In Business since 1967, GIX is owned and operated by the Pirnie family. James D. Pirnie started the company as a moving and storage concern, but expanded into refrigerated services in 1972. Tom Pirnie, James' son, started working for the company that same year, 1972 , and purchased the company from his father's estate following James' death in 1982. Tom's son Jim and his cousin Keith Pirnie both hold senior management positions in the company today, along with Tom.
GIX is organized today in three different but complementary corporations: (1) GIX Logistics which handles all sales, brokerage, general and administrative functions; (2) Grand Island Express which is the company's own fleet and the operations group that manages that fleet, (3) GIX Services which provides all of the other services such as hostling, local shuttle, maintenance, trailer rental and other related services.
GIX provides a variety of services today, including both dry and refrigerated line haul, local shuttle, hostling, maintenance, equipment rental and brokerage. The company's overall revenues have increased by more than 70% over the past five years, as each service area has expanded. GIX Logistics, for example, maintains an active roster of more than 2,000 additional carriers, providing greater lane coverage for GIX Logistics accounts than can be accommodated by the Grand Island Express fleet itself.
With GIX, shippers receive the "advantage of size." Even the smaller shippers are important to GIX, and they receive priority attention because GIX considers itself a small to medium size company. Larger carriers look primarily to major shippers who can generate more than $100,000,000 annual revenue for them, while tending to place smaller accounts on the "backburner." GIX is large enough and financially strong enough to grow with small to medium size accounts who are gowning themselves. Thus, the GIX affinity for smaller to medium companies.
High Driver Retention
While much of the transportation industry struggles with high annual driver turnover rates, often exceeding 125% among larger national carriers, GIX maintoften exceeding 125% among larger national carriers, GIX maintains its own fleet's driver turnover rate at 40% or lower, with even higher retention rates on dedicated projects. These driver satisfaction levels are achieved by treating drivers fairly and by making them an integral part of the "GIX family" where the door to senior management is always open for them. High driver retention translates into more consistent customer service, helping GIX achieve one of its primary goals of "putting the customer first."
Industry Recognition
GIX has consistently been recognized for its safety achievements by both national and state associations, including ATA and TCA. Several of GIX's executives have also been cited as professionals of the year in their field by the Nebraska Trucking Association. Grand island Express' drivers are consistently among the award winners in Nebraska and national competitive driving events.
