Con-way has announced the renaming and refocusing of its Con-way Transportation operating company to Con-way Truckload Services.
“This name change better communicates and aligns our truckload asset-based business, Con-way Truckload, with our non-asset truckload brokerage and intermodal marketing company operation, previously called Con-way Full Load,” says John Labrie, president of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Con-way Truckload Services. “These two businesses will operate under the Con-way Truckload Services brand and reflect the market’s desire for both asset-based and non-asset-based truckload services.”
Asset-based Con-way Truckload began operations in January 2005 as a “captive carrier,” providing premium team, long-haul linehaul service for Con-way Freight’s less-than-truckload operations in the United States. “Due to our superior value proposition to drivers and our legacy of operational excellence in LTL, we’ve achieved operational success and grown in a very challenging market,” Labrie says. In the past two years, Con-way has expanded its branded truckload fleet to more than 1,200 pieces of equipment and almost 500 company drivers in addition to more than 50 owner-operators, he says.
The non-asset-based business started in 2002 and has built a nationwide network of more than 5,000 third-party truckload carriers, in addition to offering intermodal service. “We are going to market with a single truckload fleet but offering shippers asset- and non-asset-based solutions to the tight truckload capacity conditions many have experienced during the past three years,” Labrie says. With an imbedded customer base of hundreds of thousands of LTL customers and an outstanding reputation for quality and on-time service, Con-way expects receptivity to the dual offering to be high. “Con-way Truckload Services’ sales force and hundreds of highly-trained LTL salespeople will work together to deliver asset- and non-asset solutions to both existing and new customers,” Labrie says.
Labrie says the new focus also will put greater emphasis and resources on the company’s regional short-haul truckload service started last year to serve the Southeast. “The market for quality, consistent short-haul service is underserved, and we have found that drivers are eager for a work configuration such as this to improve their quality of life,” he says. “We have brought very high service levels to shippers in this area needing that quality of service.”
Con-way Truckload Services is a subsidiary of San Mateo, Calif.-based Con-way Inc.
