Great plains transport not so great

He’s full of ####.

He loves to say the word “accountability”. Truth is he wouldn’t know what accountability is if it landed on his smug face. He took his father’s company and ran it straight into the ground. He did the same thing to a company called CMT and bankrupted it…., rumor has it he ran up huge gambling debts and was always going on “working vacations”. I wouldn’t have any doubts, he loves to put on this “Mr cool young businessman” image but he’s basically an incompetent jerk. When I first came to that place 10 years ago and met Mike and his dad (Bob, founder and original owner) , Bob was a very respectable guy who respected the people who worked there and would go out of his way to listen & help those who had a concern. He had many years of experience as a driver himself and still drove now and then before retirement. He was a good guy to work for.

Mike on the other hand had this “hello welcome aboard, now get out of my face” attitude. When I came there I had just come from another company that was ran into the ground after being handed off to the kids and sold, and after meeting Mike I had a lingering feeling like if that kid was handed to keys to the GPT kingdom he would probably ruin it. Also that was before the “split” between GPT and holland.

the foul language and angry attitude in the video are nothing compared to what I’d seen displayed during my years there. He has very little respect towards the people who worked there there unless they lick his Nike’s. Just standing in the same room as him brought on a feeling like I was standing near a live hand grenade. He was that volatile.

I saw him fire the people in the office and shop that got the job done and worked well with drivers. In fact once he took over more control from his dad he got rid of the people in charge of safety and maintenance and a few dispatchers because they dared to stand up to him. He displayed very misogynistic attitudes towards the female employees, even hitting on them.

Anyone who dared raise a concern about something he decided to do, he would scream & curse at them and at times fire them on the spot. Basically the guy acts like a 16 year old spoiled rich punk. The “gods gift to women” attitude, basically pretty toxic. After the pandemic came about and went most of the people stayed working remotely because they couldn’t stand him.

Right after he tossed out the VP Casey(who was a far better manager even on his worst day) he basically spent gobs of company money on stuff like “leadership training”, all kinds of group therapy garbage like a “dream manager” program and some Mickey Mouse help book garbage called “entrepreneurial operation system” or something like that. It became like a cult.
Dissenters were pretty much shouted down, concerns of poorly maintained equipment, rising DOT oos rates and shrinking customer base fell on deaf ears.

I’m surprised GPT has even stayed in business this long.

 

They’ve been towing some trucks and trailers out of there the last few days. If I have enough time on my way to work in the morning, I’ll swing by and check the building out. There’s more than a few people here in Mapleton that aren’t sad to see them go.

Most folks here would rather have Holland than GPT.

 

Wow. This post sure paints a picture......

I think you or maybe someone else commented on it before, is the guy over at Holland who runs the company the brother of Mike from Great Plains?

If so, how did "the split happen?"

Was it just one big company at first, with the dad Bob creating it and running it, then Bob gaving the company 50/50 to his two sons, followed by his sons having a falling out and then one of the brothers created either Holland or Great Plains and took half the drivers/half the staff with them?

Also, is the dad Bob still alive today? I wonder what he thinks of all of this?

 

Great Plains was running under Holland’s dispatch pulling their trailers, then due to some rift in the family the two companies went their separate ways.

I think Bob has retired, and Mike took the company completely over. That’s when things at gpt started going sour.

 

Well they should be all moved out now? Mapleton can celebrate!

 

Last I heard Mike sold everything off and listed his house as the office address. Not much left of that outfit by the looks of it

 

Yes no more Mapleton address. The building has a new owner that is moving in.

 

I noticed a couple of shippers still have their trailers

 

If trucks are being towed out of there it’s possible they’re being repossessed.

 

It wouldn’t surprise me. Especially since there’s lawsuits going on for unpaid bills and brokered drivers. The trailers I saw at one shipper in Minnesota looked like they had been sitting there for a long time and in really bad shape.

the really puzzling thing I’m seeing is there’s nothing on that company’s social or you tube accounts about the move or switch to all rental equipment… it’s as if Mike just booted everyone and just left everything sitting where it is. For being a guy who kept preaching accountability he does things really sloppy.

one friend of mine is supposedly still employed there but out on workmen’s comp and hasn’t heard a thing from them… but Mike has been known to fire drivers while they are in the hospital.