Con-Way Abandons Insurance Surcharge Plan

Con-Way Transportation Services Inc. (Con-Way) says it has retracted its plan to apply a 2% surcharge as a means to recover a portion of its rising insurance expenses. The surcharge was to take effect January 1, 2004, and would have affected shipments in its four less-than-truckload companies: Con-Way Central Express, Southern Express, Western Express and Canada Express. Customer feedback was responsible for Con-Way abandoning the idea, the transportation services provider said. According to Con-Way, customers indicated that they would prefer the rising expense to be part of a general rate increase. Con-Way said it would follow this more traditional route but did not announce a date for the next general rate increase. Con-Way Transportation is a subsidiary of Palo Alto, Calif.-based CNF Inc., a global management company with businesses in trucking, air freight, customers brokerage, global logistics management and trailer manufacturing.