Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

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Dispatch #15--Coldwater, MI E to Battle Creek, MI L to Groveport, OH
318 miles.............................................................................$ 98.58

Details of my first 3 weeks are on page 2, message 17.
Details of my second 3 weeks are on page 9, message 81.

I had four loads in a row, Dispatches #14-17, that bounced me between Ohio and Michigan. Very nice. Dispatch #14 is on my first 3 weeks, the others (#15-17) are on my second 3 weeks, on week 4. These are standard, 300-mile-ish good-for-a-rookie loads. Gordon tells you to estimate your road time as 50 mph plus one hour per 250 miles. So Gordon figures a 300-mile load will take you 7 hours, give or take (300/50 = 6 + 1 = 7). With loading and unloading time, scaling and fueling (which, of course, Gordon does not pay for), you're going to use up more hours. Figure one-a-day, like a vitamin, max because unpaid things chew your time. Your 5-day pay max ends up under $500 gross. 7-day about $600 max or less due to delays, maintenance and such that cut your productive time. My target was $750 weekly net. Not even.

You're on, as the Trainer would say, a 14-hour clock and an 11-hour rule. You need 10 hours of down time, either in your sleeper or off-duty, before your clock can start. Once your clock starts, you have 14 hours to drive up to 11 hours. When either of these two run out, you shut down for 10 again. Planning a good place to shut down for the night is a daily challenge; usually you're shooting for a truck stop or a rest area. As evening approaches these get crowded, sometimes very crowded. Gordon wants that truck moving as much as humanly possible. You're the human. You feel like the QC has you by a nose ring pulled by a leash.

Working for Gordon you're not going to spend much time at truck stops. Sure, you'll fuel, get a coffee or cappuccino, shower, check fluids, air your tires, use the biffy and you'll try do as much of that all at one place. Your DM has your location, speed, whether rolling or stopped and will promptly hit you with a Pre-Plan as soon as you stop. Now you've got to take the time to see if the Pre-Plan is do-able. That extends the time your stop takes. When I asked the Trainer if it was really necessary he almost raised up off his seat.

"O-o-oh, YES!" he exclaimed. "It may not happen a lot; you'll definitely get Pre-Plans, though, that you need to turn down. You need to check your hours and miles before you accept a load." This came from a guy who has entrée with his DM (the Intimidator) to sit down with her and plan out his next loads so they connect like puzzle pieces, keep him rolling and making money. I wouldn't have bothered to ask her for the same.

To accept that Pre-Plan, you 'acknowledge' it with a Macro 15 on your QC (QualComm). I recall one driver who said he takes all Pre-Plans regardless. Then, once he hooks up, he fails it (another Macro on the QC) if need be, "because then you have at least those miles and the fail is on the DM, not you." He has a point.

It takes time to figure whether you can do a load. If you're not sure, there may be a back-and-forth across the QC as you try get more information. Your DM has a boat-load of other drivers to deal with simultaneously. The response from your DM may take time. So it slows you down. I preferred to do it the Trainer way, even tell the DM that if I '15' it, I'll fail it immediately. And if need be, I would. Usually that load would magically disappear, replaced by another PP (Pre-Plan). If, instead, you accept all PPs, you keep rolling, making miles and money. Less jaw time on the QC. It just didn't agree with me.



Written July 13, 2013 at home, 6 miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author.

 

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Once you send a 'completed', or 'departed macro' (Macro 2), that triggers your Load Assignment which comes across the QC and 'officially' assigns you the new load. You've got it now. The LA (Load Assignment) provides more information than your Pre-Plan, including whether the load is a Service Watch load. I would use this after I gave Gordon 2 week notice because it prevented being assigned a load I didn't want. No Mac 2, no Load Assignment. More on this later.

About this time I started to notice my APU (Auxiliary Power Unit--Thermo King Tripac) dash switch lit up and behind me a red light close to the floor. At this point I didn't understand how the dash switch worked. I knew there was an off and on, but assumed when the switch lit up the unit was in regen, where it burns off residues in the large can in the exhaust below the cab. (3579 did not require DEF, like the new Cascadias, so one less thing to worry about.) I drove around Ohio and Michigan wondering why the regen process hadn't completed. The dash switch should have gone off by now, I thought. It's supposed to regen in a couple hours and at highway speed. I hadn't even triggered it yet. Didn't know how. Didn't know that I didn't know how.

The following week I cornered a couple PM (Preventive Maintenance) mechanics out doing a yard check. They were thumping tires and looking for problems on equipment, especially trailers on the yard. In fact, I never encountered a flat coming out of a Gordon terminal; I think just for that reason. I explained that the dash light was on and I needed to know if something was wrong, other than a clueless driver. It wouldn't go off...

It was patiently and intently explained to me that the dash switch is a 3-position switch. Push the bottom in and the APU goes off; I knew that much. That's why my APU hadn't worked those first couple cold nights in 3579. In the number 2 position the switch would light up when it needed to regen and the red light behind me near the floor would come on. I had that. I'd had that for 600 miles. What do I do next?

Well, just push the top of the switch forwards against the dash, it will toggle (bounce back) and the switch will start to flash repetitively while the unit is in regen. How cool! Nothing wrong then other than the ignorance of this driver and good that I asked. If the unit does not regen when it should, the large can under the truck plugs up and bad things happen; it has to be replaced. Expensive. One potential rookie error avoided.

I still had that thumping at the front left fender and resolved that I would start pushing to get that fixed if Gordon was going to keep me as a driver. (See page 3, message #27 and page 4, message #35.) I also noticed that 3579 would start poorly, like the starter dragged. More than once I had to charge the batteries with the APU to get going. The Tripac unit, by the way, (the APU) shares coolant with the Cummins ISX engine. So if it's cold out, the Tripac actually keeps your engine warm while it keeps you more or less toasty. Someone did their homework.

More than once as I bounced between Michigan and Ohio, I wondered about the Fleet Manager. She seemed almost happy at my screw ups. "Things happen, Hon," I remembered she repeated--and more than once I wondered if she thought now I couldn't quit; I was hers now. "Look down, Look down..."


Written July 13, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. There is a good thread in the Schneider forum, lots of runs Northeast that Gordon doesn't have, for example. Well-written, too. A good contrast to Gordon. See 'Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver' by dieselfuelonly. All rights reserved by author.

 

Just Because I'm Paranoid Doesn't Mean I'm Wrong

The Gordon Fleet Manager did sort of have me by the short hairs. I might fantasize about moving over to Roehl, Knight or Marten but it wasn't likely to happen. I've mentioned before that during my 18 months out of a truck I put my dogs in my car and we tooted cross country for five (5) months, stopping at trucking companies to see them eyeball-to-eyeball. Knight at the time advertised on CraigsList that you could run just weekends and make $150-$200 a day out of Indy.

That recruiter called me every three weeks or so. He told me I could take loads West, to California, but they would shoot me right back to the Mid-West. Couldn't run out there. Work one day a month, he said, and you're still on the board. On the car trip out I met in Phoenix with the recruiter for the Western Division (Ontario, CA terminal). She told me I'd have to run with a trainer for a few weeks. On the way back, I met with the gal who recruits for intermodal in Phoenix. Since I have both my passport and my TWIC, she said if I went intermodal I could start that day and didn't have to bother with a trainer. She warned me, though, that the rail yards were unfriendly and slow.

I knew that from years before but had been paid hourly then, so it didn't matter. "It all pays the same," was one of our favorite sayings. Stuck in traffic? "It all pays the same." Going to the pig yard (rail yard)? "It all pays the same." Didn't matter. Sometimes we had chassis to put the container on and sometimes not. In that case, you chained it down using a cheater bar to tighten and beat the kinks out.

My most unforgettable trip I heard this 'click' going around a turn on the way out of the pig yard in Long Beach (Terminal Island) and saw that my 40K container hung 18 inches off the right side of my flat rack. Very gingerly I turned around and went back in, had them lift the container up and reset it. Then I made sure that those chains were tight with no kinks and would ride. Glad that didn't happen on the freeway!

Roehl had a 7-on-7 off but I'd have to drive to Cincy. After 10 months of Cincy on the post office runs, I didn't want to drive to Cincy in my car, now did I? Marten also had a 7-on-7 off but Indy had only one driver using it. That's a plus, I thought. I'd be the other half of that ticket. No, no, no. The recruiter said I'd have to come back with at least six months somewhere else. I had been out of a truck too long.

Before I hooked up with Gordon I went to see the Knight recruiter who had been calling me every three weeks for a year. Knight had that attractive weekend work. "We're pretty full up now," he said. Phoenix was still a possibility with Knight on that intermodal. I had the TWIC; I liked Casa Grande which is nearby and the proximity to Yuma (to go across the border to Los Algodones for excellent dental work at 1/3 the cost here, for example). Nope! Now Gordon had me by the short ones. Oh, my! Please be gentle...



Written July 13, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. That Schneider blog 'Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver' written by dieselfuelonly is written contemporaneously, whereas I write about events months ago. So the perspectives are different, too. I like that. All rights reserved by author.

 

Dowagiac? Why Am I Heading for Dowagiac?

Dispatch #16--Groveport, OH E to Columbus, OH L to Dowagiac, MI
291 miles............................................. .................................. $90.21

From Groveport and Columbus, I should have been routed back to Indiana. After all, I was on the Mythical 5-and-5 that paid me 3 cents less per mile, 31 cents, and got me home on Saturdays, off on Sunday and back to it on Monday. Indiana or bust, I say. A dispatcher that I did not recognize QCd me there was no 5-and-5. No 5-and-5? No. LOAD IN COLUMBUS, TAKE TO DOWAGIAC, he shouts in all caps.

Bullcorn, I say. And don't tell me Gordon doesn't have the freight. No loads from Columbus, OH to Indiana? I am less than 3 hours from Indy; you could break your arm on I-70 waving to Gordon trucks back-and-forth from Indy to Columbus. You are routing me the wrong way. This unknown dispatcher QCs me that I have to be out at least ten days to get home. That's your dispatch, he QCs, you're going back to Michigan.

I like Michigan but my dogs are waiting for me. I think my neighbor is waiting for me but he isn't. When I call him and tell him I'm out for the weekend he gives me the same response he always does, "No problem." I took the 5-and-5, after all, so he and his wife could have their Sunday for church and not have to bother with my dogs. I would later learn from him that it really was, "No problem."

Flustered, I wondered to myself whether this is Gordon's idea of bait-and-switch. I had no problem getting home with the 'other' dispatcher and never did. I would remind her that the weekend was coming up and she would route me home. Simple as that. The Intimidator would route me home but always argued that there was no 5-and-5 just like this unknown shouting at me on the QC in all caps. The Intimidator got me home but groused about it. The Intimidator would argue with me on my cell phone. This wasn't the Intimidator or my 'other' DM. No, I believe this was the DM from page 4, message 35, that tried to bully me to update my PTA on the way to Melrose Park.

THERE IS NO 5-AND-5. YOUR DISPATCH IS TO MICHIGAN. GO TO MICHIGAN. GET YOUR LOAD IN COLUMBUS, OH AND GO TO MICHIGAN. GOT IT?

Or something like that. Okay, I went to Michigan. Take it up next week with the DMs I knew, I thought, or thought I knew, I thought. I knew I didn't know this one, I thought. I soon would. (See page 6, message 58, second-to-last paragraph, the only bad Gordon DM, IMO.)

Astro-Turf!



Written July 13, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN while getting the old Shih-Tzu trimmed up, clipped and ready for a bath. All rights reserved by author.

 

Dispatch #17--Dowagiac, MI E to Battle Creek, MI L to Indianapolis, IN
292 miles.............................................................................$ 90.52

The delivery in Dowagiac is in an area surrounded by mostly wilderness. It's a driver-assist stop that can take time especially if you have many trucks ahead of you. I didn't, but they were there when I left, all lined up. And the driver-assist isn't much. Hey! Gordon! Why didn't I get paid for that? It's supposed to be extra pay!

Once you've dropped your load and QCd (QualCommed) your 'completed' or 'departing' macro, your LA (Load Assignment) comes across the QC. Depending on your fuel and familiarity with your upcoming stops, you'll likely QC for directions, which includes fuel. After five years with Gordon, the Trainer didn't need directions. I certainly did. The 'optimizer' figures out the best place to fuel and Gordon wants you to fuel there.

The directions you get at this point are the large interstate-to-interstate directions. A second macro provides you the 'once you get off the interstate' directions provided in clipped, uncipherable abbreviations provided by drivers like you and me. The Trainer had a flip-top spiral note pad for his load info. I learned it's best to write it all down. How many times before that I got up to pay for weighing and didn't have my trailer number. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Back to the truck. I quickly adopted the Trainer's notepad style, except I got mine for a buck at Wal-Mart rather than two bucks plus at the truck stop.

Eventually I switched to a left-spiral with more pages and more room to write, also from Wal-Mart for under two bucks. I also started sketching a map of my route on a page behind my load details. I didn't expect any time soon to get back-of-the-hand familiar with Gordon lanes like the Trainer, who did not consult a map for any location and had his trainees call him for directions.

At this point at Gordon, I hadn't been anywhere twice. It was coming up though, and I did celebrate, sort of. You'll see Battle Creek on both Dispatch #15 and #17. The first time to Battle Creek a train blocked my exit and the guard shack directed me to an alternate way out. Left, Right, Right, Left, Left and onto the interstate. I would need that again this time, too. Except I didn't have to ask. No delay. Experience does count.

I pulled up past the guard shack, shut 3579 down and did the guard shack thing. Then 3579 wouldn't start! I'd had a lot of experience like this hauling mail where the trucks were shabbily maintained and a CSA maintenance score of 86%. The lower the score, on a scale of 0-100, the better. Gordon has a maintenance score around 21%. Many times as I pulled up to the window at the NDC (National Distribution Center) that darn old Pete would not start.

It wasn't batteries, either. Safety had a chain in the trunk of his car, so I would borrow that and beg a pull off another driver to avoid getting towed. The first time I tried to pull start that truck I did it all wrong. It's easy to pull-start a semi, but opposite of how you pop the clutch on a stick-shift car. There was a teeth-jarring jerk that I won't soon forget and he probably won't either. A pickup can pull start a semi.

You start from high range, clutch released (out) and hit the clutch (push in) when it hits so it stays running. Just the opposite of a car. Easy.


Written July 14, 2013 at Ellettsville, IN in front of the China Star Buffet as Morrison rocks out 'LA Woman'. Too many cars in the parking lot and I thought I'd chill in the car AC until it thinned out some. Hot today. All rights reserved by author.

 

No. Jeannette is, however, the DM with drivers all deemed capable of running 3000 miles plus. Or so she told me. I think I encountered at least one of her drivers who wasn't up to that. Told me she called him, 'Trouble.' Jeannette is not the Intimidator. Not that it matters. I'm writing months after I worked for Gordon and my memory is less than perfect. I'm taking as little license as possible, but I could be wrong on any details of my stops and dispatches. Things tend to blur when you're pushing 65 (in December). They also tend to blur when you're running 7, 14-hour days a week. Drunken sailors have nothing on loopy truck drivers, all but too tired to walk into a truck stop without bumping into the door frame. The public does not know the working conditions of the backbone of the Republic and would be apppalled. Shocking peewee wages, too.

This thread expresses my experience with Gordon over 5 months. With 2000 drivers, the experience of others may be very different, different fleets, different DMs, parts of the country, etc. Gordon is a completely different company depending on your DM, for that matter. We would all benefit by more truckers starting threads to detail their experience. Not necessarily wordy like this one. Brief is good.

Chowick1966, Where are you?

 

The Lead Mechanic--Indy's Secret Weapon

It's not likely that you'll be pull-starting a Gordon truck but I suppose it could happen. I ran back to the guard shack and told him it would take about 15 minutes for my APU to charge up my batteries so I could get 3579 going. Fortunately he had two lanes and told me 15 minutes was no problem. Just 15 minutes, though.

At the USPS NDC in Sharonville, OH, part of greater Cincy, we had just one lane in and an emergency-only lane to the right. One time when another truck was broke down at the window I walked up to the window and asked if I could use the emergency lane. The gal said yes and I did, but before I got the cones moved back Safety showed up like a fire truck and chewed both of us out like no tomorrow. Okay, okay! Safety literally threatened to ban me from the NDC if I ever did that again, permission from the window or no. Okay, fine!

So my celebration at finally getting into a shipper (Battle Creek) that I had been to before was not without its blemish. You'll see that the load went to Indy. That wasn't the plan. When she gave me this dispatch to get out of Dowagiac, my favorite DM said, "Victor, Victor. What am I going to do with you?" Then she gives me Battle Creek to Arkansas!

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally a real load, a double celebration, I thought, first a stop I'd been to before (Battle Creek) and now a good run. It was not to be. I would need to swing through the Indy shop to have my batteries checked. Also, 3579 began to sound... different somehow on the way back. And sluggish, lacking full power. It still had that thump at the left fender and I wanted to start pushing on that, too.

I parked my Arkansas load on the yard and took 3579 over to the shop.

I had met the Lead Mechanic before. I don't know how he does it but he drops what he's doing and comes out to personally check what you need. He will take care of all manner of problems right then and there without putting you into the queue to get into the shop. Fifth wheel pins stuck? He'll unstick them. Now. Batteries dead. He'll have someone get your APU charging them. Missing a hook for a back door? Out he comes with a hook and tools to fix. Indy's (then) only female mechanic saw that my coolant was two inches low while checking my batteries.

First she filled it and then told me 3579 would need to go into the shop and find out why. The Lead Mechanic stepped in and immediately did a pressure test to be sure the head was good. It was. We walked over to his computer and he punched the issues in as I listed them. "Anything else?" he asked. I told him how the front fender thumped and had written it up multiple times. 'Front end shakes', he entered, then looked at me, "That way, they'll take a good look at it." Oh, I like this guy!

I went home and called the next day. 3579 was going over to Cummins for SuperSeal, a $12 can of stuff that costs Gordon $140 to administer at Cummins for warranty reasons. Takes about a day. Call us on Thursday. Okay, fine. My Arkansas load went bye-bye. Without me. I stayed home to play with my furry kids (3 dogs).


Written July 14, 2013 at Ellettsville, IN, China Star Buffet and, yes, I am stuffed. All rights reserved by author.

 

Hey! tow614!

You're turning into a mere troll. I knew you couldn't stay away. Tired of just viewing as 'guest', eh?

: )

PS I'm installing a strut in a Mazda MPV I have here. Used to own 5 of these '89-'91 MPVs. If I can't get it up there on my own, my neighbor's stopping by in about 30. I'll lift it up and he can twist a nut or two on... contemplate that!