Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

The Owner Operator Truck

You know, there is no way a driver abandons or turns in a truck and leaves an almost new Carhartt jacket, nice blankets and other personal stuff. It seems to me that Gordon took this truck from someone unaware; was he on home time? What did who ever recovered that truck for Gordon keep for himself, if anything? I do know that the only things intentionally left for me were garbage, trash and a case of bottled water. And a stinky truck. I can only wonder.

I took the almost-owner operator to Kazablanka over on Rockville Road near Sam's Club because I love their buffet. The almost-owner operator did, too. He said that owner operators get the same stinky loads that company drivers get. No difference. The guy he drives for has four trucks, his son drives another. I met the son later up at Shasta Lake in Northern California. When he figured out who I was, he laughed.

"Yeah, my dad said he had finally met a driver he actually liked." I laughed, too. It turns out that we both had a connection with Bell Gardens, California. He grew up there. I had bought little houses there before it was smart; like many, moved to Orange County and rented my property out. But then I went back to Bell Gardens and got involved with a group and we recalled the entire City Council. We fired the City Manager, the City Clerk, the City Planner, my nemesis the City Attorney quit before we could fire him, the Chief of Police retired. We took City Hall and put our own people in. Another story.

Just suffice it that we had a good lunch and he helped me get 3579 back to the yard as well as provided my first insight into what it might be like to lease from Gordon.

Back at the yard I took my time getting 3579 properly squared away. There really was no guarantee at this point that the SuperSeal would solve the coolant loss. We'd just have to watch it. If you see a smurf truck going by with white exhaust pluming out of the stack, you can bet it's the engine cooler or the head, and one day to a week at Cummins. I saw one like that headed north on I-65, too far away to tell the unit number.

As I worked on 3579 a driver asked me if I could help him with the QualComm as he had never used one before. This guy was a heavy smoker and almost as emaciated as the Gordon trainer that I'd found smoking in the truck I'd cleaned up for no pay, that was going into the shop, and after that his trainee was going to drive.

At first I saw no reason to give any comfort to a smoker like this, then relented as I recalled all the grief I had due to my lack of familiarity with the QualComm. After I relented, and he almost begged, he led me over to a brand-new, smoke-free Cascadia. I had him get into the driver's seat and coached him from the jump seat.

I had him log in and saw that he had a load. Told him how to write the important information down, how to send an 8 to show that he's ready for duty and to 15 the Pre-Plan. I helped him get directions and fuel after the Load Assignment came through. All this time I'm thinking, "No good deed goes unpunished..." What next?



Written July 16, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. The dogs are quiet, inside with the AC on; it's very hot outside. All rights reserved by author.

 

Hey, Sc00ter! You and tow614 (no tow931 has commented here or been seen by me below as online) can start your own threads. Okay? Gordon will survive either way.

 

Dispatch #21--Indy L to Grove City, OH
177 miles......................................................... 54.87

To the Say-It-Ain't-So's:

Your experience with Gordon may be different from mine. That's fine and Trucker's Report is here for you, too. You can start a thread, call it the Say-It-Ain't-So thread.

If the real wages of a new Gordon driver range more in the $20K range than $50K, which seems likely to me, a driver could do all sorts of other things to make the same or better money if he or she is willing to work the same 14-hour days, 7-days a week with a 30-minute unpaid break before the end of 8 hours thanks to the new rules and take a day off every ten. Start or manage a pizza place and put in 7-day weeks, eh?

When bean counter types talk about the work hours in a year, they talk about 2000 use-able hours each year. 50 weeks x 40 hours. If you count the time logged at Gordon as off-duty time, I think you're looking at well over, way, way over 100 hours per week and in the range of in excess of 5000 working hours per year for a $20K-$25K job. That's $5/hour and less. How often do you log off-duty at a shipper and show only 30 minutes for a drop-and-hook and the rest of your time getting bills signed, etc. as off-duty? Admit it, all the time. Them's 98-hour weeks and more at Gordon, as I see it.

Around 5 o'clock the Intimidator called me wanting to know if I would consider a load off the yard up to Gas City, despite that I'd been up all day. I told her that I hadn't logged in yet and planned to set my PTA (Projected Time Available) for 8 in the morning. Then I thought about it and went in to see what was up. She had two hot loads, one to Columbus, OH and the other to Gas City. She had a driver who was almost out-of-hours on his way and she thought he could at least make progress towards Columbus.

I thought about it and told her I would take the Columbus and deliver it on time; had to be there by midnight. The other driver had just enough to make Gas City. To her credit, the Intimidator wanted to be sure that I really felt okay with this since I'd been up and busy since early a.m. Gordon is not a heartless company when it comes to people by any means or yardstick. But Gordon could care not at all about how much of your time it wastes, IMO. In my first post I said that if Gordon paid better it would have been more difficult to leave.

I logged in, hooked up and made the delivery on time. Not with a lot to spare. But on time.

Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor both used that great line, "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?" So here we are, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. (Erasmus... ) If a few more Gordon drivers will start threads and trace out their experience, we'll all have a better picture. More eyes.

Start a thread. Really. Thanks to CougFan for adding another set of eyes to this conversation, too. We're still just starting into my second 3 weeks out of 5 months. I'm thinking when I get to that 5 month point to open the thread up and invite general discussion. I never got the impression that Gordon cared if you got the short end. CougFan's experience is good to hear.



Written July 16, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved.

 

Hi Sc00ter! I would be the last person to say that my time with Gordon didn't work out for me. It did. I've pointed that out many times. It did not pay well and I'm documenting my pay trip-by-trip, paycheck by paycheck over 5 months that took me from the Mid-West to the Pacific Northwest, back to Denver, through Eisenhower Tunnel, Vail and Glenwood Springs and wrapped up at Rancho. That's different and I moved on to better pay for much less wear and tear. But I got a lot out of my time with Gordon. A very lot. No regrets here. If your experience is different from mine, that's fine, too. There's many miles and many loads to go. Vic

(5 members and 6 guests online now)

 

I'm going to do something here I don't expect to do again. I've read sc00ter's post three or more times. The more I read it, the more I see it as one more unique set of eyes on trucking at Gordon, like CougFan's. So I'm dividing sc00ter's post up into smaller, more readable paragraphs, without changing a single word. I think he means that he came back to GTI December 2012, not 2013 (Paragraph 4). Not sure what 'the poor fRm' means with regard to Shaffer (Paragraph 2).

If anyone else has a DM like CougFan's that you can negotiate better pay with for some of the stinker work, that's worth a shout out in my book. I'm wondering if the 30-mile load CougFan mentions is the 1-mile pull of an empty to Proctor and Gamble in MO. Gordon had me shut down at 2pm the day prior to wait to drive 40 miles over there to spot this trailer at 8 am the following day. Sheesh!! Vic


Hi, Victor; yes tow931 is a real driver at GTI, a very successful driver. I am, too, and have the w4's to back it up. I, too, have read the thread all the way through and would caution outsiders reading the thread to take it all with a grain of salt.

Last year in August, I got very frustrated with GTI and went to work for Shaffer, "Where there are no shortcuts" to the poor fRm. Because of that switch, I grossed approx $7000 less than I had the previous 3 years, at $60,000+!

I read you were based in California at one time and many of the accessorial pays you received were because that state requires them. Walmart drivers that are based in that state, for example, are required by state law to pay for the newly imposed 30 minute break in 8 hours. As a matter of fact, I learned that Walmart requires their drivers, by policy, to take a 30 minute break at or before the 5 hour point (a policy I fully support).

I came back to GTI just before Christmas 2013 and, after learning a very good lesson (loss of 3 years time for vacation and $.02cpm) am very happy to be back. You make mention of the "mythical" 5-and-5 and, unless a driver wants to just make enough to eat, that's not going to work with any irregular-route truckload carrier. Not in today's world, anyway.

Trucking is not what it used to be (I've been OTR almost 19 years now). I stay out a meeting minimum of 3 weeks and, as long as I'm running good, as long as 2 months (making hay while the sun is shining). My advice to any current or prospective driver with GTI is to find a driver that is successful (a good driver manager or fleet manager will be more than happy to help) and ask why they are doing so well.

Like tow931 said, a driver has got to learn the system. GTI doesn't run trucks like many (most, really) truckload carriers and rely on the driver to do some good trip planning and keep their eta/pta's updated and accurate. They don't want you sitting if at all possible. A good example here is my last couple of loads. From Jenks, OK, to Tempe, AZ. The load delivered 7/16 2030pst (az doesn't do daylight savings time) and messaged I would be in the area 7/15 1500pst.

My DM messaged the planner, my load was dropped at the Phoenix yard, and I picked up the load that was preplanned after my break and left Phoenix for Kingman that dropped before 1000pst. I'm now loading in Lake Havasu City heading down to Mira Loma, CA, that is scheduled to drop before midnight tonight.

I can't make that and acknowledged that before I accepted the load and was messaged back to run it "safe and legal" until we got updates from CSR and planner. Now I have received word that I can deliver after my break...everyone and everything covered. GTI has the last couple of years been rapidly expanding in the Midwest and we have many people that have worked at other carriers and with time, I have learned and now believe that the higher-ups are adapting to the Gordon way and, to be sure, Gordon is adapting more and more to doing business in the Midwest and southeast.

I run Canada, I run the west and northwest during the winter, and I run HAZMAT. Bottom line is this; you can be successful here at GTI, learn and work the system, and find a mentor! Be a master of the time and tools and you, too, can be a success at Gordon Trucking. Oh, and by the way, I applied at Poly Trucking earlier this year. The more I learned, the better off I am here.

"The grass may be greener on the other side but that's a pretty good indicator that there is alot more manure spread!" GTI is just like any other company as far as pros and cons. Line it all up and compare to other companies...choose wisely! Be safe!! Thanks for letting me write a chapter in your book.