Question:
Looking at three outfits(no, not clothing) I have gotten calls from US Xpress, GTI, and Interstate Dist. Can anyone tell me the best way to research these companies on the internet?

Answer:
How much experience do you have? Are you going to truck driving school? None of these company's offers training GTI and UsXpress take new drivers out of school Interstate needs at least one year of exp. They all use autoshift transmissions . The best way to find out info is search the archives on here, go to the comapny's websites and see, call them and talk to them. You could try asking some of their experienced drivers just hang out at a truck stop and try and talk to one of the drivers ask a lot of questions. You could go to www.classadrivers.com other than that thats about it. Good luck.
Answer:
ESXpress and GTI (Gordon) do "train" new truck school grauates. They just don't run their own "truck school" (like Schneider and Swift)
So first you have to grauate from a PDTI certified "truck school", before USX or GTI will hire you. Then they'll put you in a truck with one of their drivers for a few weeks. You'll help them do the job until you can do it yourself. Then you'll take some final tests, and then you'll be qualified to run by yourself.
Truck school teaches you the basics and helps you get your CDL. Then the "training" companys take over and finish your final qualification.
Interstate is not a "training" company. As posted above, they (and many others) hire exprience drivers only.
USX uses auto-trans....and I'm not sure about Interstate.........but I believe GTI (Gordon Trucking, Pacific WA) still uses manual transmissions. It doesn't matter -- except you don't get the gear-crunching exprience you may want for a subsequent job if you start at USX.

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Already have CDL, been driving local for 5 years. I realize it doesn't mean a hill of beans for OTR. Spoke with a trainer at Interstate, and he said I could qualify for accelerated Qualification Training. GTI has a program for people just out of school. I also was told that I could make it into that.
US Xpress lady just flat told me to hurry and get my application back to her so I could be enrolled in the earliest possible orientation. I know, this is all from the mouths of recruiters, and office bureacrats.
As I've learned by reading many a thread here, mind your P's and Q's. And don't believe anything that's not in writing. Thanks all for your help.
Where the h*** is the spell check?

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None of the three look very good. If i had to pick i would probably go with U.S. because they are the largest so i would A$$ume they would have the most freight. Of course it could work both ways----a smaller company has less drivers and thus possibly more work for fewer drivers=mondo miles.
I'm not sure where lynwood is at. Near portland?
Why don't you try my company out in portland if you want to sleep in hotels everynight instead of a noisy, stuffy, vibrating fiberglass box.
http://www.autotrucktransport.com/

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More like Seattle and/or Everett!!

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From what I have read here, big companies aren't always the best way to go.
I'm doing a pretty thorough check on them. Talking to driver's I see, internet check. I'll find the right one eventually.
I did check out the web site for that co. you work for! It says the minimum qualification is 1 in the last 3 verifiable, or 2 in the last 5. Either way I don't qualify. Thanks anyway. I did save the web site. By the way, Bandit is right. Lynnwood is about half way between Seattle, and Everett.

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What the website says and what they are doing as far as hiring are two different things because they are desperate for drivers.

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Here's a good thread by us xpress drivers. It's 7 pages long. Here's the Link. US Xpress I haven't driven for any of these companies. I would go to www.classadrivers.com and do a search on all 3 companies. Gordon has quite a few happy drivers that post there. Their is a lot of complaining among us xpress drivers that they aren't getting many miles. 1200 miles per week, and other us xpress drivers getting 2500 miles or more per week.
Of course that's going to happen at every big company. They do ship a lot of freight by railroad. So, it looks as if you will be doing a lot of short hauls to railroad yards. Even some of the teams aren't getting many miles according to the threads. It seems that u s prefers to ship a lot of their freight by rail. Not a good thing in my opinion if your a driver.
I suggest you do a search. on Gordon, US xpress, and Interstate. Get as much info as you can. And then make a decision. Best of Luck in Your Quest.

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The other thing is i'm getting a boner for Hearland express because of their .50cpm pay.
So, i'd at least give them a look over.

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Well, that just peachy. So based on that can I assume that it's cheaper to piggyback a trailer, than it is to drive one?
Thanks for the insight on this. I'll have to check it out. I did look at a few of those threads. There were a few from driver's saying that there weren't enough miles, while other's were saying they had plenty of miles. Nothing about railroading( no pun intended ). Chad, I want you to step back from the computer, and take a deep breath. At the rate your going it's gonna start typing for you.

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Well the thing wit Us Xpress from what I understand from some of their drivers is that if you run less miles then they up your pay, say they give you a run of 400 miles your normal pay may be .30/mi they will up it to .40/mi and if you run a long run then your pay goes back to .30/mi. So overall you might not get the miles but your pay stays fairly normal everyone I've talked to says it evens out all in the end. Don't know if thats much help .
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I have read that they use the sliding scale. The longer your run, the less per mile you make. There's people talking about making .25cpm on some runs.
That doesn't work for me.

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smokeatr, just to confuse you more lol. The 25 cents per mile jumps to 28 cents per mile in 3 months. However, this only applies to loads hauled over 1000 miles. I think. I'm not on their website now, and to lazy to go there
From the information I can gather. Most of the solo runs are in the 450-600 mile range. Which would give you more cents per mile. I know it's confusing. But they do have a lot of happy drivers there..that say they are making good money. I don't really like the sliding pay scale. I'd much rather have a flat rate of cents per mile.
There were a few on a message board yesterday that were saying they are getting 2500-3000 miles every week. Decisions, Decisions
Best of luck to you. I can't endorce either company as I've never driven for GTI or US Xpress. You just have to take the drivers words for it. You may want to go to www.ripoffreport.com and type each companies name in the box. See if they have a lot of bad reports on either of them. I have to go to bed now. My concentration isn't good right now. Been up all night.

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That can be an addicting site to go to. Last time I went there, I was there for three hours. Had to ask myself why?
I wanna thank you for all the input. I can sit here all day and read why I should, or shouldn't go with a certain company. But I think I'll just get all the info I can, and make a decision off that. Be safe everyone!