My new experience with Gordon Trucking, post-buyout

Stuffed from eating too much and back at the hotel for the night. Medical, physical, drug screen, driving test, and Smith System complete. Day 3 tomorrow.

 

Yeah, that's the one part at which I'm not doing so well. There's room for growth!

 

It's the primary reason I chose GTI. Now all I have to do is wait until Thursday to find out where I go to pick up my ride. There are 11 of us in class (everyone who started is still here!) and there are ZERO trucks here in Indy. In fact, for our road tests. we all had to use the trucks of drivers who just happened to be in or unlucky enough to visit the yard since even the training trucks are gone or broken.

This should be exciting. And interesting. One driver has a fear of flying and another drove his POV.

 

Lunchtime on Day 3. We've learned about how GTI uses the Qualcomm and how important tip dating the PTI is, and how to manage our pay. Pretty normal stuff.

What isn't normal is this: How can a student's every 6th or 7th word be the 'hit' word that starts with 's,' or fukken? In public. In mixed company. And spitballs?!? Seriously? What is this...7th Grade? If the employees in our industry want to be taken seriously as professionals, more work on personal behavior is needed. It's not enough just to SAY I'm a professional.

And it's snowing in Indy again. And sticking.

 

End of Day 3 brings the first real trepidation on my part.

We covered logging, trip planning, and OS&D (Overages, Shortages, and Damages) this afternoon after getting the low-down skinny from the Safety department, or Risk Management, as it's called at GTI, this morning. First, they use a whole lot more QC macros than my previous company did; there, we basically used 4: log in, log out, empty call, and loaded call. Here at GTI, there are 54 macros and most of them are used frequently. That will take some adjustment on my part, right from the start.

The trepidation came during the OS&D presentation. Without going into a lot of detail (I left my books at the classroom because we check out tomorrow) I'll just say it's not something I had to deal with in either of my two previous employers. Basically, there is a lot more "product observation" going on than I've ever done; a lot more signatures are required; and more departments are in the loop here at the company in case of a problem. Hopefully, there will be an adequate amount of DM understanding when I forget to do a macro; mess up a load call; fail to get a signature when needed; forget to scan some piece of paper; or fail/forget to get/put the required notation in the proper QC block.

Oh, and GTI used the Qualcomm to provide routing and fuel stops - including amount - in addition to preplanning. That will be a significant difference, too.

We did learn that nobody will be flying anywhere to pick up an assigned truck and that there are enough between here and the yard in Pontoon Beach. We still don't know who is going where with one exception...one of the students is being held back a day or two for "more information."

So now I have to figure out dinner and pack my belongings. We check out and leave tomorrow; Jamie told us we should be done by 11:00 and we will then get truck and DM assignments. Then I will take my first dispatched load back home to Grand Rapids, park the trailer at the local Coca-Cola plant (one of their big customers in my area) and take the truck home to prepare to drag low- and high-cube dry vans around the country for weeks of fun!

I hope they give me a Cascadia, but I will take any aquatint-and-boatswain-colored truck they assign. We were told to be careful about who hears us use "Smurf" when describing the color. No worries. I think it's a good name.

 

Tip dating? Really? I have no idea what I was trying to say, but I'm pretty sure that "tip dating" wasn't part of my original thought...!