My new adventure with Gordon Trucking

Wow. I go away for two days and come back to this. Back to Lessors for you, then?

I have blocked heartofatrucker's posts. To me, he is either a very narrow-viewed missionary or a spy sent by one company or the other to do something or else. I have no trust in him because of that. It will be interesting to see what happens to the present crop of drivers over the next six months or so. I do believe part of the reason for poor paychecks is the winter weather, but one would think the executives at GTI would have explained something to us. As I said in my own forum, this kind of silence is anything but golden, especially at this very chaotic time.

I wonder what I will do now. My heroes have all taken to the hills...

 

I know Señor Gordon worked 50 years and deserves a comfortable retirement, but I cannot imagine that he doesn't feel a bit of regret at making this change so quickly and drastic. The blog posts about new trucks - with aquatint bumpers! - don't provide much solace when weighed against the number - and quality - of long-time employees who are leaving.

Then again, maybe that is Heartless's desire...get rid of the Gordon drivers and replace them with those who want to work for Heartless.

 

Even considering that a very small percentage of GTI drivers are on TTR, your statement says a lot, DY. Hopefully, when I come out of hometime, my APU will get fixed soon and I will go back to earning The Big Bucks.

We will see.

 

I, too, learned that folks up the chain read TTR posts. I made the mistake of posting some inappropriate, proprietary information by mistake early on. I got a very nice telephone call from a Fleet Manager asking me not to do that. I wasn't scolded, as I probably would have been at other companies, and the FM and I had a nice 20 minute conversation about "how things are." As a new driver, I appreciated 1) the tone of the conversation, and 2) the information.

I told Dallas Jerry that one of the best things about the Heartland takeover are the truck wash bays. That might not be enough when they begin to implement their procedures in earnest. In spite of the spy among us and his missionary zeal, there is a huge chasm between the Heartland Way and the Gordon Way. The drivers who are leaving, especially those long-term drivers, are voicing their displeasure with the speed and scope of the changes.

 

I have been following Josephs posts specifically because I needed to know if I could recommend GTI as a company to help folks transition from Mega carrier to smaller corp solo driver.

I had understood that good changes were made after I left. And Joseph seemed successful with those changes.

I now see that I can no longer make the recommendation of GTI for that transitional phase.

To burn a "runner" by pulling them from a money maker (for the driver) load to deliver a 12 mile local local is STILL not acceptable. Up the accessory pay or get a local dry driver that you train for refer to run it.......

Evidently GTI can not keep the DEF trucks running either. Sad. I figured with their dealership ties (ownership) they could make it happen.

Equipment that won't let you get the miles and a staff that does not get a driver compensated for a money looser (for the driver) load is not acceptable.

 

Good observation... during my time at gti my wife and I teamed there 3 1/2 years. We had 4 new Cascadias during that time. Only 1 of them were any count and we had the head gasket replaced after 68k on it; our last one. I eventually had 287k on it when I left with no more problems with the truck or apu. The apu was an interesting story as when we got it new thermaking had not installed the dpf system on it. We were told they would call us in a couple of months to install it but I never mentioned it and it was never done. Ironically I never had a problem with my apu. Obviously the dpf system is what is causing the problems..

on another note... my new company also runs cascadias and do not have any issues with their trucks like gti does. We are a much smaller fleet but one would think with all the problems gti has that everyone should be having these problems if it were a Freightliner issue. I wonder what exactly gti is doing differently.

Taking drivers off money runs to rescue short runs was a common occurence for my wife and I while teaming for gti. I cannot tell you the number of times we were pulled of good runs to shag some obscure 150 mile run that would take up half of our day. This was frustrating to say the least and one of the several reasons I had my wife leave the company to find employment outside of trucking.

Initially my plan was for her to gain employment at our local hospital and when her insurance benefits kicked in I was going to leave trucking. Oddly when I started running solo I found myself being treated a lot better and was able to do quite well. Just when I had decided to stick with gti as a solo driver until retirement, heartland took over and we all know the rest.

as you said blu... gti was a company that given the right situation one could do quite well. But those days are over I am afraid. I hope greyhound and denalidad find continued success there but their success is very spotty at best. They are the only ones left out of our cheerleading squad. Kinda wierd..

I would recommend to anyone now to find a company in the 150 to 300 truck range. Not so small as to not have benefits but not too big. One where every truck counts in their bottom line and they will see to it that you make money.

 

Tow, this bit of advice here could have been lifted from my "list of things to look for in a trucking company".

 

Joseph I think most of the runners that have come into the doors of GTI have moved on. And any new runners will also do the same thing.

The non runners are what remain. They are good enough to get loads delivered, buy lack your (and my) work style. GTI has Learned to load plan to those drivers. GTI can not reasonably run as a multi tier operation with respect to driver quality. Basically they are not set up to retain runners. GTI will use runners but runners do not fit into the status quo and are a challenge for GTI to keep busy. It is not that GTI does not want runners it is that they do not fit with how their organization operates.

I have learned to treat trucking companies as I treat a temp/contract agency. Each load is a new contract assignment. Keep me in worthwhile contracts and I will stay. Not enough good contracts or too many bad contracts and I find another agency/broker.


I am looking forward to learning the criteria you use to pick your next load broker.

 

Hi Joseph. After you have moved on to another company and the "dust has settled", perhaps you could share your writing talents with the rest of us in the future with regards to your experiences from your previous employers.
Many of us have been following your posts even if we don't always respond. I guess experience really is the best teacher.
Thank you for your thread and I think I speak for more than just myself when I say that I hope to hear from you again soon.