Plainville, Kansas-based Greg Wertz has been hauling livestock for the better part of the last 25 years, following his grandfather into the business.
“There was kind of a generation that skipped there,” Wertz said. “My dad was a machinist, and I think a lot of” what drew him to trucking “was a curiosity of what my grandfather went through.”
Wertz drove for one of his grandfather’s friends initially for roughly a year before “I had my own truck and moved into doing the livestock business” in 2000, he said.
Wertz was brand-new to Livestock at the time. “My grandfather hauled lumber, and we did the logging and sawmill business,” he said. “When I got into the trucks, I was always kind of fascinated with the cattle industry.”
Originally from Bedford, Pennsylvania, the owner-operator had a friend in Moorefield, West Virginia -- John Welton -- who was in cattle and helped spur him on in livestock.
Today, Wertz pulls as G.B. Wertz LLC in the 2007 Peterbilt 379 featured here and in the video up top. The rig was one of about 50 trucks invited to Peterbilt's annual Pride & Class Parade last fall in Denton, Texas.
Wertz noted he was humbled by the invitation to the 2025 Pride & Class event, especially given the truck's "battle scars," as he put it. “It’s something that you don’t ever think you’re going to get the nod for. But it’s great to be recognized. It’s humbling to realize that people think of you that way.”
The honor was about more than just recognition for himself.
“It’s about what my grandfather went through to get started and what he built," he said, "and then it’s the long days and nights of me and my dad laying on a concrete floor working on trucks and stuff.”
Early in his career he operated out of Pennsylvania “and was doing pretty well [trucking] off the East Coast, but some of that stuff kind of started to fade up. Work was getting a little bit harder,” he said. The man he was hauling dedicated for, Jeff Craig, “passed away unexpectedly, and it was just getting harder and harder” to run the business in that part of the country.
Wertz aligned his business with Jeremy Green in Nunn, Colorado, for whom he still hauls today, and, coupled with the fact that Wertz’s wife is from Kansas, they decided to move West, settling closer to his wife's old "home place," as he said. "It just led more to staying out West. Harder and harder to go East. I was finding that I didn’t want to go East near as much with the truck."
He bought his 2007 Pete in 2014 with just 300,000 miles behind it. Over that decade-plus since, it's up to more than 2 million miles.
“I really liked the truck when it was originally done,” Wertz said. “It was just something that was always a favorite of mine, and to get the chance to wind up having to run it ... it’s been a great, great treat to have.”
The burnt orange paint with blue and green stripes, on the truck when he bought it, “just popped, and I fell in love with it right away,” he said. “I was pretty excited to be able to get it.”
Since the purchase, he’s only made a couple changes -- different stripes on the hood -- but mostly it “was a package deal; was one of them jump-in-and-go” situations when he needed a truck. “This truck was pretty much everything I wanted, so I just jumped in.”
The rig is powered by a Cummins QSX -- built on the same platform as the ISX but designed more with off-highway applications in mind -- coupled with an 18-speed transmission.
The interior was all mostly done by the time Wertz bought the truck. It’s painted to match the exterior.
Wertz’s operation takes him across the U.S. to all contiguous states, he said, but most of his work is in the West and Southwest, primarily hauling cattle, pigs on occasion.
[Related: 'Alfalfa Cruiser': Pickett Custom Trucks' first show truck in two decades]
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Greg Wertz: When I first seen this truck when it was done, I really, it just stood out. It was so different at the time and everything, and it just popped. And I fell in love with it right away. When it when it came up, the opportunity to be able to get it, I was pretty, pretty excited to be able to get it and actually get it out and and go in it. It was a neat, neat thing to do.
I'm Greg Wertz, I'm now based out of Plainville, Kansas. I'm originally from Bedford, Pennsylvania. We're in the livestock business. We've done that now for probably 25 years. We do all 48 states. Most of my stuff is is in the West, Southwest, out to California and stuff like that. Mostly cattle. We'll do, you know, maybe 4 or 5 loads of pigs for myself a year. But it's not it's not a whole lot. It's mostly mostly cattle, a lot of a lot of calves. We still do do some fat cattle, myself personally, but it's a lot of calf work.
The truck behind me is a 2007 379. It's been a great truck. It's been a fun, fun truck to own. We've run it now, when we got it, it was 300,000 miles, I think somewhere right in there. We got 2 million on it now. Other than that, we've just done a couple little things to change it. We changed the stripes on the hood and some little things like that.
But for the most part, I really liked the truck when it was originally done, and it was just something that was always a favorite of mine, and to get the chance to wind up having it run it. Like I said, it's been a it's been a great, great treat to have. Yeah.
It basically has an ISX in it with an 18 speed. We did go to what they call a QSX, but it's an ISX with the 18-speed in it.
Most everything in the interior was done when I got it. We've done a couple little things but not much. Like I said, the truck was kind of a package deal. It was one of them jump in and go when I needed to get a truck. It was it was something you're either going to build it or get something. And this truck was pretty much everything I wanted. So yeah, I just jumped in it and went.
Overdrive: What was your first reaction when you got that call that that they wanted you to come out and bring your truck?
Greg Wertz: My first comment to Matt Kanagy was who invited me, my first comment to Matt was, "have you seen my truck?" It does have some battle scars. It surely does. It works, but it's a heck of an honor. It's a great thing. It's something I never, you know, goes on, but it's something that you don't ever think you're going to get the nod for.
But it's great to be recognized. It's humbling to realize that people think of you that way. And I don't know, it's big for me. It's big because I, me and my wife have talked about it countless times. And I said, "this isn't about me." I said, "it's about, you know, what my grandfather went through to get get started and what he you know, what he built."
And then it's the long days and nights of me and my dad laying on a concrete floor, working on trucks and stuff, you know. So it's it's not about me. It's humbling because it's it's been a family venture for a long time. And it's, I don't know, it's neat to get the nod for yourself, but you realize it's for so many more.
