Groendyke

I'm starting work for Groendyke at the Henderson Colorado terminal on the 29th. So I can update this forum later, but I did some research and I believe them to be a very good place if you are willing to work... Dave is the TM I met him and he was a driver so he knows what it is like. I spoke to a driver last week before I decided to go with them and he had a LOT of good things to say about the company and Dave as well. I interviewed with some other companies and all they could offer is "plenty of OT" 50 - 70k IS realistic with Groendyke was one of the things the driver told me. More later if you want to hear it...?

 

I worked at the Amarillo terminal for a bit. Most of the office personnel are easy to get along with but Al in Borger is a S.O.B. If you have to go help Borger out, be careful of him. He has his buddies. They are always needing help in Borger (Can you guess why?), so it's a good bet that you'll have to go. Most of the equipment is old and has a lot of miles on it. The mechanics try to fix stuff but with close to a million miles on most trucks, its hard to stay on top of everything. They only do a PM at 40k miles on their tractors which I believe is too long. No grease in between PM's either. I'm almost 40 and pulled trailers that were older than me. Some were maintained so well that I had to look at the spec plate to see that it was a very old trailer but they had some newer trailers that looked 50 years old. New tractors are not given out to drivers based on need either. Given out to who kisses the most butt. My last week there, I broke down twice in 5 days and I was off for 2 of the 5. I can't see giving a new driver with about a year experience and no tank or hazmat experience a new sleeper truck to run local when you got guys with tons of experience and that run all over the country in old junk. If you're not a fuel driver in Amarillo, you aren't real important. They didn't even pay me for my breakdown time that last week which they are supposed to do. If they stopped wasting money on these million mile banquets and all the little trinkets they give drivers, perhaps they could buy some better equipment. I left because of the junk equipment and when I moved it became a major pain to get home every week. The last full week I ran, I was out 8 days, ran 4194 miles and was getting calls less than 4 hours after I got home telling me they needed me to come back. I was up front at the interview. I GO HOME EVERY WEEK!!! I guess they thought they could change the game after a while. Good luck if you decide to go with them. Overall, I think it's a good company. Good benefits and pay. I thought they treated their drivers well. Terminal manager at Amarillo is a nice guy but he prizes his fuel haulers over everyone else. They have plenty of work so if it gets slow at your terminal, they can loan you out to another terminal for a while. (Probably Borger!)

 

If they don't hire you they will send you an extremely polite rejection letter. I got one, then two weeks later a recruiter called me, and I got another one a month later. I've heard really good things about them, I guess five years tanker experience with no accidents or points is not enough experience.

Adam