My new experience with Gordon Trucking, post-buyout

It's Sunday night and I have finally arrived at my home for the next four days or so, the Country Inn and Suites hotel, which is pretty nice, actually. A GTI driver on Foursquare told me to ask for an odd-numbered room near the front desk because, she said, I-70 is on the even numbered side and is quite loud. Plus the wifi isn't so good the farther away one gets from the front office. Well, without even asking, I'm in Room 223, which is on the right side and is quite close...5 bars close! So good!

I have a roommate who used to drive for Gordon and was a trainer quite a while ago. He's from Iowa and left to run meat, but he's back because he wants to do reefer again; According to him, I don't have much chance of getting reefer because of where I live. We'll see, I guess. His knowledge is old and things have changed. He's not sure if he wants to be in the USE fleet like me or dedicated or regional yet. Out of respect for his privacy, I won't give out his name; some of you might know him and I surely don't want to start a range war this early on.

Now it's time to relax. Tomorrow it's drug testing and such, which will be interesting. They do both urine and hair testing but I'm bald...

More tomorrow, campers!

 

Which, of course, is where I am for now. Maybe if I smile sweetly and tell stories of a daughter and grandson in Oklahoma City...

And as for the hair test, I have eyelids, eyelashes, armpits, and...well, other, longer hair.

LEGS!

 

Lunch break. Lots of paperwork this morning and I received two company policy books, the FMCSR, a hazmat recognition book, and an emergency response book. I'm disappointed that I didn't get TC fleet because I live in Michigan, but I am on the USE fleet, which might not be too bad.

This afternoon is all about drug testing and the physical. So far, it's the only part that makes me nervous.

 

Sitting in the Concentra office waiting for my drug screen and physical, I'm amazed at the new-hire candidates here with me complaining about how GTI does things...and none of us have been here before except the one former trainer. He's a big complainer too.

 

The first of four days is done and my concern about the medical turned out to be self-created worry. I received a no-restrictions, 2-year medical which makes me happy...I can now put it with my collection of 2-year med cards that are still valid.

GTI does test both hair and urine and they need a fair amount of hair, not just a snip or two. Being bald and relatively unhairy in other places, I wondered how they would handle it. I will tell you that I did not have enough armpit or mustache hair, so my chest is now as bare as my head is...and she barely got enough at that. I'm going to be an itching guy when it starts growing back in!

The other factor I validated (I already knew it physiologically) was that holding urine for hours before a drug text is NOT a good idea if your BP will be taken first, which was the case here. My "need-to-pee-bad" BP was 10 points above the FMCSR maximum, which would have disqualified me from getting ANY med card, thus also disqualifying me from employment with GTI.

However, the doc retook my BP after the drug screen and my BP was 123/74, well within normal range. So the moral of the story is not to wait too long if you're going to get a BP test before your urine drug screen.

Day 2 waits in the wings.

 

But new hires?!? We know nothing so we shouldn't be complaining, right?