How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

Thank You glad to be on the way.

 

Final Thoughts Gordon Food Service 3/2015-3/2023

So what are my final thoughts of Gordon Food Service after 8 years.
Well sad to say I came in right at the tail end of the GFS legacy years. In 2015 the company went from being GFS to Gordon Food Service and the entire culture of the place started to change.

Defiantly the place exists and runs off of the fumes of it's former legacy. It was better then the beer company pay and stuff wise, but is it the best job out there back in the day 1990s and early 2000s it was good when the old man was still alive, but he died in 2008 and slowly they started taking all the bonuses and all that stuff away year after year.

I thought when I got hired it was still a decent place to work and it was. The money was good, you had a set schedule the day to day as far as food service work goes I suppose wasn't terrible. I was not the fastest guy out there, but I always got my work done, but I had big routes too and was always at the top of the case count board.

Anyhow, the work will make an old man out of you and if you are a person who is not careful you could end up with serious health problems. It was the kind of place where it paid pretty good, but they were going to work you harder not smarter and they figured well we can work you harder because were paying you well.

Management while the lower level managers there are some good one's, but for the most part there are some very non-accomplished extremely unimpressive people in management at Gordons most of the people in management and leadership have no business being there, they are completely out for them selves and totally incompetent they don't have any ideas and are just lazy ego maniacs that's all they are you can tell they have no training, no education do not want to be held accountable for anything, they are nothing people who come from nothing towns who come from nothing families who have no education in transportation, logistics etc etc the company in that sense is totally in bread and it's why they have problems.

Benefits wise, the health insurance and stuff is mediocre it's not the best, but it's not the worst you can do better other places, you can also do worse, but it's nothing to write home about.

The profit sharing is fair and I did okay with my 401K but you have to be on it and pay attention.

Equipment used to be good, it's pretty much garbage now and is a cavalcade of incompatible crap. Again that's a failure of leadership. Everything started going down hill 2019. The new trailers from Hyundai are junk and the newer trailers are wider and have junky Carrier refer units on them the tractors the Freightliner trucks they are buying again junk the Kenworths they have again probably junk. The 101" wide Hyundai trailers they bought new are awful to use on delivery. What I was told was in 2018 Volvo redesigned there trucks and the new body style Volvos are substantially more expensive then the Freightliners and basically because Gordons is ran by bean counters everything has to be cheap crap, in other words all they buy is where ever a bean counter can find an available deal. On a side note though Volvo trucks a decade ago and some change were very common I have noticed more Freightliners coming I do think pound for pound when the Volvo goes up against the Freightliner the Volvo is not worth the extra $20-$40K and there are less newer body style Volvo's out there.

I was taking a walk this evening thinking about it all and I said while I didn't want to quit it's probably for the best I know it is and it's the right time and place. I'm not to young, but not to old the timing is pretty good, I have a good record driving wise I have all my endorsements and I've been doing this now 9 years so I'm not an old hand, but I have a little bit of experience so to make the jump to ABF it all lined up and the benefits at ABF are much better as far as the union places goes they are probably the best one besides UPS of course. I'm right at the experience level that ABF used to like 9-10 years have all the endorsements and can do triples has some experience, back in the day ABF used to like to hire guys with 9-10 years of experience that is no longer the case, but that's okay. However now is the time and this is place and it's the correct move I had a chance to go and I did, so that's how it goes.

Made some good friends at Gordons and worked with a good group of co-workers did it all at all hours of the day and night I passed the test and did my best 2 Gold Clubs in 8 years and Transportation Person of the year 2020 part of 2 GFS winning teams 2016 Transport Team of the year 2016 Divisional Team of the year and 2019 Transport Team of the year. Cleveland Transportation Employe of the year 2016 and Cleveland Transportation Employe of the year 2020 and Allegheny Valley Division Transportation Person of the year 2020. Been pushed to my limits and back, but for the most part I fought the fight and did alright, oh sure it came at a cost, and I loved the best and hated the rest but over all it was a great experience at the end of the day and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but now it's over and that's okay.

 

Thanks Gordon’s was pretty good back in the 1990s and 2000s but it got big and management ran it into the ground it’s just how it goes.