After leaving CSX, I thought Pitt-Ohio Express might be the stable LTL job I needed. Instead, I found myself trapped in long routes, strict policies, and missing the freedom I had just walked away from.
Unfortunately, this will probably be one of the briefest chapters in this book, simply because I was not impressed with Pitt-Ohio Express as an employer.
I did make four good friends there — John Latham, Kelly Franklin, Clayton Case, and William Beasley — but most of the rest were just co-workers.
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Getting Hired
My original hope was to hire in at the top of the list and secure a local Indianapolis route. I applied online and expected to land the interview easily. After surviving eight years at Conway, I figured Pitt-Ohio would be a piece of cake.
But the interview notice never came. When I called the personnel department, I learned there had been a glitch in their system. My application was trapped and never moved forward. Of course, mine was the only one affected that day.
After some delay, I did finally get hired and started the week after I canceled my contract with CSX. My terminal manager at Pitt-Ohio was Shawn Morford. He was a pretty good terminal manager in my honest opinion. Pitt-Ohio started me at around $18.00 an hour. Because of the glitch, I missed my chance at an Indianapolis route and was instead assigned to Evansville, Indiana.
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The Evansville Route
That route was brutal. It required three hours down, three hours back, plus six hours of deliveries in Evansville — or sometimes delivering on the way down and picking up freight on the way home.
More than once, I ran out of hours on the way back, and the terminal manager had to send another driver to bring the truck and trailer in. To put it simply, it was exhausting and discouraging.
I stuck it out for about a year before transferring to my favorite run while at Pitt-Ohio: Jeffersonville, Indiana.
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The Jeffersonville & Logansport Routes
The Jeffersonville route was somewhat easier and shorter. Their business model was “cover more area with fewer drivers,” which really boiled down to being overworked.
Pitt-Ohio’s primary contract was in the medical supply field, so much of our freight went to assisted living facilities and nursing homes. That meant automatic inside deliveries. We did have other types of freight, but medical supplies dominated.
I ran the Jeffersonville route for about a year and a half before switching with another driver to cover the Logansport, Indiana route.
While running Jeffersonville, I regularly delivered to a company named Voss Clark. I didn’t know it at the time, but that company would play a key role in the later chapters of this book.
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Missing My Freedom
After only a short time back as a company driver, I realized how much I missed my freedom:
The freedom to start my day when I needed to.
The freedom to choose my loads.
The freedom to be free of company policies.
That loss of independence weighed heavily on me.
My stint at Pitt-Ohio lasted three and a half years. It wasn’t all bad — but it wasn’t the right fit for me. I don’t have any ill feelings about my time at this company. It did, however, open my eyes to the fact that employment freedom from policies and rules was the life I craved.
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Preparing for the Next Step
About three months before leaving Pitt-Ohio, I confided in my best friend, Ernie Lipperd. By that time, he was an Independent Contractor leased on to a flatbed broker. He encouraged me to take the next step.
And that’s exactly what I did.
Follow me into the next chapter as I transition once again — this time back into being an Independent Contractor with BESL Transfer.
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