Con-way Freight recently announced the opening of its expanded freight assembly center in Montgomery, N.Y. Completed in June, the 67,000-square-foot facility, which now features 63 new dock doors, increases freight handling capacity to 3.6 million pounds per day – an addition of two million pounds daily, the company says. Con-way FACs are strategically located, high-volume freight handling facilities in the company’s network of more than 440 service centers located nationwide.
With the expansion, the Montgomery FAC now has 149 dock doors to accommodate the more than 163 trailers and 65 tractors that arrive at the center daily. In addition to increasing freight handling capacity, the investment creates work force opportunities, particularly the need for hiring professional truck drivers, as business volumes increase.
“As one of our busiest and largest service centers, the Montgomery FAC is capable of processing some three million pounds of freight daily,” says David S. McClimon, president of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Con-way Freight. “It is strategically located for our operations, with efficient and convenient access to Interstate 84, a major east-west thoroughfare in the Hudson River Valley. We have invested in Montgomery to position ourselves for growth while providing the necessary resources to continue delivering exceptional on-time service to our customers.”
Along with its expanded capacity, another benefit of the Montgomery facility’s location at 120 Neelytown Road is its proximity to both Interstate 84 and I-87, the New York State Thruway, which supports access to and from the facility and more efficient fleet operations management. The Montgomery facility operates continuously day and night, with functions including a local pickup and delivery operation during normal business hours, a daytime line-haul operation that moves freight between Montgomery and other cities within 500 miles, and an evening line-haul and freight processing and distribution operation.
Additionally, the company operates a driver training program at the facility, which provides both classroom and behind-the-wheel training for driver candidates and prepares them for the commercial driver’s license exam. Under the program, employees are hired as dock workers and earn a wage while participating in the driver training school, which provides a structured curriculum covering industry regulations, documentation, operational processes and hands-on driver training with senior Con-way drivers as certified instructors. Nearly 30 percent of the current driver base at Montgomery earned CDLs through the program. Con-way Freight operates driver training schools in more than 25 states nationwide.
