Always in Motion:

GTM Incorporating Asset-Based Trucking Program

Published On: February 23rd, 2015

Since our founding, GTM has experienced accelerating customer growth, with increased demand for our services across all modes of transport. Last year, we began transforming our company’s trucking service to support this success.

Though we have been exclusively non-asset based until this year, we are now building our own trucking fleet to better serve our customers throughout North America.

Incorporating asset-based transportation into our service portfolio was an easy decision to make. Using our own fleet of equipment allows us to impressively complement our existing services by delivering more value to our customers.

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With GTM-branded trucks, we exert greater control over orders and enjoy increased visibility. Of course, we will always value our relationships with our partner carriers. Yet nothing compares to seeing GTM trucks — freshly wrapped with our logo and photos of our services  — delivering orders to our customers or driving on the highway.

At press time, we already have seven trucks out on the road. We’ve started with four tractors/semis and three straight trucks, but will be adding more soon. Our targeted growth in 2015  — we estimate at least a 30% increase in sales — will clearly demand additional assets.

More trucks = more jobs.

As new trucks come on board, we’ll also need to add more driver positions. Our associates are a valued part of the GTM family, and we look forward to adding additional team members. We maintain an open requisition policy and are continuously recruiting associates with experience and integrity.

 

The Open Road

“Our focus now is on the Great Lakes states — Michigan, Indiana and Ohio — but we do have 48-state authority,” said Joe Field, GTM’s Director of North American Transportation Services. “We could place a terminal anywhere in the lower 48. At the same time, we’re a global company and we support global customers through our international partnerships.”

Who We Serve

We added new trucks for several reasons. First, we want to support our customers in ways that meet their needs. At the moment, our fleet caters primarily to automotive suppliers (Tier 1, Tier 2 and OEMs).

We also wanted to support freight that we were already managing on partner carriers. It made sense to keep some of our affiliate companies’ freight in house, rather than paying other companies to move it. We expect continued growth of Just In Time (JIT) automotive freight, particularly within the Great Lakes region.

“We offer many types of trucking service. Overall, we look at what is the most reasonable transportation solution for our customers. What plan offers our customers the most value and is most appropriate to meet their needs?” said Field. GTM’s assets complement each of the other product lines and services we provide, including the US leg of certain international shipments.

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“We deliver solutions that have good strategic fit and we will continue to offer full North American service through our own fleet and our partner carriers, combining this with comprehensive warehousing and distribution solutions,” said Field.

Mode optimization is our goal and we are committed to offering long-term, sustainable, door-to-door global solutions for each of our customers.

“We’re willing to invest in equipment and other resources in any geography that makes sense for us and for our customers. We are willing to go wherever our customers need us to go.”