Brad Gotwals (far left) is part of a family business, as you can see by some of the Brook Ledge staff: William L Gotwals, Joan Gotwals Yoder, William S. Gotwals, Robert Gotwals, Brent Gotwals, Andrea Gotwals
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Brad Gotwals is general manager of Brook Ledge, a privately held family-owned and operated horse transportation company. In 1955, the brothers Bill and Bob Gotwals started in the trucking business with one truck, and the business has grown considerably since then. There are currently three generations of Gotwals employed at Brook Ledge. Brook Ledge is one of the largest horse transportation companies in North America. Operating out of their home office in Oley, Pa. , Brook Ledge also has terminals in Lexington, Kentucky and Ocala, Florida as well as vans being based in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Long Island and Saratoga N Y, South Florida, Chicago and New Orleans. Brook Ledge operates in 48 states and Canada.
Sidelines:
What are your greatest challenges as a shipper?
BG:
You might think that one of the greatest challenges is how do we sleep at night knowing that we are shipping the high dollar and high profile horses that we do. We have a great management team here and our drivers are the best. The drivers that we have; most of them are ex grooms, trainers, jockeys, riders, farmers and drivers from other horse carriers.
Another challenge in the world of horse shipping is getting horse shipped when the customer needs or wants to ship. Actually this has been one of our strengths and major advantage over the competition. First off, we have a lot of trucks to play with, but more importantly we have the drivers to put in the trucks. For instance, I drive during our busy times as does my father and my son. A number of our managers and sales reps have class A CDL licenses as well as a number of our mechanics. We can ship our customers when they want to ship and not just when it is convenient for the carrier. A lot of carriers need to "juggle" their customers shipping schedule to fit their own scheduling needs. This is rarely the case for Brook Ledge.
Sidelines:
What questions should a first-time customer ask?
BG:
The questions would depend on what carrier you were calling. By that I mean, has the carrier been around a long time? Generally, but not always, someone that has been in business for a long time is there for good reason. Some general questions that need answered by the shipper are what size stall do they want to ship in. Box stall or double stall(1 BD)? The majority of our long haul business is shipped in box stalls. Your horse is more comfortable and under less stress. Numerous studies have been conducted and confirm this. We have a couple of study conclusions on our web site www.brookledge.com. You can also find a FAQ section on our site that can answer a lot of questions for the first time shipper.
Sidelines:
Is it best to ship straight through, or layover?A0 What length trip is a layover recommended?
BG:
If you are shipping in box stalls I would not recommend a layover at all. Your horse is totally comfortable to move around in the van as they would in their stall at home. I have even had a few lay down while shipping--not many do that---but I have personally had a few. With the air ride they have these days on the full size tractors and vans that commercial haulers use the ride is very smooth. My major concern with laying over on a trip is for health reasons. You may never know what horses were in the stall before yours and were they sick and is your horse now going to get sick as a result. You see some people laying over because they have only one driver, so you have to lay over , but we have two drivers and can run round the clock. If you are not shipping in box stalls and are using tie stalls to ship I would recommend laying over on trips over 24 hours or more.
Sidelines:
What are your major routes?A0 If a customer is to ship off a main route, what are the questions they should ask?
BG:
We really ship anywhere with a load. We haul in and out of all the lower 48 and all Canadian provinces. One of Brook Ledges' "claim to fame" is our (LTL) less than truckload service. All of our LTL service is expedited---translation is we do not do "milk runs." From the Northeast to and from Florida and the Midwest to and from Florida we average ten trips per week from these places year round every week. So if you have just one or two horses to ship out of Florida or to Florida, you will not have to wait long.
Sidelines:
What papers should be provided to a commercial shipper? Other than Florida, do any other states have requirements for health certificates or Coggins tests to be sent with the horse?
BG:
Customers can check the USDA website, www.aphis.usda.gov, for a state by state listing of documents that are necessary.A0 As a rule of thumb all interstate transport requires a 30 day Health Certificate and a current Coggins.A0 Our dispatchers are pretty savvy about current regulations.
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