My new adventure with Gordon Trucking

You should never say.." final company" . You put too much expectations on a company. No matter how much info you may glean from every source available you will never know for sure until you get in their truck and go.
I hope you do find what you are looking for though.

 

I use "final company" with intent. Trucking is my third career, after commercial flying and the FAA, and unlike many workers, I never wanted to work until I die; I sacrificed and made career-related decisions with retirement in mind. I did rather well and retired in 2011 with what would have been a very comfortable pension and superb benefits from the government had it not been for losing a lawsuit. But I did, so I made a third career choice out of a 'bucket list' item, driving a commercial motor vehicle.

I have hated the job hunting/preemployment process in all fields forever and job-skipping sucks. The grass is not greener over there, making a few cents more per mile is irrelevant to me, and there is no perfect company. But there is one that meets all my needs. All I have to do is narrow the search to the finalists (it's pretty much down to two now), then choose.

The "choose" part has always been the most difficult of the process for me and it is now, too. I have no idea what one factor will bounce out one day from these diverse companies to speak to me. But I have confidence and time, so I will continue to 'listen' and talk to drivers when I can.

 

I've only seen 4 terminals so far (Rancho, Lathrop, Indy, and Pontoon Beach). As Joseph said, all have been nice and clean with everything you might need. PB was especially nice. People in the shop there were great. Very helpful and friendly.

No complaints so far.

 

I thought i was at my final company also. It kinda funny how fate says it aint so.

 

Made it to pontoon beach with 12 minutes left on my 14 and 6 hrs left on my 70.. on my way to casa grande, az from findlay, oh. Got enough hrs dropping off to get there then will probably need a reset since I only got a 6 and a 2 coming off after I deliver.
They now have an inspection bay set up here at pontoon beach and they inspect everything that comes in all day long. Maybe this will eventually cut down on some loss time since we have a lot of lazy drivers that never get their trailers fixed...but that is a thread in and of itself.

 

Do drivers do any trailer work like lights, brakes or does Gordon want the drivers to just drive?

 

Like chains, drivers do what they can and must under the circumstances to stay legal and safe. Gordon will not peep to pay a Freightliner dealer $100 to pop in a bulb to stay legal. Nor give any kudo that you bought the bulb and swapped the old one out. OTR appreciates your effort to get around road service, though. OTR will thank you. And OTR will send out road service if you're stranded and despite that you think you're okay until morning. "Vic, we're gonna send a service truck out, okay? It won't break the bank, really... It's all right." And they did and it was a great help.

Unlike a lot of drivers, I really liked and appreciated OTR.

 

Otr is very responsive..however i carry a box with several spare lights that i get at the shops. Any shop will give them to you when you ask for them. This saves me a lot of time. Tail lights,tag lights,turn signals,marker lights and headlights. The newer trailers with the l.e.d. lights have to be done by a shop. It is very rare those go out but when they do it is usually a wiring problem.
If a t/a or petro is close i usually send a message to otr advising them of my problem and i am going to have the t/a call them. That would be for trailer work or tires. If it is mechanical they will have us go to freightliner or possibly cummins.
Brake adjustments we never do. Gordon does not want us doing them. The self adjusters do work well,just pump the brakes a few times and that does it. If not then go to a shop. In 4 years i have not had any adjustment problems here. I have had to have brakes replaced though. Other companies ihave had lots of adjustment problems. When i drove for interstate they actually had the drivers certified to do adjustments and we had to on a regular basis with them but not with gordon.