truck freeze from now on, sheesh! My dispatcher was thinking of writing me up because she said I yelled at her! My co-driver because he was discussing the mpg problem as indicated above said that he had two complaints logged against him because two people decided he was yelling. OMG! Capital letters are the most I ever yell. We never yelled?

Layover- You have to sit 48 hours now before they will pay you a layover. Then it is only from the 3^rd day on. That same rule applies to breakdowns as well. You get to sit for 2 days for free! * if you get dispatched during the layover time and it is less than 100 miles, you still get the layover though. So if you sit for 3 days whether due to no loads or breakdown, you will only earn $60 per person. But if you sit for 2.80 hrs, you wont get a layover at all.

As a team, they dispatch all runs at 45 mph unless they are Con-Way Freight loads or time sensitive loads. They are usually dispatched at 51mph, but as high as 56 mph, but the trucks only run 65.

Since Con-Way took over, they have reduced the no tolerance speed to 80, not that you really need to be going that fast, and the trucks are governed at 65.

Pet fee is $300 per pet and non-refundable. Plus they take out .01/mile and you get back if you make the 6.2 mpg as explained above.

They not only road test you, but require you to play ring around the obstacle course. Ridiculous waste of time and drivers! My friend with 7 yrs experience wanted to come back to CFI, they flunked her on the obstacle course, but she was 410 and was not able to set the mirrors before testing. She could not see anything out of the crappy T2000 KW. I hated that part, I am usually very good at courses, but I had not driven in 2.5 years when I took it, plus I had never driven a KW. I could not see anything! Your not allow to stop and get out and look either and the fish eyes on the front fenders are the bowls instead of the convex mirrors.

If you are at another Con-Way Freight Terminal or home and the truck wont start, breakdown will charge the road service call to jump the truck back to you.

This may have changed since we hired on, but the insurance did not go into effect until you had been at the company a calendar year. So if you hired on in January or February, you did not get the full insurance package for almost 2 years. They had at the time, 2 yrs ago, for the entry drivers until they were eligible for the full package some insurance that paid for emergency visits and doctor visits, but had a $10,000 cap. That may have changed since then though, so be sure to ask.