Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Trip and pay details of my first 3 weeks.............. page 2, message 17.
Trip and pay details of my second 3 weeks.......... page 9, message 81.
Summary of loads............................................ page 14, message 139.
Best short summary of trucking for Gordon........ CougFan, page 16, messages #152, #153.

At the top of page 17 (message #161), tow614 said something worth hanging on to:

Now there's a mouthful worth chewing on.

Rookies typically don't know yet when they have the wet and smelly part of the turd. So they don't know when to speak up--or how. Earlier I wrote how I needed to push people to the edgy point where they got really upset and revealed their character (page 14, message #136, paragraph 2).

If tow614 sounds there like he's got one foot always ready to step out of the Cascadia and toss the keys back to Gordon, he probably does and it reveals his character, too. If upset, he isn't going to just stew and take it. He's going to take it to 'em until they take notice. A rookie's first instinct is to keep his head down low enough so that it isn't too likely to get shot right off. What works for tow614 may not work for you or me.

It's all but impossible at Gordon to take anyone's word as Gospel, not your DM, not your Fleet Manager, not your fellow driver. First off, it's like that anecdote of the seven blind men examining an elephant; each had a separate part, a tusk, the trunk (probiscus), an ear, the tail, the side. They completely disagreed with each other about the elephant--until they decided to share their notes among themselves.

Gordon is like that elephant: too big for one person who has only his or her own picture of the whole. Secondly, the policy is not the policy is not the policy. It changes. It's not the same as it was a while back or will be at some future point. What was allowed yesterday is not okay today and what's okay today is not going to be okay tomorrow. For that matter, it varies according to whom you're talking to. Oh, yeah. At Pontoon Beach, a mechanic will have to sneak you a spray can of all-purpose cleaner, like it's a big deal, something I could just walk into the shop in Indy and take off the shelf myself if I needed it. Go figure on that one.

Did I get west of Denver? Ya darn betcha. More on that later.

The newbie and his stuff had that unpleasant stale cigarette smell. I figured I could put up with it to Franksville. His truck was at Master Tech on the other side of the freeway and near a truck stop on this side. I wasn't familiar with either one. I'm still puzzled that Gordon hired him because he had just had a wreck.

His last company had fired him after he pulled off from the shoulder and onto the roadway, then a UPS piled into him. Fortunately, both drivers walked away and the UPS driver was held at fault. Only thirty (30) days before. That is, within the last thirty (30) days he had been involved in a DOT-reportable accident and fired. Gordon hired him. He insisted that Gordon hired him knowing all this and I saw him later so apparently so...

Now I needed to get him to his truck before my hours ran out. Luckily, I somehow spotted Master Tech. As we pushed up the off-ramp I pushed the QualComm at him. "Tell me when it gets down to one minute!" I said. He didn't know where to look. "In the upper right hand corner," I said. I wanted to use all my legitimate clock to get as far, as close as I could. So we could part company and I could have my Cascadia motorhome to myself.

About half way up he announced, "One minute!" Cool, I said, and pulled over and switched over to off-duty. I crossed over and debated whether to pull into the root beer stand but with all his gear went straight to Master Tech and looked for an entrance. I took the first one, which wasn't right but we drove through the front lot and as I turned into the side lot saw his truck. The QC wasn't even sqawking about being in violation! (Within 2 miles of location went off-duty--test your QC before you try rely on this. I tested mine repeatedly.)

I pulled up not quite in front of his new ride and shut down right there for the night.

Welcome to Gordon, buddy!



Written August 2, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author.

 

The Newbie's Outspoken Conservative Politics

The Newbie fancied himself a strongly outspoken conservative, not necessarily a Tea Partier--I'd been to a Tea Party meeting and he hadn't. Our long conversation occurred still on the heels of Obama's surprise victory--pleasantly and a relief to some like me, not so much (slight under-hyperbole here) to those on the Right, like the Newbie, Rush, Rove, Beck, Savage and Hannity, who hadn't picked themselves off the floor yet.

The Newbie had about a half a tank of political gas left like the Right in general, wondering what Obama-truck ran over them and how they didn't see it coming. The Right had taken the cynical view that if they simply stymied Obama, even if it meant damaging the country, that the short memory of the public would forget what political philosophy brought the world economy to the brink of a historic long, bleak winter.

Here in Indiana in mid to late 2008, you either had cash or you were broke. You couldn't sell assets to keep going because no one could buy. Your assets were worthless. Cars, trucks, tools, equipment, everything except guns--no one was buying. Things ground to a halt around here and most of Indiana is a red-state area (Moderate to Far Right) and very much so locally. I had gone into the year with $25K in cash and had to sign up with Mid-States Express up in Indy in June to keep my nose above the proverbial.

The Newbie had never read any Ayn Rand so didn't know the economic playbook underpinning the far Right. He just bought into the anti-government, small government, less regulation mantra that makes it possible for the Gordons to work him a hundred hours a week for less than a 40-hour week should pay. My mechanic in his shop a mile up the road is a good example of this same outspoken economic blindness on steroids.

His wife is a hygienist at a nearby dental office and most of her teeth cleaning work is funded on the government's dime. While my property is free and clear, paid off, they take a big interest deduction for mortgage interest, allowing them to finance their nice home and acreage (right next to mine) on the government's dime. If all his retirement and pensioners lost their incomes he might as well close his doors. Oh, the problem is entitlements, all right, just not his and what contribute to his income. His are okay.

There's a wonderful book by Joseph J. Ellis that illustrates that the tension between the 'necessary' accumulations of capital (John Adams, who wrote The Wealth of Nations) and the rights of the people (Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Bill of Rights) has roots going back to our founding. 'Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation' is a great biographical read in paperback. Without trying to, it's a nice little primer on issues of rights and economy still important today and that still define our politics.

Being of the Viet Nam generation, I experienced an era like this when political divisiveness separated the country into camps that could not speak to each other. We got past that, I think. I listened to the Newbie as much as I talked. We had a lively, robust conversation.

So we talked as we rolled up I-65 and I-94 for four hours.


Written August 3, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. 8,999 views as of 7:00 p.m. Thanks! All rights reserved by author.

 

Dispatch #36--Columbus IN E Indianapolis IN L Green Bay WI
441 miles........................................................... $136.71

In the morning I checked with the Newbie before I pulled out and he seemed fine. His truck was a sister to 3579 and no doubt that pleased him. All the way from Indy he marveled at 3579's smooth ride. Well, it had brand new steering tires so it should, after all. Apparently he had been driving some pretty junky equipment from the way it sounded. He had been impressed, as I had been, at all the good rubber in Indy.

His truck had started fine the night before and the APU worked, if I recall. I think I gave him a pretty good heads up at what to expect, without dousing his enthusiasm. Despite all the gear he had with him, he had no food. I had plenty, so gave him some cans of food to hold him over for the night, bottled water and some plastic silverware. It must have seemed to him that UPS bumping his rump was a gift from the Universe.

Well, that's how I would have thought about it, if I were him. It may not have occurred to him that anything was going on other than pretty unpredictable luck. At the very least he was counting his blessings at this unexpected windfall and an opportunity to recover from being fired and involved in a wreck. He had gone from calamity to one of the safest fleets in the country in the short span of 30 days.

I did see him later, I think at the drop yard in Forest View, not sure. He recognized me and I had sort of forgotten him. I did remember that he had left his Orientation souvenir Gordon stocking cap in 3579 and took the opportunity to return it to him.

The delivery in Green Bay was a 'power' unload of palletized bottled water (a typical low-dollar rookie load at 40,549 pounds) and I don't remember much other than the construction in the area that made me circle a couple times, could see it but couldn't get directly there for the torn up streets.

I never got to the Green Bay terminal despite a number of trips and an ongoing repartee on the QC with a night dispatcher ever since Joliet that would continue until I left Gordon. When I got to the customer in Joliet I had just a few minutes fading rapidly before my 'appointment'. I could see it but couldn't find a way in. I called dispatch. He answered and had no info. "What part of Minnesota are you from?" I asked.

"I'm-not-from-Minnesota," he said, seriously. "Well, you certainly are," I said. "And if not Minnesota, you're from some other part of Sven-and-Ollie-land." "You-can-tell-that?" He said. "Ya darn betcha!" I said, reaching back into my Min-ny-So-atah accent. We both got a laugh off that and he said he was out of Green Bay.

I finally re-read the 'once-you-get-off-the-freeway' directions off the QC. It looked like I was going to be a bit late but it brought me right to the gate and--they were open 24 hours. No appointment needed after all. After I got in I QCd Green Bay Sven for the delivery window and he wouldn't tell me. Top secret.

Just Gordon, being Gordon.


Written August 4, 2013 at China Star Buffet, Ellettsville, IN. Hey! GreyHound! You've got a great typo there: 'short ruins'. (4th sentence.) Please don't correct it. Thanks. All rights reserved by author.