I Got Sent Home By Con-way Freight

MG,

I didn't know you were a Marine officer?

I wonder if your boys at Con-Way knew that?

AJ D.

No, not Marines.

-mountain girl

I thought I saw someone say Semper Fi...

Did they know of your Military Commission ?

-AJ D.

Yep. It's on my resume. I don't walk around advertising it though.

-mountain girl

I wish you the best of luck in your journey :)

I wish you the best of luck in your journey :)

-AJ D

Thanks, AJ. That means a lot. Truly. And you too.

-mountain girl

MG,

I didn't know you were a Marine officer?

I wonder if your boys at Con-Way knew that?

AJ, the Semper Fi was from me, and I prefaced it with, "I'm not sure which service you were", and meant it simply as a "stay strong" thing.

MG,

I didn't know you were a Marine officer?

I wonder if your boys at Con-Way knew that?

AJ, the Semper Fi was from me, and I prefaced it with, "I'm not sure which service you were", and meant it simply as a "stay strong" thing.

-Trucktographer

Oh that's right. You DID say it... Doesn't matter to me. I love "SEMPER FI" ... I'm honored you said it to me.

Also, I posted a new feed on an update with Con-way and although I thought earlier today there might be some "romantic" idea of bringing it back to life with them, I've reconsidered and I'm letting it go. I'll still never recommend them to a friend.

-mountain girl

Just dont go to werner, lest you get trainers that wont teach you much, my first didnt do a thing for first 126 hrs, next guy was more interested in any girl he saw along the way then me and the last 2 didnt want me to back up at all

Which would be your fault if you let it go on for 126 hours.

Also, I posted a new feed on an update with Con-way and although I thought earlier today there might be some "romantic" idea of bringing it back to life with them, I've reconsidered and I'm letting it go. I'll still never recommend them to a friend.

Just don't go to werner, lest you get trainers that won't teach you much

I do need to make one extremely important point here. At this point things have not worked out the way Mountain Girl had hoped at Conway and Daniel A didn't like the training he got at Werner. So what does that mean for others trying to choose a company? Well before you write off these companies or any other company because of something you've heard from someone else, let me throw a few facts your way about these two companies.

Werner Enterprises, INC is based out of Omaha, NE and was founded in 1956. It is currently the 5th largest truckload carrier in the United States with more than 7,300 trucks, 25,000 trailers, and over 11,500 associates.

Con-way Inc. (NYSE:CNW) is a $5.5 billion freight transportation and logistics services company with over 28,500 employees established in 1929 as Consolidated Truck Lines which operates from more than 500 operating locations in 20 countries across five continents.

Now if you were to visit some of the main terminals of these carriers you'd see wall after wall lined with pictures of drivers that have had multi-million mile careers at these companies. Hundreds (likely thousands) of drivers have spent a major part of their adult life working for one of these two companies. They've made these companies the foundation of their lives. They've raised families on their salary and benefits. They've become close personal friends with dozens of people at the company over the years and couldn't imagine going to work anywhere else.

Not only that, but many thousands of drivers have started their career of with these companies and went on to have wonderful careers. They got their training, they landed their CDL , and they went on to be happy, productive drivers.

This exact same scenario applies to every company in the nation that hires new drivers. There's no such thing as a company that gets no complaints. There's no such thing as a company that has no problems. But there's also no such thing as a company that isn't capable of helping you get your career off to a great start and then keeping those wheels turning as long as you can get the job done.

Every major trucking company that hires and/or trains students can be a dream to work for......or a complete nightmare. They can keep those wheels turning or shut you down. They can treat you like a king or kick you to the curb at any moment. And 90% or more of that how that turns out will be up to you.

So for anyone considering Werner.....remember that Guyjax has been working there for a while and he could drive for any d*mn company he chooses. In fact, all he has to do is call pretty much any company that runs teams and he will instantly be offered several thousand dollars to come work for them that day. But he's at Werner and so are thousands and thousands of experienced drivers that could go anywhere they like.

The exact same thing goes for Con-Way. We had a husband/wife team that used to come through here regularly and they started their career with Con-Way. They had nothing but wonderful things to say from day one and stuck with that company for the first couple years of their career. I haven't heard from them in a while so I'm not sure what their status is. But Con-Way treated them like gold and they were thrilled to work there.

So be very careful about judging a company based upon the experiences of others. Every wonderful company I worked for had haters and failures mixed in. Every company I worked for had people that were bigoted or prejudiced. These companies have tens of thousands of employees and you're going to come across some bad apples from time to time. Is it possible Mountain Girl met up with resistance because she's a woman? It's entirely possible. Did Daniel A get stuck with a couple of lousy trainers? It's entirely possible. But do you stay away from Werner or Con-Way because things didn't go well for a couple of people? No. Otherwise you wouldn't find a company in North America to work for.

So just keep that in mind when choosing a company. Look for the features you want in a company like solid pay & benefits, the right home time, nice equipment to drive, the type of freight you'd like to haul, and things of that nature. If you'd like to get opinions from people about life at any particular company, make sure you get those opinions face to face from some of their current drivers who are out there doing it day in and day out successfully. After all, Mountain Girl might have gone up against one instructor that turned out to be a male chauvinist. Would you throw the entire 28,500 employees and an 85 year history in the trash because things didn't go well for one student? Nope. Would you immediately jump on the opportunity to work there because one person said they love it there? Nope. Choose a company based upon facts and features. Then you can sprinkle in a few opinions from their current experienced drivers to help you make a final decision.

Fair enough. With 99% of everything about Con-way being all good, (which is why I wanted to stay) and my wanting it to work out so badly, yet having to fight a never-ending, uphill battle against a low-life with too much pull there, who is particularly misogynistic, I would never recommend that particular terminal to a female friend.

-mountain girl

MG,

I didn't know you were a Marine officer?

I wonder if your boys at Con-Way knew that?

AJ, the Semper Fi was from me, and I prefaced it with, "I'm not sure which service you were", and meant it simply as a "stay strong" thing.

Ah, indeed..... I was just glancing through and missed the context. Now, we're back on course. ;)

Its so funny how Wednesday I was at the Conway terminal in Kansas City, KS and it was freaking AWEFUL! It was the most unorganized, ridiculousness (yep not a word I know) that I have ever experienced in my whole life. I had a refused pallet and the customer wanted them to ship it back. Worst 2 hrs of my life. I at least got to watch 5 employees go at each other screaming in the back room! I finally had to pitch a "Diva fit" to get unloaded. Sorry for your disappointed but they did ya a favor. PS. Ill be in Denver tomorrow:-)