greatwide ripoff!

I have heard that GW's safety record is bad,but it must be really in the toilet.Four different companies on the 360 boards have told me,"You're with GreatWide? Sorry,can't load GreatWide".

 

To world of Trans,

This quote is what started this thread. Now, I have no idea what division of GW this person works for. I worked on the WalMart side so that is what I know about. I don't claim to know anything about any of the other terminals.

1. The fuel surcharge is based on the fuel price on the yard, but this is in the contract that is signed before you lease on. Fuel is offered at a cheaper price on the yard so I don't really see why this is a problem.
2. stop pay, GW is in business to make money just like every other company on earth. They take a percentage of what they bill to customers and then pay the rest to the o/o.... it confuses me as to why this is listed as a problem. However, not all the terminals take anything from the stop pay. WM changed the way they pay (which they have done a million times) and made pickups the same as stops. At my terminal some stops WM paid GW LESS than GW paid the O/O... they actually loose money on SOME of the stops.
3. I feel like shop maintenance is one area where the contractors can get themselves in a bad situation. There isn't anything you can do about the QC installation (now people net and I don't know how that works) But my advise.... get all other work on your truck, even oil changes, done at an outside shop not affiliated with GW. I told my drivers that when I worked there and I stand by my opinion.
4. Who isn't showing what the loads actually pay? There are times when the system is not showing the correct miles and there isn't anything dispatch can do about it right that moment. Also, dispatch doesn't have access to everything in the system so sometimes they cant update the load, corp or billing has to do it. Did you ever ask your billing clerk to check the miles for you? The route with miles can be pulled up in Rand and printed for you...... also not something that all the dispatchers know how to do.
5. They use Rand, per WMT and GW doesn't pay the O/O's less than WMT pays them. In fact on stores in the same zip code GW actually pays those miles and WMT DOESN'T pay GW for them. So, GW is paying MORE miles than they are billing WMT for.
6. They do need to hire people to update the directions..... some of them are crazy. With so many changes do to road construction the directions get out of date and should be updated.
7. They pay detention time according to rules put in place by the customer... WMT. I made sure and had specific training with my contractors on detention time. This is one area where if the contractors do not do exactly what they are supposed to it will be denied. This should be something every driver is informed of during their orientation. However if done correctly it is paid. Now, wait time is another story......
8. dispatcher owned trucks... maybe I don't know what this means. If it means that there are dispatchers that actually own trucks running for GW... this has to be against some ethics policy. If that isn't what it means then fill me in cause I have no idea.
9. Trucks are put out of service.... in my opinion (just my OPINION, not saying this is fact) drivers being put out of service has two do with two things. 1) they have done something wrong, bad driving, refusing loads, wont answer phone, truck issues, needs drug test or physical or drivers license renewal, or some other issue like that. 2) one of the managers is having a bad day. I think that says enough
10. I always told my contractors that as much as I tried to make sure their checks were always correct, there is a thing called human error and to ALWAYS go over their settlement and contact billing with any issue. There are going to be problems, the terminal should have someone willing to take the time to listen to your paycheck problems, research the issue to find the mistake and then correct it for the following week. It is sad that there are not enough people in billing and some terminals don't have this. Its not right, i know many times drivers try to talk to people in the office and the staff is too busy to listen. If I had a problem with my check I would be on the phone with pay role and EXPECT someone to listen and fix it ASAP.... the contractors are no different and should have someone there for this reason.... to work for THEM the CONTRACTORS!
11. It is the contractors CHOICE to buy the tag through GW or get it on their own. It is deducted months in advance because it is taken out in payments so that the contractors don't have to come up with that huge amount all at once... especially since it is due right after Christmas, and right before tax time. Come on.... is this really a complaint?

I never knew how you guys could stand that being called at all hours for loads departing who knows when..... I couldn't do that.


Is that what you were asking me worldoftrans.? to explain the things not true on this thread? if not, explain what you meant and I will try to answer you as best I can.

 

who are those o/o leased to awg in okc

 

I'm not really sure what you are asking (awg ?)

 

associated grocers

 

Are they with GreatWide?

 

1. All fuel on Wal Mart yards is filled with algae its crap..
2.Greatwide doesn't lose any money they make $100 per stop pay 21.. I have this from a very reliable source .
3. Shops do suck.
4& 5. Greatwide does short miles.. I just saw this 3 hours ago at a Wal Mart terminal. Load wal mart has listed as 439 mile Greatwide pays 417 Doesn't sound like much but 365 days a year that is 4380 miles a year, or 5190$ a year with fcs included.
6. All directions are drivers directions.. If the driver likes going down back roads.. and gives directions and dispatch updates them guess what you get crap directions.
7. detention greatwide doesn't pay detention. I leave the yard at my WMT gate time and arrive at my backhaul on time. Call in at 1.5 hours.. don't get loaded for 7 hours.. I won't get my pay. Greg Bryan told us we don't work for WMT we work for greatwide and we will get paid.. To bad detention affects the OCM's bonus check so we don't get it hardly ever.
8. Dispatchers do own trucks at the Temple and New Caney locations (or did very recently)
9. I was told by a Texas CMV trooper. No one but an officer of the law or a mechanic can put a truck out of service. When a truck is out of service it can't be moved until it is repaired. Greatwide just shuts you down at times like you said, the tm had a bad day. I have heard drivers took a weekend off and got put out until they came in and talked to the TM.
10. On this i agree but you must have been out of the game for awhile they removed all billing clerks in 2008 and hired 3 women to handle it at the Dallas corp office, good luck getting ahold of them ..
11. Seriously you believe this.. Greatwide is still holding out tag money as a matter of fact we make our last tag deduction this Friday. They don't do anything in advance they hold the money as long as they can they don't order the cab card and ifta stickers until Jan 31 so they can hold that money as long as they can..

Another problem with Greatwide wmt is the charge on Workmans comp.. They messed up and showed a driver at the Terrell Tx dc the wrong paper work for it.. The cost of the Workmans comp is $7.45 the admin fee is $20 a week.. Greatwide wal mart has 1500 trucks do the math on that per week.

I know you mean well and you feel sorry for the drivers to a point but you don't understand the frustration that we go through every day. We do get called all hours of the day (it got alot worse in 2008 when num nuts Ray Greer came up with GSC). We get told certain things by GSC central dispatch and get to the pick up and it is completely wrong. They promise if we take crap load today we will get good load tomorrow.. (they tell everyone that) so your good load is the same crap you just did. The fcs lags behind a week or 2 ( in GWDTs defense this is set by wal mart). We are just tired of getting screwed every way possible. The worst part is in 2007 Jim Hartman went to Bentonville and asked Lee Scott for a cost of living adjustment on the contract .. WMT agreed as long as they passed a % along to the drivers , Hartman agreed.. Hartman retired before they gave GWDT the raise in the spring of 2008 guess what we didn't get.

That is when WMT started cutting more perks to GWDT . We are just tired, we are told what we have to do where we have to go when we have to be there and threatened with our job if we don't comply. We are preached safety until there is 3 inches of solid ice hockey ice on the ground then you got to go go go go go go.

 

WorldofTransportation,You post is 100% correct.The agents/dispatchers on the flat/step side own their own trucks too.For a good example of the freight look at the load board in Ca. today.Loads from Ca.to WV paying 2,025.00 line haul 675.00 fs for 2210 miles.Take GW's 25% of that 2,025.00.It's not even fuel money.It's a joke.

 

World of Trans...

Don't have time to reply to everything but I wanted to say...

I have been gone less than a year. I was one of the woman sent to Dallas when they moved everyone originally. I couldn't stand being away from home so I moved myself back to Cleburne. I worked there until last year. You don't have to believe me but I know what I am talking about. And, when my contractors called on time I paid them for detention.

 

And, the woman they hired at corp "three woman", one was laid off within a month and another fired within 4 months..... non of that went like it was supposed to. I ended up being the only billing clerk in Dallas.

Contractors don't need office staff feeling sorry for them. You are grown men/women. You deserve respect and integrity and honesty. I was all three of these 100% of the time. My drivers didn't always like my answers, but they knew they could trust me. That makes a huge difference.