Furniture Row Express

I am not sure how they calculate trip miles, but each mile per hour of truck speed equates to about 2/3 of a penny per mile... In order to keep the pay static, we would need at least a $0.02 per mile raise just for the 3mph speed reduction... Somehow, I don't think the pay will be as much once everything is factored in...

 

Furniture row accounts include Tyson, JBS Swift, Pilgrim's Pride (JBS), and Con Agra, to name a few...

 

They sent me to Hammond, La... I unload in a few hours, and have no preplan... I expect they will route me into orientation in the next week or two... I am going to go through with the transfer, but its up to them if I stay... My tolerance is going to be a bit low, as I am a bit annoyed at how this was handled with us drivers to begin with... I am looking at a few options if they don't work out... If I decide to go up to the Williston Basin in North Dakota, I will likely make over $100,000.00, but its a bit inconvenient... I am also looking at an aerospace hauler out of Washington state, and yes, they haul oversize loads... Since I live near Wichita, I would get home often...

 

Hoping the best for you drivers. I was a Gordon driver as well. Veteran's Day last year was when the Qualcomm message was sent...at 1645PST no less. We tried to rationalize staying and the initial story we got was it would help both Gordon and Heartland spread in the other direction (Gordon being primarily west and Heartland east. Both companies also split General Mills logisitics (captaining) for their loads). What some of us did was research everything we could about Heartland. One of my biggest concerns was Heartland being a publicly traded company while Gordon was privately held. One thing about publicly traded companies; they are beholden to the stockholders, ie, whatever they do has to be to turn a profit or increased dividend. For example, Swift recently announced a driver pay increase and their stock immediately went down. Swift's management team stated their reasoning for increased driver pay to keep and attract better drivers which would, over time, increase profit. Tow614 did alot of pro's and con's and the more I learned, the more I didn't want to stay. Operations at Gordon kept saying nothing would change...for now. The biggest challenge for you now is if you decide to change, who are you going to go with? Tow614 and I decided to go back to small company. The only constant in trucking is...change. Good luck to all of you wherever you land!

 

I know it was initially pitched as a merger on the Qualcomm, but it actually appears to be an outright sale... As for deal perks, you might be right... I have some firsthand knowlege on the pushing for updated equipment... I don't want to say anymore about this at this point... I expect Celedon is after the accounts more than us drivers, but they need some of us for at least a while to show up and pick up loads... They want it to look like they took the operation over... If all of us were to go away, it would appear to those accounts that we were disposed of, and the accounts were the only purchase... We also have the operational knowlege to perform as usual, except for the name on the truck door... I don't know if they will succeed in retaining 90 or not... They are trying pretty hard though... It will be interesting so see how this shakes out...

 

My other fear would be that Celedon is on a buying frenzie... Are they becomming too leveraged to be healthy???

 

Celadon has been doing this for years. Growth through acquisition. I remember when they bought Hiner out of Huntington, Indiana. That was an odd purchase to say the least. Hiner had nothing of value to bring to Celadon. A small dry van carrier based in northeastern Indiana that primarily ran small accounts to the northeast and broker freight back.

 

Oh Yippee!! Good luck