Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Discussion in 'Road Stories' started by Victor_V, Jun 2, 2013.

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  1. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    I have found it difficult on these forums to get a good 'take' on the culture of a company. Since I have some experience with Gordon, I thought I would cover my experience with Gordon over a period of five months. And although I did quit Gordon, I liked driving for them so I don't have a particular axe to grind.

    In a nutshell, Gordon has excellent maintenance, excellent equipment, about 2000 trucks and tons of freight. A lot of Gordon's freight is centered around the Wal-Mart world, especially in the mid-west and lots of 'stinker' loads that eat up your time and abuse your pocketbook. If Gordon paid better, it would have been much more difficult leaving.

    What I will do here is document my experience with Gordon from start to finish, where I drove, what I made, how I drove, how I was treated there. In other words, I'll cover the good, bad and the ugly and hopefully provide what I would have liked to have known about Gordon in advance. I learned a lot at Gordon, despite that I considered myself a 'seasoned' driver who had taken time off. As I will be explaining, Gordon was a new world to me and I am grateful to Gordon for the learning experience, the outstanding support system that a Gordon driver has available to him or her.

    You can trust that if I knew then what I know now about Gordon, Gordon was still a great place for me at the time. I'll be posting once or twice a week as time permits.
     
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  3. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    My Background Prior to Gordon

    My trucking experience reaches back into the 70's and included a relatively short learning period of solo and team cross-country driving. Then in the late 70's (yeah, I'm that old!) I drove local and short-line for many years in Southern California for an LTL company, a combination of dry van, sets, flat racks and a reefer or two. Once I left trucking I let my CDL go and thought I would never want to drive heavy duty again. Then I bought a couple large toys, a Caterpillar D6 dozer and a Cat 955 track loader and thought it would be cool to move the big guys around myself rather than pay someone else.

    After a 30-year break, I got my CDL back and hooked up with a regional LTL company and drove out of Indy daily until that company started to fail and it ultimately closed. I again stayed out of trucking for a while until I hooked up with a small mail contractor-carrier to USPS and began hauling mail at night, starting about 8:30 p.m. and never caught up on my sleep. We ran every night unless the roads were closed. You know the routine, through wind, rain, snowstorms, ice, etc. We kept moving when others pulled off into the truckstops and rest areas. Then I again stayed out of trucking for a while (18 months) and hooked up with Gordon in Indy.

    I thought that with my background, minus 18 months of rust, I was a pretty seasoned driver--if rusty. I would quickly learn that at Gordon I was a newbie with a steep learning curve ahead. Off the street, Gordon hires drivers who can drive. (Gordon does have programs for grads, I believe, driving with a trainer at first.) I had experience and no tickets or accidents. What interested me about Gordon was its excellent CSA score, great equipment, the opportunity to learn the midwest and to get out to Southern California occasionally. I also liked the feel of the yard in Indy, which was plain, spare, slightly crowded, very much a nuts and bolts trucking company.
     
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  4. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Dealings with the Recruiter

    Gordon does a telephone exit interview with drivers who have left, in part to see if you will come back. When asked if the recruiter was truthful, I replied, "Fifty-fifty." However, I did overhear something very cool at the Rancho Cucamonga, California terminal which, by the way, is a jewel of a brand-new facility the way a truck terminal ought to be. Rancho also has what looked to me like a veritable fleet of local drivers in smart new-looking day cabs. (Indy local drivers get red former Buske day cabs--Gordon bought Buske and most all of Buske's equipment was junk.)

    In the drivers' lounge at Rancho a local driver was going over his written 'proposed' job specification with a couple of his buddies. All he had to do was sign it to "make it so." I don't think Indy has anything like this. The driver had in writing a weekly guaranteed minimum, the days he would work and how far geographically he would drive, among other things. Apparently this is standard procedure at Rancho. I was impressed.

    My Recruiter's pet phrase was, "I don't think that's a problem." On more than one issue, he was wrong. For example, Gordon will tell you that home time is, "No problem." But that's only until you want to get home. Then, it may be a problem just as with any OTR company that wants to keep you out as long as possible. Once Gordon does decide to get you home, though, they will move loads around to make it happen in a sometimes remarkable way. Once I was in Illinois with a load to Wisconsin and Gordon had me rendezvous at a drop yard to switch with a driver from Wisconsin who had a load near to Indy, which meant we both could get home. Nicely done!

    I signed up at a reduced rate of pay per mile (31 cents) to get on the mythical "Five-and-Five," which meant Gordon would get me home around noon on Saturday, have a full day off on Sunday, and then get back on the road Monday at 8:00 a.m. Two of my Driver Managers insisted that there was no such Fleet. (Drivers are organized into Fleets and that helps determine your Driver Manager.) I had to go above the Driver Manager and Recruiter to sort this out and it was only sorted out, "sort of."

    I'll have more to say about this later.
     
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  5. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    First Look at Gordon

    Over the phone I was told that Gordon would provide a $1500 sign-on bonus but, due to the 18 months I had been away from trucking, I'd spend anywhere from a week to 3 weeks with a trainer. I said I'd need a non-smoker trainer. "I don't think that's a problem," came the reply. Once on my own, to get out to California I'd have to "come in to the office." The biggest downside seemed to be that Gordon does not allow pets. I learned that there is a way to take a furry friend along and it fit my plans.

    If you lease a truck through Gordon, Fido can ride with you. Gordon doesn't have a lot of lease drivers but I found a flyer about leasing in the entry to the office in Indy. Gordon has trucks (they own two Freightliner dealerships) they retired from service and make available to lease and it sounded good. Gordon provides a 300,000 mile engine, tranny and rear end and a 100,000 mile water pump and (I think) turbo warranty. The lease trucks have APUs as well. (Don't hold me to all of this as what they offer now may change.) Gordon prefers a driver have six months with them first. (I'll have more to say about what I learned with regard to leasing.)

    I drove up to Indy for a 'meet and greet' with the idea in mind that unless I ran into a big, red flag I would probably sign on. I knew the yard because the LTL company I'd driven for some years before was right next door. Gordon was there then, I could see their yard every time I backed to the dock, but there was a lot less equipment (4 years earlier). Now there were lots of trailers and a bunch of 'smurf blue' condo Cascadias. Just looking around, I saw good rubber, chains hanging aft of every fuel tank and a busy shop. Before going in I talked to a mechanic for a bit. He was pulling all the drive rubber off, "A little earlier than we otherwise might," and replacing with 8 brand new tires because they had already worked on the brakes and it was a major PM (preventive maintenance). Indeed, a lot of companies would hold off and run those tires, PM or not.

    The Recruiter gave me the "25 cent tour" I'd asked for after I provided the usuals, license, social, a filled-out vanilla application (not Gordon's) and signed releases. He apologized repeatedly for the terminal but what I saw I liked. The freight dock was not used for freight. It was filled, instead, with new steering tires already on shiny aluminum rims, mudflaps and all other manner of 'likely replaceable' items to run a no-nonsense trucking operation. The mechanics had a small trailer of their own a few steps from the shop. Dispatch and offices were in another larger trailer. Downstairs from the freight dock was a drivers' room, nothing much, and upstairs from that was the orientation room.


     
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  6. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    The Drivers' Room--Indy Terminal

    Stepping out the door across the dock, the Recruiter and I looked across the fence to the dock where I used to look over at Gordon four years earlier. Then I saw some trashy-looking red trucks I hadn't seen before. Figuring new guys get the worst equipment, I pointed and asked if that's what I'd be driving. "No, no, no," he replied. "Those are Buske trucks. We bought Buske. I'm pretty sure you'll have a Cascadia. We don't know why they're coming here. We send them to Pacific (Pacific, Washington, Gordon's corporate headquarters)."

    "Well, except if you wanted to drive local," the Recruiter said, pointing to a scruffy-red day cab. "No, no, no," I replied. "I had too much of trying to drive 10, 12 hours or more local plus an hour to get here and an hour drive home. I want my bed right behind me, just pull off and hit the sack. Right now. Like a turtle."

    When I asked, the Recruiter said I was free to talk to anyone who wanted to talk and I headed for the drivers' room on my own and made some microwave popcorn. Indy has the smallest and least attractive drivers' room but it's not too bad. You just wouldn't spend any time there unless you had to wait for the shop to get done with your truck. And the Indy shop is always busy and usually backed up a day or two. One driver said he would have gone home if he knew there would be a two-day wait to get started on his PM. Both he and another driver had Green Bay as their home terminal, but preferred the shop in Indy. Not enough to wait two days to get started, though.

    One had just finished saying he wasn't happy with his new DM (Driver Manager) in Green Bay, when the other pointed out that she's actually right there in Indy. "You could march upstairs right now and introduce yourself," I commented. "Yeah," he said, "Like that would do any good!"

    About this time a shaved-headed guy about my size bounced into the drivers' room, shuffling a clipboard from one hand to another and took a far seat where he could face the small room. The Mid-West Safety Guy wanted to be sure drivers carried enough food for a couple days and cold weather gear. Although only October, there was snow out west and it was already possible to get snowed-in for a few days. I would learn a lot more about and from the Safety Guy, later. He flat crackled with energy. Very upbeat.
     
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  7. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Welcome to Gordon Orientation!

    The Recruiter made a point when he referred to Orientation to always mention that Gordon had standardized most of it on videotape so that you finished "in about 3 days." I wasn't so sure that less is more. Who knows? Maybe it is.

    A couple days after my visit to the Gordon terminal in Indianapolis, I called to leave the Recruiter a voicemail at about 7:00 p.m. and he answered. "Wow," I said, "You're working late." "Not really," he replied. "I've got this darn phone with me all the time."

    I told him I was impressed. "My boss's idea, Vic. Not mine. Not mine at all, whaddya need?" I should have asked him who his boss was but I assumed it was the Terminal Manager and in the Recruiter's case, I think it is the Terminal Manager, not sure. I mention this because the pecking order at Gordon is not obvious. It takes a while for a new Gordon driver to figure out; I think most do, in time. The Terminal Manager is a pleasant sort, says 'hi,' but seems out of the operations loop that matters to you and me. More on this later. Just know that it took a while before I learned who really calls the shots that affect me as a driver. If you've got a problem, it's probably not the Terminal Manager you're going to speak to at Gordon.

    I wanted to get some work done at home before starting but wanted to get Orientation out of the way as soon as possible. "I don't think that's a problem," came the standard Recruiter reply. "I'd like to take Orientation next week," I said. "That's not a problem, Vic," came the standard reply, with a slight variation. So we agreed that I'd come up to Indy for Orientation the following week and start driving for Gordon the week after.

    Gordon has used Country Inn & Suites on Flight School Drive, which is near 465, 70 and Kentucky Road (aka SR 67) in Indianapolis, to put drivers up for Orientation. It's very nice really. Nicely appointed rooms, above average breakfast. Home fries, scrambled eggs, and sausage some days. Varies. No horror story here except that you double bunk. I think it's two full size beds, possibly queen. The Recruiter told me I could go up Sunday night, if I wanted. That sounded good and I did.

    On the phone, I told the hotel that I needed a non-smoking room. "They're all non-smoking, sir," came the reply. "Cool," I said, "If Gordon has another driver in the room, though, he has to be a non-smoker." I explained that a smoker's going to smell like a stale cigarette and I couldn't put up with the smoke aroma that would follow a smoker into the room and off his clothes." There was an echo of the Recruiter as the hotel told me, "I don't think that will be a problem, sir! As of now, there's no one else expected for that room." Cool! And as luck would have it, I had the room to myself for the full Orientation.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2013
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  8. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Day One--Orientation

    Now that I've offended the roughly fifty per cent of Truckers Report readership who smoke, those who do smoke (and who read on) will learn that Gordon is a very smoker-friendly place. It makes no sense to me. Nicotine is a true narcotic, as addicting as heroin and it's a national disgrace that this country allowed Big Tobacco to hook half the population on this drug in order to make a buck. Well, big bucks. I guess that's it. If you can make big bucks committing murder, politically there's a green light for you.

    About half of the group at Orientation smoked. When we took smoke breaks, which was often, half the group literally ran outside pulling cigarettes up into their face in urgent, full flight as if they were fleeing a room without oxygen and their little cancer sticks were air inhalers. I'll have more to say about this later, about Gordon as a smoker's paradise.

    There were six of us at this Orientation, one from Super Service, one from C. R. England, another from Roehl, a guy from Swift and I'm not sure about the busted up Nam vet. So most of our group had a traditional OTR background except me and the guy from Roehl. The guy from Roehl had a good job with Roehl, making $65 grand a year and only moved over to Gordon because he bought a home in Northern California where Roehl does not run. Money-wise, the others were moving from same to same, in my opinion.

    The guys from Roehl and Swift may still do okay at Gordon if they run traditional (out for at least 10-14 days) and actually stay out 3-4 weeks, preferably more. I think that most drivers who sign up at Gordon could make more money at McDonald's if they put in the same 98 hours per week there. You can do the math. 98 hours a week times just $8 per hour earns you $784 per week at McDonald's--and that's straight time. I'll have more to say about this later. Suffice it to say for now that if you've got a couple years in at PAM, Celadon or PTL or any other traditional OTR company and a good driving record, you'll probably do fine at Gordon and Gordon will likely line you up with 3000 or more miles per week. (My observation only--no promises.)

    The two from C.R. England and Super Service, however, were brother-in-laws from Wisconsin and signed up together for a dedicated canned soda account that I was told was way over-subscribed with drivers. I bumped into Mr. Super Service at an Illinois drop yard and he said, "Yeah, they didn't tell us at Orientation that when there's no other work, you pull this little stuff that doesn't pay anything!" Right. Rude awakening. Welcome to Gordon.

    We went directly over for physicals (including for sleep apnea) and drug tests. Be advised: They snip a little of your hair and test that as well. However, if you have a medical issue that a second or third visit may squeak you through, Gordon will work with you. It did take one of our six guys at least a second clinic visit to get through his medical. If you have a medical card with time still on it, Gordon could care less. You will still do a physical, but they do want you to pass. That physical you took from that friendly doctor back home has zero value at Gordon. You can leave it home. You're taking a Gordon physical.
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2013
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  9. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    The Gordon Road Test--Trivial

    Once back at the terminal we did paperwork, saw a first video and did a trivial lifting exercise. Every day we had a pretty good catered lunch from Subway, Pizza Hut or similar. After lunch we did a sort of pick a number thing for a test drive in a real Gordon truck. When my turn came, I started into my 'super dooper' inspection and the Gordon driver said, "It's okay. I've already gone through the truck. The fluids and the lights are all fine. Let's go."

    I could have fell over. Gordon was not trying to separate the wheat from the chafe. They knew you could drive or you wouldn't have gotten this far. Gordon wanted you as a driver. They needed drivers. Today. Yesterday. Needed 'em. Right now. Had Orientation every week and paid pretty decent sign-on bonuses to get you there.

    So the test drive was trivial. The trailer was fully loaded, the Freightliner Cascadia (remember, Gordon owns two FL dealerships) has a Cummins ISX engine and a Straight-Ten transmission. The test drive itself amounted to a left turn out of the yard onto Dividend Road, a right turn at the stop sign up the street, another right at the end of that street, a right turn at Executive Boulevard, a last right turn back onto Dividend and back into the yard. The trip was so short the hole we pulled out of was still open and I backed in there. We went a total of about a mile. Very low stress. I don't know how you screw that up. You barely hit 30 miles per and it's okay if you don't.

    When I tripped up finding a gear, the Gordon driver gave me a little tutoring. "Shifts best at 14," said the Gordon driver, "They're a little tight, can be hard to get into." Well, not really. That ISX engine has the most torque at 1200, Gordon policy forbids you run it above 1500, so you're shifting at 1400 and 1000-1100 pretty consistently. We had Caterpillar engines (C12s and C15s) at the mail contractor, which I progressively shifted. That was about the same, except those were all Super-10s and Gordon had the Straight-10s.

    Gordon didn't want anybody to fail out. Hell, they had flown the Swift driver to Indy from the West Coast. Plus with his experience, he was entitled to a larger sign-on bonus than my $1500. Gordon wanted to get us 'oriented' and out moving freight. Gordon trucks are buttoned at 61. We were not told that holding the pedal down and 'resume' on the cruise you could gain another 2 mph, a top-speed of 63. We were made very aware of a corporate 'speed limit' of 65 at all times. So, heading downhill, you've got to brake and keep it under 65! What a pain in the... ! Often you'd debate passing a slower truck uphill, knowing that downhill you'd be braking and he'd have to go around. Sheesh!

    We were on our own for dinner. Orientation wrapped up pretty promptly at 4:30-5 p.m. But there was one odd thing. Each day, any number of times, a guy would walk into the Orientation, and walk right between us and the speaker we were listening to or the video we were watching. Now, he could have gone behind the speaker, but he didn't. He walked right in front of the speaker. He could have gone to the back of the room and crossed over, but he didn't. We had the only two bathrooms other than the single bathroom downstairs by the drivers' room. His bathroom rudeness did not go unnoticed.
     
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  10. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Meanwhile Back at the Hotel

    After Orientation Day 1, I had to wait with the other guys for the shuttle back to the hotel, Country Inn & Suites, despite my perfectly good F150 there that I would have preferred to drive myself, thank you. It didn't happen that way as I got a call from downstairs. The Recruiter's Assistant was downstairs and wanted me downstairs. I said I'd drive over. She said, "Not today. We go as a group for physicals this morning and I have paperwork for you to fill out. We're waiting for you."

    And so they were. In a first floor conference room at the hotel, we got a little talk about what to expect and filled out some paperwork, including those folded signs in front of your seat with your name. When we did get to the Orientation Room later, each of us had materials laid out for us, assigned seats, our signs, big Rand McNally map books, safety vests, HazMat books and more paperwork. Always, more paperwork.

    Now I had gotten up at about 3 a.m. and went down to the work out room and did 15 or so minutes on the treadmill. While there I noticed an attractive gal cleaning windows in the pool and spa area behind me and just kind of noted that she didn't seem like your typical window scrubber. And usually you do that sort of thing while the pool is in use so your customers know you're keeping things up. I thought no more of it until the shuttle. There she was! Our shuttle driver.

    Since I hate driving from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and had done that for 10 months with the mail contractor-carrier, I marveled out loud at her night-owlishness. She said she really was a night owl and scrubbing the pool windows was just something to keep busy, not something she had to do. Since I didn't know yet how bad the pay was at Gordon, I mentioned to her that if she could drive the shuttle, she could probably drive a semi.

    It turns out that she had her CDL, had driven for USA Truck for something like two years and her boyfriend was an OTR driver/trainer for them. Oh, well. I'm not interested in messing around with another driver's lady. Moreover, this seemed to reinforce an impression I was getting at how in-tune Country Inn & Suites was to Gordon's unique needs. I recall asking if they had hosted Gordon's drivers for a while. The answer came quickly back that "this has been going on for over a year."

    That is, a weekly influx of prospective drivers, from 5 to 12 each week, had been showing up there for Gordon's Orientation, week after week for over a year and the hotel staff understood the tension, the little life dramas. When I mentioned that I'd taken 18 months off, the clerk assured me, unprompted, that if I needed some brush-up, Gordon would readily provide a trainer. "They've done it before, I know," he said. They had seen drivers stay on, trying to get through their physicals, sweating out this or that.

    The next day I waited for the shuttle. It didn't come and it didn't come well past the 6:30 a.m. departure time. So I inquired at the counter. "Oh," came the reply, "They left early because we had someone who needed to get to the airport. We thought you would drive over." So, on Day 2, I was late!
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2013
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  11. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    Day 2 Orientation

    I walked into Day 2 Orientation about five minutes late feeling like a high schooler who dallied a little too long at the cafeteria and to a visible roll-of-the-eyes from the Recruiter's Assistant, who was our primary point of contact with Gordon throughout Orientation. Now I had two black-eyes in a row with her since she had to call me downstairs at the hotel on Day 1.

    Super Service and Swift were the heaviest smokers in the room and I thought Super Service, who had a sharp and quick wit, should be the class bad boy, not me but I was pulling well ahead in that department. Plus my outspoken anti-smoking opinions drew friendly-fire from the smokers, Super Service and Swift especially.

    We quickly settled in to a video from Payroll about how to fill out the Gordon Trip Sheet, a necessary skill if you wanted to get paid. Across the front of it are vertical rows of fill-in circles for numbers you fill in for your load number and truck number which you repeat in boxes at the top of each vertical row, so there's a double-check. There's a section on the right for any out-of-pocket expenses and receipts, like scale tickets and some lines at bottom for any explanation. In the middle you record your trailer numbers, starting and ending destination with that trailer and then the major routes you drove.

    Gordon fuels mostly at Pilot, Flying J, Petro and Loves which probably isn't a surprise. Every driver gets a ComData card for fuel and your first pay goes on that card (used by you as a debit card for your personal funds) even if you signed up to have all or part of your pay deposited into your checking. You could split your pay if, for example, you wanted some money deposited into the ComData card each week and the rest into your bank account, you could. Gordon also does advances which go onto the card, although I never needed it, despite the low pay. Later on I picked up a truck in Pontoon Beach (Pontoon Beach, IL, site of former Buske terminal northeast of St. Louis) and a part-time driver's QualComm messages indicated if he worked, he asked for an advance.

    Gordon pays weekly and there's only a one-week hold out. You Trans-Flo your paperwork either from scanner terminals in the drivers' room at a Gordon terminal or Pilot or Flying J truck stops. One truck stop, I think it's Loves, does not have a kiosk but does have Trans-Flo, I forget which, and you hand your paperwork to the cashier. Otherwise you scan it yourself at the kiosk, verify it, send it off and collect a receipt that pops up off a printer. The driver keeps the originals and if the scan doesn't come through clear and legible, Payroll will contact you and have you re-scan. Paperwork Trans-Floed in to Payroll by 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday goes on your next check.

    I had Payroll contact me only once when I worked for Gordon. My pay was so low one week because the week before I had fueled only at truck stops without Trans-Flo and had accumulated a week's worth of Trip Sheets--which meant a week delay in my pay. I told her I was saving up to buy a hamburger since Gordon pay was so low. "I'm not even going there," came the friendly-but-knowing reply. I thought she clearly agreed about the pay.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2013
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