I've read all the responses to this thread and thought I'd add my two cents. It's really easy for someone that has no dealings with Ground Flight to get on a forum like this and make extraordinary claims and, from what I've read, few have actual facts to back up those claims and more post responses without any more facts than the thread starter. I understand your compassion for the GF drivers being frustrated sitting for any length of time; I do the same thing. And, I'm not the only one that gets frustrated with it. I'm the third shift dispatcher here at Ground Flight and nothing pains me more than to come to work, look at the fleet and realize a driver is still stuck in the same place after sitting there for several days. We have a fine staff of company drivers and O/O's that depend on a phone call from us to make or break their day; or night in my case. The bottom line is this. The Ground Flight dispatch office is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. With that kind of commitment to keeping the drivers rolling comes overhead in the cost of a brick and morter building that houses a full time dispatch team, utility bills, compliance costs, taxes that have to be paid and a host of other bills that come in the mail and have to be paid daily. Ground Flight is NOT a fly by night company hosting a company name by someone with a group of friends to seem logit and sit in the truck stops bidding freight on laptops at an unrealistic low rate as is being done now.
Freight is very slow for this time of year; although it seems to be picking up somewhat over the last few weeks. Every one of the drivers on this forum shouldn't even have time to post threads here this time of year. They should be bouncing in the seat and making money. It's just not happening so far in the first half of this year when many predicted expedited freight would be better this year than last. Having said that, where would those that slam this company suggest we send drivers that get laid over in Laredo? San Antonio? They'd be better off sitting in North Dakota somewhere. Houston? That's where we used to send them if Laredo was too competitive but Houston has proven to be worse than Laredo lately. At the end of the day, somebody has to make the decision as to what is best for the company drivers to get them moving and making money.
One of the responders to the original thread said it best when stating "This isn't a business you can come into broke." Unfortunately, with the economy in the state it's in Ground Flight get's alot of applications from prospective drivers that are down on their luck and needing employment. Each applicant is explained this line of work. There are some high demands placed on expeditors in the long hours of driving and the unfortunate long hours of waiting. Many new drivers here find out in a very short amount of time this isn't the line of work for them and bring the truck back to us. We have other company drivers that have excelled in the demands of the job and have been with us for quite some time. They have figured out the financial part of the occupation and budget their money accordingly to account for layovers. I can promise everyone reading every part of this thread the owners of this company do not just throw a stuck driver to the wolves. Every effort is made to keep them rolling and earning a living as we depend on them for the company to earn a profit to keep this company going and growing. Management here bends over backwards financially to help them get started but for some it just doesn't work out.
Before I get slammed by the masses for speaking the dispatcher side of things, allow me to set the story straight. I was a driver for Ground Flight before I sat behind this desk. One of the owners, another dispatcher as well as our Operations Manager were also drivers before sitting at their desks. I drove for more than 10 years over the road as well as driving for this company and I can attest to the level of commitment management has for the drivers here. We all do our best but in the overly competitive world of expedited freight, sometimes loads just can't be awarded; especially in a place like Laredo where you can drive by the flying fishhook on your way in to a delivery and the place looks like a white van campground in the front parking lot. I spent the entire week of Thanksgiving year before last hoping for the best and preparing for the worst at that J. But, I knew when I signed on with this deal, nothing is guaranteed. It's an overly competitive business where somebody needs something yesterday but they didn't order it till tomorrow. That's where we, as a community of expeditors, come in to help them save the day. But, there are only so many loads and too many trucks wanting them. Slamming a respected company amongst our clients and peers on this forum does nothing to make those drivers stuck there bounce in their seats to make a living.
...yes there some good friends and contacts here in EO....some call it a "clique" I prefer to use support group....From Moot to Turtle...the Enemy to Danwolf...to BillG to Ntime...EB to Xiggi even TJ to Guido and the Chef.....we've all met and all have something in common...we are not always warm to each other either, but we are honest in our opinions of what the other is doing or not doing...we get angry for awhile but always seem to gravitate back to the group. Why...don't know its craziest thing....maybe we respect the honesty. the bluntness ...it has made us stronger in the end....we've endured years of cargo vanning to make a living.
