Great plains transport not so great

sorry been out running and working and fighting ol man winter. For a hunting rifle I went with a 334 bolt action .308 winchester........

 

Did you have a preference and what do you hunt?

 

I drove for GP twice. Had to leave both times for blood clots.

Escrow was talked about the first day of orientation. I didn't care for it, but understand it. Not worth the stink pushing the issue. I didn't get charged for cleaning, because I left NOTHING in the truck. I even swept it out before I left. Communication wasn't always the best, but they let you do your job, as long as you're an adult about it. Rarely a scheduled, impossible pickup, and I never had it held against me. When I left the 2nd time, Travis Holland did his best to help find a rental that would allow me to drop the car off around Pontiac, MI. No dice. Ultimately, my wife had to drive there to get me.

Their salary worked fine. I got 1400 (now it's higher) for up to 10,000 miles a month, I believe. For every 1000 miles after that, you got a bonus. I came up short by 100 miles a couple times, for getting the next level bonus. It's life. Made good pay tho. One thing that I hated was that it was 1 day off per 7 driving. I did 8 weeks out, and planned on 8 at home. Decided I wanted to take 12. Np, as they just prorated my check that week, for the 4 days I was over.

They worked a triangle most of the time... North midwest, west coast, Atlanta; rinse and repeat. Sometimes we'd get AZ or TX. I did one run to New England total. No eastern seaboard. NC and FL once or twice. Length of runs meant I could run them my way... get up at 3-4am, finish by 4pm. Never felt rushed.

I enjoyed my time there. It was my favorite OTR job. People were great. Fargo was awesome for me. Too bad for me that I was getting those clots, or I would've stayed longer.

 

It’s changed a bit. They almost completely dropped all runs west of I-35 supposedly because of the lousy rates, and using Penske trucks for new equipment.

 

I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. They got rid of the biggest reason I loved working for them. It's a shame this industry does that to good companies.

 

Joe no longer works there.

 

Do they still take on O/Os? If so, any idea what the pay is?

 

I’m not sure. When I was last at the office it was almost like a ghost town with a dark atmosphere of decline. I’m not sure the company will be around long. It’s been going straight downhill for past year and a half since the owners kid took complete control. Let’s just say the gpt “salary” has become a failed experiment. Freight became a mess of nothing but crappy short haul broker loads east of I-35, equipment is poorly maintained junk or bottom end rental trucks. And the dot oos rate has shot way up. I left there after I and a lot of other people finally had enough of the kid’s pathetic, toxic excuse for “leadership”.

I highly recommend going to Holland instead. They still have a good OTR freight base, superior equipment and still many of the same good people as before the “split”. They seem to be thriving, growing and doing much better while GPT is pretty much headed for the cliff.

 

So did you quit GPT and go to Holland? Is it that much better pay wise?

 

i would even say take video before and after also. cover your rear.