Heartland Express, Inc. Acquires Gordon Trucking, Inc.

Discussion in 'Gordon' started by BigRigFisher324, Nov 11, 2013.

  1. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Just posted my commentary on Larry Gordon's money (family patriarch) from HTLD acquisition of Gordon Trucking. Larry's HTLD shares up over $2 million since acquisition 15 days ago, Nov. 11, 2013: The Gordon Culture--One Driver's Experience with Gordon Trucking

    Who in the Gordon family got the largest number of shares in HTLD, Scott--Larry--or Steve???

    Actually, Steve acquired about 50% more HTLD shares than his dad, Larry, in the acquisition.
     
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  3. bigblue19

    bigblue19 Road Train Member

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    The merger revealed Gordon was a regional short haul carrier all along. Part of Gordon expansion was acquiring regionals, so I'm told.

    The bulk, 66.1% under 400 miles!!

    Thats what I don't get. All these chearleaders for a co that runs a 400ml per ld avg? Either newbies or clueless.
     
  4. tow614

    tow614 Road Train Member

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    You should probably read all the threads related to this discussion before commenting. It has been hashed and rehashed to the point of insanity.

    Read..my new adventures with gordon by joseph1135...
     
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  5. double yellow

    double yellow Road Train Member

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    Say you have a company with 2 drivers -- on local, one OTR.

    OTR guy averages three 1000-mile runs per week.

    Local guy averages twenty 100-mile runs per week.

    Your company averages 217 miles per load.
     
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  6. tow614

    tow614 Road Train Member

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    What many overlook are the number of 1000 mile plus loads the otr guys drop at yards for locals to finish up with less than 50 on them..
     
  7. ChromeDome

    ChromeDome Road Train Member

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    Heartland does the same thing. They are a short to medium haul company, that does have some longer stuff. But we do not have allot of teams or a ton of team freight. We have more of what I call "super Solo" loads. They are loads that have too many miles for a solo driver, so we have to run them out, then swap with another driver to finish them. Since they are overnight straight thru loads with tight times one driver cannot do the run. We do this on a few auto accounts and quite a few fedex loads. Air freight has to get there fast lol.

    One thing I am going to keep an eye on is some accounts. I noticed in a post that someone put up a while back about what some of GTI's larger accounts were. One of them had been an account that build Heartland from the early days. Where we were their carrier of the year for many years, last time being around my time of hire. But we lost the acct that year due to Heartland refusing to lower our rates anymore than we already had. So I am interested to see when they are renegotiated if we can get it back.

    There are allot of different carriers around, even in the truckload segment. Some try to be more of a dedicated carrier. Some may go for the price point, being the cheapest carrier. Some may go for specialized freight. And still others just long haul coast to coast.
    Heartland has always been and always will be a regionalized company. They specialize on short to medium length of haul with very good ontime delivery numbers. The thing that is lacking in some areas is freight base. That is one reason they looked at Gordon. Heartland has always had a very small prescence in the west. Even advertising that they hauled East of the Rockies. Now with the purchase of Gordon they have an established base in the west. Allot of overlap in the Central US, and more freight everywhere. It is a win win from that perspective.

    The part that the company's and share holders do not think as much about is the actual driver. Oh, they say they do. And up to a point they do. But they really are not good in the retention end of things. I have sat down with operations people at least 1 time every year. And gone over some simple changes that would help the company raise their retention rates by at least 20%. But none of those changes have ever occurred. Part of it is cost I am sure.

    Gordon on the other hand has better driver retention numbers. Part of the reason for this is that Gordon has several of the things in place I have been asking Heartland to implement. These are
    1. Practical milage pay. When I look at a preplan I should not need to add 50-60 miles onto it when figuring out if I can do the run. This makes planning a nightmare for planners and drivers at times. Also, if you do not want me to run a toll that is fine, pay for the route around the toll.
    2. Less stress on idle times, or a better way to deal with it. This one they have actually been working on. All new trucks have inverters and bunk heaters or opti idle in the freightliners. Also I do not think the new trucks slow down when idled to much like the former trucks.
    3. Short haul local delivery pay. When you ask me to grab a load off the yard and bring it to a consignee in the same town pay me for it. And I don't mean the 8-20 miles at my rate, please have a set minimum. I don't mind helping out at times when I know I have the time to do it. But I would like to get paid something for the work.

    Anyway, these are things that upset allot of the drivers at Heartland. At times we do get something for local deliverys. We can ask our dispatcher to fix the miles when we are going well out of the paid route to miss a toll, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And it will still have the load off by 40+ miles most of the time. But these are just little things that take earnings out of the drivers pockets. And while it may not be allot on any given day, add it up for the year and you are looking at an average of at least 5k per driver in the fleet per year.
    I have hopes that the new management people from Gordon can get them to at least think about changing these things. I think it would help allot with getting and keeping drivers.

    Oh wait....I cannot say all that... According to some on this site I am just a company plant working in the recruiting office....
     
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  8. GreyHound

    GreyHound Medium Load Member

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    Im glad that yopu posted what you did. I have to say some of the things you have said are disturbing to me. If you want me to work you need to pay me for the work I do. I came on the road to make money. My time is just as valuable to me as some guy working behind a desk who I might add goes home ever night, Does not have some one play with his heat or air conditioning. I wonder how its going to work out for a driver with sleep amthema and his machine going off ever couple of hours.

    I did say I would wait and see what happens here. My record is good enough I can get another job without too much trouble. I just hope I dont have to go that route.
     
  9. tow614

    tow614 Road Train Member

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    Good post chromedome...

    At Gordon we get $35 short haul pay under 200 miles plus the miles. It's automatic so we don't have to beg for it.

    As far as practical mileage pay verses the short pay. It is my understanding that heartland's pay rate is a bit higher than Gordon's. As long as at the end of the day I make the same money I dont care how they do it.

    I do believe that the Heartland Express that you knew in the past is going to be a different Heartland in the future.

    There will be freight lanes open up with much longer runs. One of the things I have never seen at Gordon is FedEx freight. I am sorry for saying this but in my opinion when you are pulling FedEx you are desperate for freight.
    Rule #1 for me... I hate expedited freight .. #2... I hate running the northeast...

    Expedited freight is one step above a pizza delivery guy....

    I know there's money in it but not my kind of truckin' .. that's my opinion at least...
     
  10. slow_lane55

    slow_lane55 Bobtail Member

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    What happened? No news in a week. I know it's been Christmas this week but freight still moves. I was thinking about going to GTI until I started reading all this drama about the acquisition. Now I'm thinking I'll just stay in the hole I'm currently in.
     
  11. joseph1135

    joseph1135 Papa Murphy

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    Nah. GTI is good stuff. You'll make money here. The western guys are going to be ok through all of it.
     
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