My new adventure with Gordon Trucking

Man .. Heartofatrucker is trolling this thread on a Saturday morning... interesting

 

I'm sure you can appreciate that putting out numbers and statistics on a public forum can be a delicate matter and these aren't things that the whole world needs to know. Also, I think it can be a little tacky talking about drivers as numbers when each individual is really what is important. Also, talking about all the great drivers who are making a decision to stay and are being successful is only going to p*** off joseph, tow, and chowick, and it isn't my intent to do that. However, since you keep coming back at this one and believe I am dodging the question for some reason, I will offer some numbers because I think the picture being painted here of things going downhill is very, VERY inaccurate.

Since the first of the year there have been less than 15 guys with 5 or more years longevity who have left. There are over 500 drivers with 5 years or more longevity who are still going strong with the blue. To put this in perspective, one year ago in the same time frame there were 16 guys with 5 years longevity who have left. Unfortunately there is always a little turnover for many reasons, guys retiring, going to a different type of job, and many other reasons, but the turnover (especially among drivers who have been there for awhile) is actually better to start off this year than it was last year. To further put this in perspective, there are 25 additional drivers who just recently hit their 5 year anniversary during the last few months and are still with the blue. So the number of drivers with over 5 years experience has actually increased. As I said before also, the entire fleet has increased from where it was before, and good thing because we have a lot more freight opportunity coming at us.

As for miles, I took at look at the TC fleet specifically. This last week the average miles per driver of all the TC drivers was 184 more miles than the average was in the same week one year ago. On average (we know what averages mean), the TC fleet was on fire last week. I also took a look at the total fleet of all divisions, and same deal, miles increase this week over same week last year. It isn't just this week either, has been trending this way, except for a few of the recent weeks that had all the nasty weather running across the country slowing things down a bit. So having shared this, I'm sure it will get picked apart in 20 different ways, and we could dispute how things are going back and forth all day long. It comes down to this, I have the numbers of the overall picture, and joseph and the others have their own personal experiences which is what is important to them, can't take that away from them. Neither one of us is wrong. I will tell you I won't go back and forth on these points. I did want to share what I had to answer chowick's question, and I did.

 

That is pretty standard legal language that is in there to satisfy certain SEC disclosure requirements to protect the company from investors coming back and saying they weren't informed of the potential risks. If you go back and look, I believe this language has been in the annual reports for at least the past 10 years.

 

Yo theres always a seat open for ya in my truck joe....ill even move stuff apround so you can put up an eagles sticker next to the steelers...bring the heavy metal and lets go!!!!

Imo....a guy like you needs his own truck..you have the experience and the drive.....go fer it my brother... jmo

 

Heartofatrucker. ...

thanks for your response... while we may quibble on some of the numbers which you stated ; for me it is no longer relevant. I responded to my own personal experiences. I believe a disclaimer should always be included with any trucking job "personal experiences may vary" .. lol

I was doing fine for a bit after the buyout and was hoping to be able to make it work. In the end it was more of a lack of support and with things being as they are I made a decision to move away from a situation that was filled with uncertainty and had an atmosphere of decay. I could not see things getting better on the short term and didn't expect changes just to accommodate me.

I do believe it is now time for all of us to move on with our lives. Heartland has its hands full with more important matters than a few former disgruntled drivers and we certainly have more to do than concern ourselves further with a company we have left.

we must look to the future and not the past. For all of those who have decided like I did to leave then let it go...I spent 20 years of my life hating my first wife for cheating on me until ; for the first time after our divorce; 20 years later, I saw her... Man she got ugly !!! and I was so grateful for her cheating on me and spareing me the agony of having to wake up beside her every morning and look at her.... this may very well be our blessing in disguise... be grateful and move on....

 

I would tend to agree Tow. At the end of the day we have made a decision to move on from what WE perceive as going downhill (despite what AVERAGES say. Put one foot in a bucket of ice and one in a bucket of boiling water tell me om average I am ok and i'll tell you I am not). We can only go by what our experiences are. Mine of late were NOT good and if other people's perception is different from mine then that is fine. As I have stated time after time that a trucking company is a very personal thing. I wish all luck who have decided to stay with GTI/HTLND and I for one am glad that I have moved on. And I DO appreciate heartofatrucker's attempt to stand and fight Heartland's corner. I am not going to sit and pick at what he has stated here he has answered some things i and others have addressed and others he has singularly failed to or has answered with the standard corporate position. I wish him and everyone else good luck with whatever they do. Time to move on, what's gone is gone.

 

Check out the post by "air breeze" on the .. heartland pays thread..

 

Cool pic joseph