My new experience with Gordon Trucking, post-buyout

It worked.

 

End of Day 1 of my dispatch. I was given a 511 mile trip from Pontoon Beach to a Sam's DC in the Detroit area. I arrived at the shipper, Unilever, at 0815 CST, and made all kinds of first-day mistakes after hooking my trailer. I turned the wrong way out of the dock and missed the weigh scale I didn't know about. Then I misunderstood the Voice In The Box so they couldn't give me my weights. Fortunately, it was fine, so I went to fuel.

And for the next almost-10 hours, I drove the company-assigned routing - which they would not change at my request - that added more than 100 miles to the plan. I discovered that this truck gets bad mileage...I only got 6.3, which is not good considering that it is governed at 60 mph.

So bad weather, bad routing, bad drivers, and bad fuel economy puts me here at a Michigan rest area with a couple hours to go and just over a quarter tank of fuel. I'm taking an 8 and hope my calculations are accurate. Having a service failure on my first trip is not something I want.

 

The routing took me straight up 69 out of Ft. Wayne to I94 in Ann Arbor then east to I75, instead of taking US 24 to Toledo then to I75. It's shorter, faster, and quieter, and the road is in MUCH better condition, but there was no discussion. Plus, because an idiot in a car wouldn't let me move into the left lane to make my freeway switch to 465 in Indy, I missed it and had to take IN9 up, which adds a whole lot of time and miles.

Ah, well, it's their fuel and I got here legally and on time.

 

I think this truck has been sitting somewhere unused for a while. I had to put on the two 2014 IFTA stickers and the green 2014 Oregon tag sticker. Maybe I'm running the sludge out.

And they still have to get me home...