By Barry Lewis, The Paper of Montgomery County Assistant Publisher
LINDEN - Just as the town of Linden is pondering the future of the VeraSun Energy ethanol plant on the north end of town which announced late last week it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, another business will be leaving town within the next few weeks.
Con-way Freight announced Monday a major revamping of its operating network that will affect the Linden facility. The move means the loss of the business from the northern Montgomery County town. The local operation has a total of 37 employees.
According to company officials, many of its 37 employees will have the opportunity to transfer to other nearby Con-way Freight locations, as well as other locations in the company which have positions available. Employees will be making their decisions on transfer opportunities over the next two weeks.
"In study after study, customers have told us the service attributes most important to their business are exception-free delivery, reliable on-time service and fast transit times," said John G. Labrie, president of Con-way Freight. "The prime objective of this effort was to create improvement opportunities in all three service performance factors, and to identify areas where we could reduce costs and gain efficiencies through better process design and asset deployment."
According to Gary Frantz, media spokesman for the company, this is not the elimination of jobs, but rather a consolidation of services.
"We are just consolidating some of our services," he said. "We are not closing, just consolidating."
The company is relocating its local freight operations in Linden, which is located at 503 S. Main St., to Indianapolis. This change will be effective Nov. 17.
Con-way Freight is not reducing or eliminating any services for shipping customers in the Linden area. The company will continue to provide businesses in Linden/Crawfordsville with daily service and complete coverage for regional, inter-regional and nationwide freight transportation delivery. The only difference will be that effective Nov. 17, service will originate from Indianapolis.
According to company officials, Con-way Freight is reducing its nationwide service center network by 40 locations. The freight from closing locations will be redistributed and balanced among more than 100 nearby service centers.
The company is expecting to save $30 to $40 million annually by the consolidating process into larger nearby facilities. More than 75 percent of affected employees at closing locations will have the opportunity to follow work to a new operating location. Affected employees will also have the opportunity to consider a transfer to any other Con-way Freight location where a position is available. If an employee moves to a facility that is more than 50 miles from their current location, the company will pay relocation expenses. Severance packages and career counseling assistance will be provided to those employees who are unable to remain with the company as a result of changes at their decisional business unit."
These types of changes are never easy, but they are necessary for us to advance our mission to provide the best LTL service in the market," Labrie said. "This is the right decision at the right time for Con-way Freight. It is one that ultimately will help ensure that we continue to provide stable careers for our employees."
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