Conway and CFI to merge.....

[Orangetxguy]

One thing this marriage has done for me, is explain why Con-Way has been under going the name change on the trucks nationwide. Con-Way Freightlines Inc matches up quite well with Contract Freighters Inc!

:P :P "CFI" :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[Piece Of Work]

I look forward to longer trips and less broker supplied loads. Conway is a reputable company. Truckers hate changes, but I'm sticking this out with a positive attitude. As stated above, this could only be a good thing.

[BigWheels]

Conway will use CFI to consolidate multiple-skid orders via their Menlo Logistics subsidiary. In this way, they will get a TL driver to do LTL work at a significant savings in labor costs. They will also use truckload to pull more and more LTL linehaul.

Yep, consolidation--in terms of doing more for less--is the future of the large carrier trucking industry. This makes more $$ for the corporation and provides more security for the drivers.

[Ian Williams]

Conway will use CFI to consolidate multiple-skid orders via their Menlo Logistics subsidiary. In this way, they will get a TL driver to do LTL work at a significant savings in labor costs. They will also use truckload to pull more and more LTL linehaul.

This is already done. Go to any medium to large Con-Way terminal and you will see TL trailers being loaded for hubs that are 2-3 freight days away. My barn loads 2 daily going to the east coast. Con-Way already moves a fair portion of their line haul with Werner, CRE, US Express, CFI and Landspan. Its just a faster and more costly version of the piggybacking that others in LTL industry do.

There is also the efficiency factor of doubles and triples. A lot of LTL freight is low density and cubes out the trailer before weight becomes an issue. A set of doubles can go anywhere in the US has a bit more space and is a smaller "packet" to send through the network than a 53. Anyplace that allows triples you can have 2 LTL line drivers doing the work of 3 TL Teams pulling 53' vans.

With triples we can break a set from CA, slide in another trailer in the middle and re-hook in 5 min. With a van it would take much longer to break and reload half the trailer.

With the current TL pricing environment you don't save nearly as much as you could in the past using a contract carrier.

[Ian Williams]

...Con-Way will hopefully (and I'm pretty sure they will) raise CFI way up and that can only be good for the TL business.

According to yesterday's conference call with the financial analysts, CFI is substantially more profitable and roughly ten times the size of ConWay Truckload, so I suspect they might be hoping for the opposite, i.e. CFI will hopefully lift ConWay Truckload way up.

The profitibility of CWTL is a largely a function of transfer pricing between subsidaries and has to be taken with a grain of salt.

This is already done. Go to any medium to large Con-Way terminal and you will see TL trailers being loaded for hubs that are 2-3 freight days away. My barn loads 2 daily going to the east coast. Con-Way already moves a fair portion of their line haul with Werner, CRE, US Express, CFI and Landspan. Its just a faster and more costly version of the piggybacking that others in LTL industry do.

I imagine they would get rid of the purchase carriers such as Knight, England, Covenant, etc for their coast-to-coast freight and bring all of their TL linehaul in-house via Conway Truckload and CFI for better control.

As I said, they will utilize Menlo Logistics to consolidate more LTL loads onto truckload. Not replacing hub-spoke LTL by any means, but able to lower costs and present different pricing options to customers.

But I think the main reason CFI was purchased was that Conway saw more growth in volume shipments - mostly due to greater imports and offshoring. As I understand, CFI does alot of work on the Tex-Mex border, so that's a big plus there. Also Conway figures the government will in the future bump-up length/weight limits in response to fuel/congestion issues on the highways.

[Ian Williams]

I imagine they would get rid of the purchase carriers such as Knight, England, Covenant, etc for their coast-to-coast freight and bring all of their TL linehaul in-house via Conway Truckload and CFI for better control.

As I said, they will utilize Menlo Logistics to consolidate more LTL loads onto truckload. Not replacing hub-spoke LTL by any means, but able to lower costs and present different pricing options to customers.

But I think the main reason CFI was purchased was that Conway saw more growth in volume shipments - mostly due to greater imports and offshoring. As I understand, CFI does alot of work on the Tex-Mex border, so that's a big plus there. Also Conway figures the government will in the future bump-up length/weight limits in response to fuel/congestion issues on the highways.

I doubt that 100% of TL will come in house but I expect that significantly more will.

I suspect that any change in weight and length limits will give LTL more of an advantage. A set of 35ft pups vs a 60ft Van the pups still win with an extra 10ft. of trailer. The van wins on aerodynamics and fuel consumption though.