Consolidated Freightways Files For Bankruptcy

AP via MSNBC ^ | Sept. 2,2002 | AP

[Jeff Chandler]

You're right that LTL is expensive. It's the best game in town for the way retailers do things, though.

All trucking is extremely competitive, and the profit margins are razor-thin. If a company isn't properly mangaged, it can easily go the way of CF.

[Jeff Chandler]

All the companies give deep discounts, so the determining factor is usually service. If you can't deliver on your promises, or you damage and lose freight, you lose business.

Sometimes "Account Reps" are so eager to gain accounts that they take on accounts with easily damaged freight, or freight that doesn't pay enough to justify handling it. On the other hand, low-paying freight can make sense if you need to fill trailers in order to fill line haul lanes.

It's a very complicated and dynamic business. If you don't stay on top of things and adapt constantly you'll drown.

[Clinging Bitterly]

> I don't care for them, they are good at long-haul but do
not meet delivery dates in the supposed 2 and 3 day areas.
American (Fedex freight) is better overall, followed by
Conway to the west coast.

We have seen this coming in Eugene. At our shop we could count on Consolidated - to damage, in some way, every single shipment received. I have not ever liked them.

Our factory recently contracted with Fedex/Viking for all shipping. We are not happy with this, their service (Fedex and Viking Freight) has not been as good as what we had (UPS and various LTL carriers, mainly USF/Reddaway).
Some of the factory divisions are still contracted to use Conway, and they do very well to here from the midwest (and their area rep is, well, mods would kill this, I'll just say she's a dish).

Dave in Eugene won't miss Constipated Freightways.

[Dave S]

If you started work at 7 EVERY day, after subtracting out your lunch and dinner (We'll let you count swappin' tales at the 19th hole, since you're usually doing this with a client (such suffering!)---you'd still have to AVERAGE staying on the job 'til 12:30AM every nite to hit "80 plus."--then you can drive home. Then if you spend ANY TIME AT ALL with your family between sunrise and 12:30AM , you'll have stay even later!

Apparently you never met anyone that worked Saturday or Sunday. You're assuming a five day work week. It's unlikely that anyone working 80 hours a week works only five days a week. Boy it sure is apparent that you are a salaried employee. Might I guess a 35 hour a week government beaurocrat?

[vikzilla]

"I just want to mention that my sister is a salaried employee and is required to work 10 hours over her 40 hours a week every week for the next 3 months. It's mandatory. 10 hours.

Tell your sister to get down on her knees and be thankful she has a job

I do believe that is exactly what her employer is telling her. These rules are thought up by mid-level managers with the intelligence of apes. Its always about making themselves and their pockets look better.

[vikzilla]

"Only the working class thinks it is a crime to work more that 40-45 hours a week,

No, the working class thinks its a good idea to get paid for their labor. The title "Manager" will never put food on the table.

This is a very common scam run on many salaried employees. Take one for the team and years down the road we will make it worth your while. You know "checks in the mail" type thing.

Your statement would lead one to believe that you're somewhat elitist in your opinions on the American work force. I agree that there are times when the company I work for must and expects to have its workers put in extra effort. I put in 811 hrs of Overtime last year. Got paid for everyone of them.

[Las Vegas Dave]

A former co-worker told me (in 1986) that he was a former owner/operator. He said that at the end of the year he qualified, for food stamps!
(I never forgot that story.)

[DWSUWF]

"...Tell her to slack off a little, while looking busy but keeping her seat warm to satisfy the pointy-haired-bosses "10 hour attendance rule"..."

LOL!

It never ceased to amaze me how many so-called 'managers' were arrogantly oblivious to the ill will generated by mandatory overtime edicts.

I've seen hourly workers so angry that the company refused (or was genuinely unable) to hire sufficient staff to handle the workload that they spent Saturday morning disassembling Friday afternoon's work.

And I've seen salaried employees operating more personally profitable enterprises from the bottom drawer of a desk they were compelled to sit in.

If you're an owner/manager, and you can't stay afloat without chronically demanding entrepreneurial hours for worker's pay from lower level employees your business model is wrong.

The mere fact that you can squeeze people and get more from them doesn't justify doing so. If such a 'more is better' philosophy is intrinsically good what rationale can there be for the elimination of indentured servitude, or slavery?

Those who desire greater rewards by working harder than those around them should be free to do so, yes. But they should not feign astonishment and anger when they encounter those whose ambitions -and expectations- are more modest.

To achieve success by forcing those far below you to share in a rigorous, 'above and beyond' work ethic, while paying them only worker's wages for their efforts, may be legal... But it's morally wrong.

And those who do it sorely deserve to fail.

[Crusher138]

I worked for Radio Shack a few years back as a manager. I earned a whopping $5.05 an hour plus a percentage of the profit of my store - an arrangement with so many loopholes I was lucky to make $18,000 a year.

I had a low volume store and was unable to hire anything but a part timer. My store was open 10:00am to 9:00pm, Monday thru Saturday, and 12:00 to 5:00pm on Sunday. Having a part-timer around meant I could run out and grab lunch to each in the back. I had to be in the store at least half an hour before they opened and it took about half an hour to shut down at night. It meant that I regularly worked 78 hour weeks. What really sucked was that Radio Shack had a requirement that managers could not work more than 60 hours a week. I had to clock out, but stay in the store, to keep my hours under the limit. My district manager told me to leave in the middle of the day for a few hours and leave my inept part-timer alone in the store. Yeah, right.

It got really interesting when Christmas time rolled around. My hours were extended to 8:00am to 10:00pm Monday thru Saturday and 10:00am to 6:00pm on Sunday for two months.

Occationally I was able to get an assistant manager from another store to watch my store so I could have a day off. My wife and I figured out that during our first year of marriage we spent 17 days together, including holidays.

Needless to say I left Radio Shack to go to work for a small start up company that is now the largest producer of corporate imprinted sportswear in South Florida. My hours are still in the range of 55 to 60 a week, but the pay is a heck of a lot better.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I worked for Radio Shack a few years back as a manager. I earned a whopping $5.05 an hour plus a percentage of the profit of my store - an arrangement with so many loopholes I was lucky to make $18,000 a year.

I hope that was more than a few years back. I really hope so...

[Crusher138]

Okay, it was 1986...

Boy, do I feel old...

[Joe Hadenuf]

Oh, well that makes me feel a tad better about RS.....Just a tad....

[GraniteStateConservative]

And bad news for the GOP.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Democrat midterm tsunami here we come!

Blech!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I would have voted to go find another job...however, I wouldn't sit around and cry about it, I'd just do it. BTW, what did you do that took 80 hours per week?

[Sungirl]

They also said that if the minimum wage went up as much as CEO's salary has for the last two years, that minumum wage would be over $21.00.

This is so phoney baloney. I don't notice too many broadcast news anchors mentioning their own fat paychecks. It shows that people don't understand that prices and salaries have meaning.

How can you say that after all this Enron, etc debacle? Companies proved themselves...they give the top execs exhorbinant amounts of money for salaries and bonuses.

[nicollo]

Thanks for your thoughts. I used to be an importer in South America, which meant setting up shipping and consolidation points in the U.S. & Hong Kong, mostly. Been a while, and all I can remember is the disasters.

The best one was a huge load of cargo in Miami that survived Hurricane Andrew (I went to the warehouse as early as possible with my shotgun to ward off looters; since the only thing I bought in preparation was more shells, I didn't have any water or canned food...), only to be lost in a storm off the coast of Brazil. The container ship got caught on rocks or something offshore, and was stuck there for a year. The carrier's and our own insurance companies refused coverage because they said it wasn't yet a loss, and the line just left the boat there, hoping it'd get swept away so it could collect insurance money...

In a business in which product flow was the only way to make money, we lost three cyles of turnover on those goods, as they were stuck on some reef in the ocean. Oh well.

Otherwise, we had trailers swiped in L.A. (a few... looking for electronics, the cops said), and many many breakins coming through Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. The containers would usually show up with seals intact; they'd just open the tops like cans of tuna. Like I said, I don't miss it.

[Pining_4_TX]

Companies proved themselves...they give the top execs exhorbinant amounts of money for salaries and bonuses

It's up to the stockholders and the boards to oversee how companies are run. It certainly seems that these guys aren't worth what they're paid (and when they're doing something illegal, that's a whole different issue and they must be held responsible), but prices and salaries are not some arbitrary number that can be set by government fiat. Again, I say, if the minimum wage makes people richer, why not set it at $100 an hour? Or why stop there, why not $1,000 an hour?

I highly recommend the book "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell. I know the title sounds boring, but it's a really good read, and he explains economics far better than I can.

[grania]

I work part-time. It's closed today, the lock is changed. It's a for-profit learning center. (Well, I guess, not for profit). We actually have had pretty good sign-ups, but the boss has been on the threshold since he bought the business three years ago.

I'm wondering if there is a lot of this going on?

[dalereed]

Owned and ran a commercial wall and ceiling (lath plaster & drywall, light guage steel framing and A/C tile) business.