Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

The Money Thing Again--My 2nd 3 Weeks with Gordon


Week 4--11/04-11/10 (Paid 11/16/2012 for Sunday-Saturday)
Dispatch #15--Coldwater, MI E to Battle Creek, MI L to Groveport, OH
318 miles.............................................................................$ 98.58
Dispatch #16--Groveport, OH E to Columbus, OH L to Dowagiac, MI
291 miles............................................................................... 90.21
Dispatch #17--Dowagiac, MI E to Battle Creek, MI L to Indianapolis, IN
292 miles............................................................................... 90.52
Dispatch #18--Indianapolis, IN L to Seymour, IN (Tractor 10664)
60 miles................................................................................. 18.60
Short Haul Pay......................................................................... 20.00
Dispatch #19--Seymour, IN L to Indianapolis, IN (Tractor 10664)
60 miles.................................................................................. 18.60
Short Haul Pay......................................................................... 20.00
Gross pay......................... $356.21
Net pay.............................$310.93
Miles.....................................1021


Week 5--11/11-11/17 (Paid 11/23/2012 for Sunday-Saturday)
Dispatch #20--Indy B to Indy B to Indy B to Indy E to Terre Haute B to Greencastle E to Indy--172 mile.....................................................................$ 53.32
Dispatch #21--Indy L to Grove City, OH
177 miles.................................................................................. 54.87
Dispatch #22--Grove City, OH E to Columbus, OH L to Melrose Park, IL
383 miles................................................................................. 118.73
Dispatch #23--Melrose Park, IL E to University Park, IL L to Franklin, WI
176 miles................................................................................... 54.56
Dispatch #24--Franklin, WI E to Green Bay, WI L to Gas City, IN
532 miles.................................................................................. 164.92
Dispatch #25--Gas City, IN E to Marion, IN L to Lebanon, IN
75 miles...................................................................................... 23.25
Short Haul Pay............................................................................. 20.00
Gross pay.........................$489.65
Net pay............................$413.88
Miles.................................. 1515


Week 6--11/18-11/24 (Paid 11/30/2012 for Sunday-Saturday)
Dispatch #26--Lebanon, IN U to Spencer, IN E to Indy L to Cincinnati, OH
168 miles.................................................. ................................ 52.88
Dispatch #27--Cincinnati, OH E to Richmond, IN L to Sturgis, MI L to Richmond, IN
405 miles.................................................................................. 125.55
Stop/Pickup................................................................................. 15.00
Dispatch #28--Richmond, IN L to Sturgis, MI L to Richmond, IN
344 miles................................................................................... 106.64
Stop/Pickup.................................................................................. 15.00
Dispatch #29--Richmond, IN E to Indy L to Mt. Pleasant, IA
412 miles.................................................................................... 127.72
Dispatch #30--Mt. Pleasant, IA E to Dubuque, IA E Prairie Chien L to Kansas City
628 miles.................................................................................... 194.68
Gross pay.......................... $636.37
Net pay............................. $523.63
Miles......................................1957


Written 7/10/2013 at St. Roberts, MO. I'm down for 10 and on my way back to Indy from Springfield, MO , 916 miles round-trip. This single load (not for Gordon) pays $372 and change to the driver plus any breakdown time and any loading/unloading over 2 hours @ $18/hr--as much and more for this single load than Gordon paid me for some full weeks. All rights reserved by author.

 

Right toe!! (Your right toe) Yup, I have this funny idea that if I work, I should get paid for my time--all of it. Always have. Local shag work pays hourly. OTR pays... maybe. Depends on who you work for. When a company like Gordon or C.R. England has you scale their loads for free, work 2 hours to load for free and 2 hours to unload for free and then run you 0-300 miles, it is unconscionable to my mind. How companies like Gordon have managed to brainwash their work force, I believe, is that trucking is actually very difficult to get into. You need a year or more, due to insurance, to land a job that will pay you for your time. Don't hand me a turd and tell me I've got the good end. Don't. That turd doesn't have a good end.

The truth is in the math. Divide your pay by your hours. If you made $20 and worked 4 hours, you made $5/hour. It matters. Fortunately, the Director of Transportation where I work now has the funny idea that if you work, he doesn't mind paying you. (That's actually a direct quote even though the quotes aren't there.)

Or, like Les Miserables:

"Look down, Look down! You'll always be a slave!!"

I have another page completed and had thought to upload that after I upload pictures but I'll do that now, too, since you both have rattled my cage.
Ah, tow614, never far, never far...

 

Before We Jump In Again

Before we jump in again to the narrative of my five months with Gordon I want to restate my purpose in this thread, which is to tell enough of the specific details of my 5 month experience with Gordon to reveal the 'Gordon-ness' of Gordon; what makes Gordon different from other companies; that is, reveal the part that is uniquely Gordon.

Across from me right now at the Pilot/Road Ranger Truck Stop at St. Robert, MO are four Cascadias, side-by-side, each owned and operated by different companies. One is a Ryder rental pulling a furniture moving van, then Celadon, Swift and FFE, four companies with distinctly different policies and cultures. (There was even a fifth a little further over.) All the Cascadias were virtually identical white Freightliners. (Click or tap to enlarge, depending PC or iOs.)

I think these companies are likely vastly different from one another. What makes these companies different from each other despite their identical trucks? That's what I want to get to here, insofar as Gordon is concerned. What's more, I'm going to 'pull a Gordon'--or what I think of as pulling a Gordon--fairly often. That is, I'm going to beat up on Gordon for not paying for certain work, especially on short loads, peewee loads that I call 'stinker' loads that lead to peewee pay checks--just like I think Gordon beat up on me by treating me sometimes more like a prisoner or slave. Only slaves and prisoners are required to work for free. And, oh yeah, frequent paltry wages. Peewee wages. If the public knew that the backbone of the Republic is paid so poorly...

So far this thread has covered my first three (3) weeks at Gordon. Trust me here: despite my repeated complaints about Gordon's pay, you can do a lot worse than Gordon, aka (also known as) GTI. Gordon has top-notch equipment, excellent terminals, tons and tons of freight (you'll have a Pre-Plan to your next load before you drop the load you've got), Driver Managers who won't out right verbally abuse you (for the most part) and a need for new drivers, rookies, to feed the machine. Like Uncle Sam, Gordon needs you.

Some of the unique experience I acquired there could only come from a company like Gordon and I am very thankful for it. And I'm not saying that you or I couldn't acquire that same experience somewhere else. What I intend to do here is to take Gordon to task for some of its payroll policies, while fairly portraying what it might feel like to be dispatched and work for Gordon. To put you in my shoes, the shoes of an experienced driver but new to Gordon; a rookie to the rather vast world that Gordon is.

The bottom line is that I would not hesitate to recommend Gordon along with a warning that unless you're a seasoned OTR driver in similar lanes and similar freight, you may suffer pay-wise, at least at first, but I think you will benefit otherwise especially if you're a driver who has not ventured out into multi-state OTR before. Money isn't everything. I benefited. Despite being bad for my pocket-book, Gordon was good to me and for me in more ways than I can count--but not for pay.

Enough said for now?



Written July 10, 2013 at St. Robert, MO. Pics uploaded July 11, 2013 at Sam's Club, Rockville Road, Indy. All rights reserved by author.

 

Hey! tow614!

You'll have time this week to start your own thread... you could call it, "View from the Top--from a Veteran Gordon Trucker," full of "tips and insights for the 1st-tier how to get to the 2nd-tier..."

Have a good, well-earned week off.

Vic

PS Ah, but even so, week off or no, methinks you won't be far!

 

View attachment 50691


Four smiley sisters with bright, stainless steel grins...

Kinda reminds me of Jaws, the Bond 007 assassin!

You'll notice that Celadon has his headlights and marker lights on. He kept them on all night shining into my windshield. I remembered, though, another reason the Trainer did not want me to flip my headlights to okay a truck to pull in. The Cascadia has high-intensity lamps that require a huge burst of voltage to light. The bulbs cost, he said, about $25 each, and turning them off-and-on like that wears them out prematurely and strains the batteries (yes!), too. Hard to believe, but I suppose.

My T800 Aerocab (Kenworth) has conventional sealed-beam headlights so I am free to signal 'pull-in when ready' any time I want. Plus, since I'm governed at 71 and not 63, not as many trucks pass me now. If the speed limit is 65, I run 65-67 depending on conditions and how I feel. If 70, I run 65-70, accordingly.

When I got in, fueled and post-tripped, I headed for Mann's Grill for the Alaskan fish sandwich ($3.70), then Sam's to upload these pics because my iPad can't; had a slice of garbage (everything, the works) pizza at Sam's; next The Tamale House on Rockville for a steak taco and chicken chipolte tamale. Had hoped to take that to go but it was gone by the time I unloaded my gear back at the yard and headed for home.

Medicine ball in my tummy, ugh! Gained 20 pounds at Gordon and haven't made a dent in it yet. Another, bigger, ugh! Talked to the trainer I had where I work now. When he runs Springfield, what he calls a branch run, he does his double-drop-and-hook and then turns back around, pushes for exit 204 and Dotties (Cuba, MO). There is a small, independent truck stop and his favorite place to spend the night on that run. Gets there in 11-hours from start in Indy, but he runs some harder than I do. Might be worth it for the food, though, including a buffet. Uh-oh!

A double-drop-and-hook (D-D&H) differs from a drop-and-hook (D&H) in that you temporarily spot the trailer you brought, pull the outbound out from its door or location and temporarily spot it, then rehook the one you brought and put it where the outbound was. So you have one location that the outbound comes out of, and the inbound replaces it there. Double-drop-and-hook. Gordon calls this a spot/pickup (See msg 81, this page, Dispatch #27-28) and pays $15 extra. Whoopee! Add fries to that.) (Also see page 6, msg 54, for example description of D-D&H.)

So that's a plus for Gordon because we get nothing extra for the D-D&H, except one or two trips here pays as much as some Gordon 7-day weeks. The Indy-St. Paul-Indy paid $462.84 plus 2.5 breakdown hours @ $18/hr. (See pages 5-6, messages 49, 54--I think.)

On the way to Mann's Grill this afternoon saw a yellow sign going up in front of Old Dominion (on Morris west of Holt), for drivers and dock workers. That's a top-notch outfit. No slaves or prisoners needed there. Work it; get paid for it. Oh, pooh! What? No sign-on bonus? Nope. Just honest wages for honest work! Little Steven's Underground Garage tonight (Thursday) on WTTS Indy, 10pm-Midnight. I usually fall asleep, drat!




I'm back at home. Written July 11, 2013 north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author.

 

A Short Further Diversion

Thanks to ambulance_driver and Dark_Majesty_06.

Let me expound a little on hunting for a good job. It is unfortunate that when you first start out almost any job that will take you and get you some experience is a good job. When I first started in the '70s, I started out PU/DEL (Pickup and Delivery) in a straight truck that didn't require a CDL for a small cartage outfit in the San Fernando Valley (California)--no air brakes. My regular driver's license was fine for that. I don't remember anything about the pay but it was a good little single-owner company. Maybe he had three or five trucks, I think, dunno. Can't remember. He did have a small cross-dock operation. You unloaded picked up freight at night and back into the same trucks routed by area to go out to deliver in the morning.

It may surprise you that there are lots of guys (and gals--or should be) driving straight trucks five days a week pulling down real dollars. Good money, living wages, not the peewee wages of some of the notable OTR (7-day, 14-hour day) outfits. You see a straight truck with U.S. Mail and it's not the postal service? You can bet that driver is making $22 plus per hour. And no, he/she does not have to work for free before, after or during. Ah, but you want to drive the big rigs, right? Nothing wrong with that. You'll need your CDL.

If you get your CDL and take care of your CDL, your CDL will take care of you. I know a gal who has water trucks, straight trucks, filling pools, pays her drivers ten per cent (10%) of each load. The 5000 gallon trucks run $250 per load and her drivers do $150-$225 per day. It's a short season, May through August with some winter work and some long hours, too. When I do the math on what she's pulling down for herself with some older trucks it all but takes my breath away. Real money. Lots of maintenance, too. But, wow. Just multiply out 6 loads of 5000 gallons times $250 per load times three trucks (6 * $250 * 3 = $4500/day). She actually has six trucks but not all 5000 gallon capacity. But do the math. A good driver can do 10 loads a day for her.

A way to get your "B" is to sign up with a local school district and drive school bus. Doesn't pay a lot but they will train you, take you for your skills test. School buses have air brakes, too

December, 2010, the FMCSA came out with CSA 2010 and radically changed trucking. You can now sit in a restaurant on a busy street with your laptop or iPad open, and look up the CSA scores for trucks that pass by. You can tell a lot about a company by its CSA score. The CSA scores just don't seem to lie. You can look at every ticket a company has received for the last two years. I do this automatically whenever I see a company that interests me. I recommend you get really familiar with company CSA scores.

The URL is http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/Search.aspx. You can search the company name or its DOT number. Google the company name and 'DOT number' if you have trouble finding a company on the CSA site. Just for fun, look up the CSA scores for the transportation companies advertising for drivers on CraigsList. Many hide their identity but you can find many by Googling the phone number in their job listing. Many have horrible CSA scores. I don't want to drive for them. More on all this later.