Con-Way unites regional trucking companies

Con-Way unites regional trucking companies    National less-than-truckload carrier Con-Way Freight Inc., which operates in Florida as Con-Way Freight-Southern, is folding its regional operating companies into a single unit based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
   Con-Way Freight had been using regional units that each developed separate goals, practices, and pricing models. By streamlining operations into a single entity, Con-Way said, it hopes to make the entire organization more responsive to customers throughout North America, while at the same time reducing organizational complexity and overhead costs.
   In addition to Fort Worth-based Con-Way Freight Southern, which used to be known as Con-Way Southern Express, the other regional operations were Con-Way Freight-Central and Con-Way Freight-Western.
   'This transformation will improve Con-way Freight's performance by enabling us to anticipate and respond to customer needs more quickly and intelligently,' Con-Way Freight President John G. Labrie said. 'We are a great company that will become an extraordinary company by aligning and unifying management and processes around customers' needs while improving our cost structure in an increasingly competitive LTL market.'
   Labrie was named president three weeks ago after serving as senior vice president of strategy and enterprise operations. This week, the company announced the rest of the executive management team would be David L. Miller, chief operating officer; Michael D. Yuenger, vice president of finance; J. Edwin Conaway, executive vice president of sales; Sean M. Devine, vice president of engineering; Manoj Chopra, vice president of pricing; and Scott J. Engers, vice president of employee relations.