Con-way Freight Inc. says it's combining its three regional operating companies into one centralized operation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., to improve the customer experience and streamline its processes.

"This move marks a continuation of Con-way Freight's vision to deliver a single enterprise brand that creates maximum efficiency and offers customers a comprehensive service portfolio. This transformation will improve Con-way Freight's performance by enabling us to anticipate and respond to customer needs more quickly and intelligently," says John G. Labrie, president of Con-way Freight.  "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."

The company had operated under three units - Con-way Freight-Central, Con-way Freight-Southern and Con-way Freight-Western - since its inception 24 years ago. Under the old business model, each region had individual goals, practices and pricing models. The evolution into a new, centralized entity enables Con-way Freight to adopt uniform new processes and best practices designed to make the organization more responsive to the market and to customers throughout North America. The streamlined structure will reduce complexity, while the concurrent reductions in overhead will be leveraged into continuous improvement and innovation.

Visit www.con-way.com/freight.