Zero motor freight anyone remember or drive for these guys?

Discussion in 'Discuss Your Favorite Trucking Company Here' started by rickway65, Mar 5, 2011.

  1. rickway65

    rickway65 Light Load Member

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    Nov 26, 2009
    Fort Collins, Colorado
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    Zero motor freight. Dallas Texas I believe. Wondering if any one remembers them?
     
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  3. Allow Me.

    Allow Me. Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    May 28, 2009
    Rancho Mirage, Ca.
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    That's "Zero of San Antonio". I believe they're "Pan Amex" or "Pan something" now. Trucks are the same color blue. They burned up I-10 from Tx.-Ca. back in the days.
     
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  4. rickway65

    rickway65 Light Load Member

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    Nov 26, 2009
    Fort Collins, Colorado
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    Yes they did. They were bought out in early nineties I think? What model petes were they?
     
  5. Allow Me.

    Allow Me. Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Rancho Mirage, Ca.
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    378's I believe. Not the 379. 378's have the slightly sloped hoods, right ?
     
  6. rickway65

    rickway65 Light Load Member

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    Nov 26, 2009
    Fort Collins, Colorado
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    They might have been 377
     
  7. panhead1950

    panhead1950 Bobtail Member

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    Aug 8, 2011
    Saginaw, TX
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    I drove with Zero in `79 and `80, then went back in 85 for a short time. Actual contractor I drove for was Watkins who leased Peterbilts out o Zero.
     
  8. gsmith2332

    gsmith2332 Light Load Member

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    OKC
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    I knew a guy that drove for them, He moved to Socal in the 90's and talked good about them.
     
  9. Johnny_Potseed

    Johnny_Potseed Bobtail Member

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    Mar 20, 2013
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    I know this is a very old thread, but That was my first company fresh outta school. btw i was in a 377. People used to ask about the big arrow on the side, and i would tell them it was so we would know which way to go! Used to haul lots of pace from san antonio to sacramento.
     
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  10. chilibowl

    chilibowl Light Load Member

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    Jun 28, 2013
    Houston Texas
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    That was my first company after graduating from Tri State semi-driver training school. I worked for them for 6 months in 1990. Then i met an owner operator at a bar in Temple Texas and I ain't been right since. they got bought out by Pan-Mex I think. It was a good company. They paid 16.5 cpm to start.
     
  11. Walter Baucom

    Walter Baucom Bobtail Member

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    Sep 30, 2013
    San Antonio,Texas
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    I started at Zero Motor freight in 1994 after i got out of the Army.I remember starting out at 18 or 21 cents a mile.All of the trucks were Peterbilt 377's with small Detroits and 9 speeds.Because at that time the speed limit in Texas for a commercial vehicle during the day was only 60.Thats what the company had the cruise control set at.It would go 65 with your foot in it.I also remember that while i was there we still had a bunch of 46' by 96" Utility reefers with no sliding tamdems.So if you were over axle,you got in the trailer and slid boxes of meat or produce by hand.To where you needed the weight to go to.I was only 25 so it wasnt too bad and i didnt know any better.It would kill me now to be on my hands and knees crawling over pallets of frozen meat to do that.The story was that Carl Bowls? the president had started as a driver and married the owners daughter.Also that E.D. West,the founder had been a bird colonel on the staff of General Patton as they made there way across europe in World War II.He started Zero in 1946.Our bread an butter while i was there was meat and Pace Picante Sauce leaving Texas going to the west coast and northwest.And produce and frozen vegetables coming back,mostly for Sysco and H.E.B.The story was that Zero started hauling Pace Picante Sauce when the guy was still making it in his garage.He'd make a pallet of it,and the company would haul it out of there.Sam Bishop was the vice president and after Zero sold to Panamex out of Laredo.He went on and started another reefer company in Dallas that as far as i know is still going,being run by Sam's son.Mr.Bishop was an ole' time trucker.He wore pointy cowboy boots,blue jeans and them flower cowboy shirts that folks wore in the 60's and 70's with the sleeves rolled up almost to his underarms.He didnt put up with alot of crap as i recall.Just before i left they started getting the 63" standup sleepers that went to the trainers first.The rest of us had 63" flattops and i ran team in one of those.We would rotate who slept in the bunk,so you didnt have sleep behind the steering wheel all of the time.As long as we were running it didnt matter.I remember there being quite a few military guys at Zero because of the Clinton reduction of force.And quite a few of the old breed of truckers there.Which was good,because if you kept your mouth shut and your ears open you learned alot from those men.After i got my year in,i got out.Faster trucks,better pay and no more grocery warehouses or meat packing plants is the reason.But i do remember fondly laying over in Ontario,Ca at the 76,or Troutdale,Or at the Flying J on the weekends.And bar b queing and drinking beer and listening to the guys from Zero laugh,cry and complain about the road,life,the military,money and women.They had some fine folks working there.
     
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