Woo-hoo!! Pre-hired with GTI

Sorry....I won't again...

 

please give us some examples as to what you have recently learned after thirty years behind the wheel

 

becareful what you wish for

 

I just recently was approved to go to orientation. BUT I don't have a date yet. I am supposed to call every week to maintain my interest and to see if anything has changed with them as far as hiring.

I was told I may have to wait nearly a month to get a non-smoking trainer but it is possible I could get on sooner if I went with a smoker. I grew up in a smoking house so I'm sure I can last 4 weeks with a smoking trainer.

They said I would have to get a new DOT physical and they will pay for it but I have to go to a doctor approved by them and they will call me one week before the orientation to set it up.

I was told I'd do orientation in Green Bay Wisconsin and get with a trainer immediately. The gentlemen I spoke with said I may get home during training if my trainer lives nearby or I may be put in a hotel when the trainer goes home.

He told me that right now only 30-35% of applicants are being accepted and I should feel proud that I am on the list for orientation.

I live in Northern Indiana, do any of you GTI drivers know if people in that area are allowed to take the trucks home?

Oh and I am new here and this is my first post!

 

Yes, I know John well. I am currently trying to get on with GTI. I too have heard good things about them . Where are you going for orientation, Modesto ?

 

Now bare in mind this was just my exp. I drove for them in 05 for five months my average takehome weekly was about 450, at the time the starting rate was .30 per mile. There is a big differnce in being reigional and otr. .30 sounded like a lot but wasn't due to the lack of miles and back then the economy was good. I just didn't see how the juice was worth the sqeeze. I quit and I got a job at home installing satellites for dish network making anywhere from 700-1200 a week. Of course now I'm back into truck driving because they slashed our salary by more than 50 percent. I was pretty much happy with the way they treated me except they make you pay to wash your truck. I know this is a sticky issue and goes back and forth with everyone but gti drivers don't make much and to take from what little they get is just wrong in my view. If I ever went company driver again which I may; I would go with an otr company if I'm going to be away from home I have to be making it worth me while. Could I have talked to my dispatcher at gordon and things gotten a little better? Probably but at the time I was young 23 and always found myself pushing the time on my log just to make the meager paycheck I made. That and my brother was bragging about making close to 1000 a week and he was home everyday, what would you do? Would I be better off if I had stayed in gordon now that the economy has gone sour? Sure I would but I also wouldn't be married or have a kid. I'm sure I'm gonna hear it from happy gordon drivers but this was just my exp and I'm not dissing them just saying that taking home 500 a week was not acceptable. That might be differnt now with things the way they are now. Anyways that's my two cents good luck to you

 

I hear ya I was in my school for 2 weeks and straight into a trainers truck. It was nice I don't know if I could have handled being in school for 8 weeks when I needed money NOW.

 

IMO the driving schools are over priced and a ripoff for what you get.

Locals company's train drivers off the street. I worked for 6 moths as a dock worker at Viking frt Systems (now Fedex frt) and then trained for a position as a city driver down in San Jose Ca. When I did go OTR they said I needed to go to school so I wasted 2k on a school that had 20hrs in 8 weeks behind the wheel. Then after I was off of OTr driving for several years the next OTR company I went to required me to go back to school again . this time for 4 weeks which set me back another $1800. Already had many years behind the wheel but it was not recent interstate driving so it did not count.

Many of these schools train with out dated worn out equipment and drag around mty trailers and stuff 3 or 4 people into a truck. And charge you thousands of dollars so you can get real training when you go to a company. I say cut out the middleman and just have the company's train drivers if they need them

 

Good luck with Gordon haven't heard much about them, that could be either a good thing or a bad thing