My new experience with Gordon Trucking, post-buyout

Amazing. With all that, one might think there should be a way the states would use to notify a driver that her license was suspended and why. Then again, it's always been a revenue stream and California has always been a bit anal about their motor vehicle rules; I lived there 30 years and was a traffic officer for 2 of them. Fortunately, I never came across a driver who didn't know about his license being suspended...several I stopped did and admitted it...

🎼 And it's off to jail wee goooo, yo ho...🎶🎶

 

Suspension lifted!

I now possess a valid Michigan Commercial Driver License and med card. Tomorrow, I have a road test with a small locally-owned company that has updated its fleet to 50 or so new, fully equipped KW's. They got a bit sideways with FMCSA but fired a bunch of the old people, slapped the new ones around a bit, and got turned straight. They've been hiring like crazy people, so if I pass the road test, I hope to be running soon. I haven't driven - or backed! - a Kenworth for years, so if not, well, it's on to Plan B.

Just as soon as I come up with a Plan B.

 

I do know that, Blu. I will see, I guess.

 

I didn't pass their "road test."

Unfortunately for me, I found out after the fact that it wasn't 'just driving around a few streets,' like I was told. The 'examiner' came out to the truck with a multi-page form to fill out, including a full pretrip, the likes of which I haven't done since my CDL test. He expected me to point out anything I saw, and point to everything I looked at, including all truck and trailer paperwork, just like a CDL test. I even lost points because I didn't carry gloves and pull the triangles out. Um...don't need them for a "road test."

I had no idea it was going to be so thorough; I've never had to go through all that even at my very first company! Their recruiter/chief office contact told me they got beat up by the FMCSA and their own insurance company because of some of their previous drivers (I knew that) and that because of it, they tightened their prehire standards way down in the last month or so. I told him if I had known it was going to be as comprehensive as it was, basically another CDL performance test, I would have prepared and behaved very different.

I knew I was rusty and did grind a few ounces of gear steel off - for which he didn't take any points off, strangely enough - and I did make a couple of stupid mistakes because of my lack of recent experince, but I drove with confidence and safety and in full compliance with the laws, just as I would have under a load. I think did pretty well, considering I haven't been in a CMV for 12 months.

So I didn't pass and I think they were overly picky on my failure points. But the one thing I was worried about, backing, turned out to be "Excellent job. Perfect." on his sheet. Imagine that. Finally, they don't have any openings, anyway, so I would have been put on a list until they did - somehow I was led to believe they had plenty of openings, which is why they're advertising so heavily.

Then again, maybe they need so many applicants because of their new "road test." No matter. I haven't lost anything and it's on to Plan B, whatever that is.