Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Flat spot on trailer P55706 tire at Topeka, KS. Tap (iOS) or click (PC) to enlarge.

Trailer P55706's Flat Spot on Tire (RRO--Right Rear Outer---Tandem)

The last couple dispatches, I think, illustrate Gordon cavalier decision-making that compromised my home time and running time. From Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Gordon might have prepared to get me home by routing me east from Iowa while I had plenty of hours. Instead, Gordon sent me on a long, 632-mile run that took me north into Wisconsin and then south into Kansas. My home time took a back seat despite my 31 cent pay rate on the Mythical 5-and-5 that Gordon ignores whenever it wants. "Look down, Look down, Don't look me in the eye, You'll always be a slave..." (Les Miserables 2012)

No amount of hurry would have helped me on that load. The receiver did not want that Saturday morning trailer I brought until it emptied the double-drop-and-hook Gordon trailer with product still on it. Once I got there, I had to wait. After the stop completed I could have shut down there in Kansas City for a 34-hour reset. Another driver would have the next load. I was already into what should have been home time.

"It's no problem. It's all resolved." Right. Home time is no problem unless you want to get home. You want to go home? Why would you want to do that? Really? You want to go home?

I would have preferred to shut down there because the night I had already spent in Kansas City waiting for the receiver to open would count towards my 34-hour reset. Instead I got dispatched further west on I-70 to Topeka, which meant starting my clock, loading in Topeka and running into time-consuming issues with the loaded trailer from Topeka. By starting my clock, I lost the opportunity to get back running sooner.

The brakes on P55706 mattered more to me than the flat area on the RRO tandem. That, by the way, is how a driver designates tire issues to the shop. On a tractor you have right steering and left steering, which some denote as RS or LS. The tractor also has eight (8) drive wheels, designated as LFI (left, front, inner), LFO (left, front, outer), LRI (left, rear, inner) and LRO (left, rear, outer) on the left side, for example.

On the right side a driver designates his RFI (right, front, inner), RFO (right, front, outer), RRI (right, rear, inner) and RRO (right, rear, outer). Trailer tandems are referred to the same way. Makes a lot more sense than just pointing, "That one, there," doesn't it. Hard to point on your DVIR (Daily Vehicle Inspection Report) anyway. I emailed OTR a photo of the flat spot on tandem RRO to let them decide. OTR put me in contact with a closed shop right nearby. Okay, fine. For no pay, of course.

At Gordon, Gordon OTR always trumps Gordon Operations, perhaps the same way a Gordon DM can trump my home time. There are 2000 trucks out there, you know. At Gordon, there's always another truck nearby. Hopefully, someone else's if you want to get home. If OTR wants you to have a shop or service truck look at your tractor or trailer, that's your dispatch. Operations has to either wait or find a work-around.

There's no argument. That's just the Gordon way. Safe and legal.



Written July 20, 2013 outside of the Ellettsville Branch of the Monroe County Library after uploading the photo above from here. Still raining, lightning and hellish thunder. All rights reserved by author.

 

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Sliding Your Trailer Tandems


It cost Gordon $245.00 to have a mechanic look at the tire and trailer brakes on P55706, $150 for roadside service (even though we met at the closed shop) and $95 for labor. How many drivers just go, since there's no pay in breakdowns at Gordon unless you have to layover overnight. Better safe than toast, I say.

If you drive for Gordon, you will slide your tandems. A lot. Tandems are the two (2) trailer axles and eight (8) wheels and tires back behind you in your mirrors looking backward from the driver's seat in the cab of that Cascadia. Now isn't this nice: the tandems hold the back of your trailer up. And they slide.

Look in the upper left of the photo of the flat spot on that tire. See that long, very dry and rusted metal rail with a series of holes? That's your pin rail. Under the trailer body on the other side of the pin rail are four (4) pins that protrude through those holes and lock the tandem in place through those holes. Usually.

If you want to move your tandems, you pull a lever on the driver side of the tandems underneath the trailer. When you pull that lever out, the pins pull back inside the trailer frame and release the tandem assembly to slide. That is, if the mechanism is working okay and has been lubed properly. Dry tandems get balky.

Back up into the cab you go, start your truck, release your tractor brakes (push in 8-sided yellow button), leave your trailer brakes set (8-sided red button pulled-out from dash), pull forward or backwards. Your tandems will stay put on the ground while your trailer slides forwards or backwards, shortening or lengthening your turn radius and changing the weight distribution of your load.

Lots of Gordon customers want tandems all the way back when you spot or drop your trailer. You will probably want to move the tandems forward when you pull that trailer out because the longer your turn radius, the wider and longer to complete turns. Backing into a cramped space? Move your tandems up but be careful of the swing of the tail. Shortens your turn radius.

Jackknifing a trailer into a spot? Move your tandems back. You'll have more control and the front of the trailer can swing wide with the tractor with little swing to the tail. So you can spot the tail and swing the front of the trailer into the position you want without changing too much the position of the tail. Not much overhang to worry about, either. Do many drivers bother? No, I think not. But you can.

Heavy on your drive axles? Move the tandems towards the tractor. As the trailer moves back over your tandems, so does your load, increasing the weight on your tandems and taking weight off your drives. Tandems over weight? Move them back, shifting weight forward onto your drives.

Might as well get used to it. A Gordon driver slides tandems many times every week. The trailer brakes won't hold so you can slide the tandems? That trailer needs service. Find something to chock the tandems from moving and you can get that tandem to slide, if reluctantly. Use rocks or blocks. Carry penetrating spray.



Written July 20, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. I have a small catch basin pond, a mini-wetland and with the rain today the creepers, cool small frogs with big, big voices sing out and call for their ladies. A loud, live concert all night. All rights reserved by author.

 

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More on Sliding Trailer Tandems

The most important thing about sliding tandems is to make sure, to get out and visually confirm that those four pins are set before you get back in the cab and drive off. The pins extend about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inch out from the pin rail. When the pins 'set' so that they protrude through the pin rail properly, you get a nice hard, click that can be felt through the trailer and up into the cab of the tractor. You'll hear it, too. Usually.

Most Gordon drivers, I think, start out at hole ten on the pin rail. That's ten holes back from the tractor-side of the pin rail. Count ten holes back and that's where you want to set your pin. It's a good position for running, for making turns and backing. Let's say you're about to pull this trailer out of a line of trailers.

Hook it, connect your gladhands and pigtail, do your walk around for lights and inspection. You find the tandems all the way back. This line of trailers is so close to the next line of trailers, only a yard dog can easily spot the trailer where you found it with the tandems all back. There just isn't a lot of room. By sliding your tandems forward, you shorten your turn radius and give yourself more room to pull out.

Pull the lever that pulls the tandem slider pins in until the lever locks extended out in the catch. Visually confirm where you want to move the tandems, probably hole ten back from the tractor. Get back in your cab, start the tractor, release the tractor brakes (push 8-sided yellow tractor valve in toward dash), leave the trailer air valve, the eight 8-sided red button in the fully out position from the dash.

As the tractor backs up, the tandems stay put and the trailer moves backwards over the tandems, moving the tandems forward. Looks about right? Stop there, shut off the engine and set the brakes, get out and look. If the pins are close to where you want them, note whether you need to pull forward or back to set them. Release the tandem lever (lift up out of the catch), it's spring loaded and pulls back.

Get back in the cab, start the engine, push the yellow tractor valve in, again leave the red trailer air valve in the all-out position. Pull forward or back as you need and listen and feel for the pins to set. SET THE BRAKES, SHUT THE ENGINE OFF AND GET OUT AND VISUALLY CONFIRM THE PINS HAVE SET AND PROTRUDE FROM THE PIN RAIL PROPERLY. ALL OF THEM. CHECK EACH PIN SEPARATELY.

Here's what happens if you don't. If you're lucky, a DOT inspector writes you up for one or more pins not properly set. All four pins must be properly set and protruding through the pin rail. That's the good news.

Here's the bad news. You pull out, get out on the road, gather speed and tap the brakes. Boom! Suddenly it feels like you struck a six (6) inch curb straight on. It shocks the entire truck. It jolts you, too. You may find that the trailer rode up over and came completely off the pin rail. One or more pins ended up set, one or more can't line up with a pin hole and can't set. Now you have a real headache. Take it to the shop.

Don't load that one!

Don't ask...


Written July 21, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author.

 

Gordon Pontoon Beach Terminal

Pontoon Beach took good care of both P55706 and 3579 once it opened up Sunday morning. The young mechanics acted like it was a slow morning and happy to have 3579 and the trailer to work on. P55706 got a full service and a new pair of tires, 3579 got a short PM (Preventive Maintenance). "Anything else?" I was asked, just like the Lead Mechanic in Indy.

My right side mirror glass had started to jiggle some inside the frame. They had parts for that! They knew I was under load and needed to deliver in St. James, MO before midnight. No sweatsky...

There's a discernible difference between Gordon drivers and Gordon mechanics. The mechanics are younger. Frankly, for many Gordon drivers, Gordon figures to be the end of their career or the bailout of a failed one. Many come to Gordon as a lingering result of the global financial collapse of 2008, a gift to the Republic from the previous administration that did what it could to consolidate American wealth in the upper tier, the trickle down theory if you recall that one. Wealth is not what trickles down hill. "Look down, Look down..."

Many on that side of the aisle will always believe that the solution to any downturn is to reduce expenses as soon as your gross national product dips. We are still not fully beyond a Great Recession that will be looked back on as historic. Just like the Depression (and could have become one). If you reduce government spending in a bad economic headwind, it reduces jobs, increases unemployment, decreases economic activity and fuels the downturn. Hard-working small entrepreneurs suffer early. The well-heeled use the opportunity to pick things up on the cheap. It's not a recession to them; it's nice to pick up a $100,000 dozer for $25,000 at auction, eh?

So you get guys in Orientation in their 40's and beyond, like C.R. England back in Indy. He had a good landscaping business and it couldn't sustain through 2008-2009 so he trained as a truck driver. Backbone of the Republic after all; the Republic needs truck drivers, the problem being that a driver needs a year or more of experience before a decent job will have him. At each level of experience from 0 to 3 months, six months, one year, two years, three years--new parts of trucking open up to drivers. So there's OTR that will take anyone with 0-3 months. C.R. England came over to Gordon for relief from short, 300-mile loads.

I doubt he got much relief!

Gordon's young mechanics go home at night, mow their lawns, watch TV, put in regular, predictable shifts. Gordon's aging OTR drivers crawl back up into their cabs, drive to a truck stop, watch TV in their cabs (some of them), gain weight, develop diabetes and high blood pressure. And die 16 years earlier than the general public, at 61 or so. At least according to the Safety Guy at my Gordon Orientation.

You'll find them at Lathrop with a workout gym right there a few feet away, mostly unused. Drivers are just too tired and worn out from bouncing, rumbling and vibrating all day, all week and all month that once they settle into those big chairs, they don't get up and turn on a treadmill. Just doesn't happen. Much.

Sunday afternoon I made the delivery in St. James and Favorite DM had me a load out of Edwardsville, IL for Seymour, IN so I could get home. I told her I couldn't get there on roll over hours. I had 5.5 hours left of my 70 until Tuesday. She wanted me to proceed east on 44 as far as I could. I got to Pacific, MO where there is a Pilot up on a hill above town and settled in for a reset.

Pacific (Gordon's Pacific, in Washington) noticed that the Edwardsville load wasn't ready yet and voided the load. Okay, fine. All my contacts with Pacific were good. If I got jerked around, it either came from Indy or sometimes Green Bay. Usually Indy.


Written July 21, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. Fell asleep with my glasses on and must have rolled over and crunched them but good. Does not look salvageable. Hello, Sam's Club. Maybe they'll have a frame my lenses will fit into. Otherwise I'm a sunglasses guy, 24/7 until fixed. All rights reserved by author.

 

Victor, could you give an example of what your log book looked like? I just cannot fathom taking 64.5 hours (let alone logging them) to run 1957 miles...

 

Response to Double Yellow:


My check #6 from Gordon details the following:

11/19 Lebanon, U Spencer, IN E Indy L Cincinnati, OH.......................168 miles, $52.08
11/19-20 Cincy, OH E Richmond, IN L Sturgis, MI L Richmond..............405 miles, $125.55
11/20-21 Richmond, IN L Sturgis, MI L Richmond, IN .........................344 miles, $106.64
11/21-22 Richmond, IN E Indy L MtPleasant, IA..................................412 miles, $127.72
11/22-24 MtPleasant E Prairie du Chien, WI L Kansas City, KS..............628 miles, $194.68

Restart in Spencer at top.

If you're asking did I not go off duty to preserve my 70, no--I didn't know about that yet. In fact, I ran out of hours on my way to Indy (Fort Wayne, I think) at one point and called the Safety Guy to ask him to turn my on-duty hours back so I could finish the run. With most of my runs under $60, loading/unloading and scaling were eating me up. Running out of hours did not factor until right about here, actually. (See page 14, message #139 for breakdown of loads.)

Safety Guy added just enough to get me in but asked me to stop in to see him. When I did he went over my log with me and showed me that I had lots and lots of hours logged as 'on duty' that I could simply change to off-duty. (Like 19 hours!) Duh! He showed me how I could correct my hours and preserve on-duty hours.

Another part of the learning curve. Otherwise, I found that I could run quite well on rollover hours.


: )

Gotta go take care of these crunched glasses, if possible. Postscript: I wouldna thought it possible but my glasses are back on my face. Lucky, because they had no frame to match.

 

Double Yellow's Great Point

Double Yellow brings up a great point about this narrative--if I've got his drift. Once the Safety Guy showed me how to 'correct' my log, a lot of my time that had been logged as 'on-duty' changed to 'off-duty' from then on. Here was a big blind spot that I didn't know I had. By definition, I don't know what I don't know. And with mostly under 200-mile runs it didn't matter. The 'stolen' 412-mile load to Mount Pleasant and the 628-mile load up to Wisconsin and down to Kansas were equivalent to ten (10) 200-mile loads without all the loading, unloading and scaling! Getting some miles...

In writing this narrative, I may write my developing experience as I experienced it (one driver's experience with Gordon Trucking) and at another apply something I've subsequently learned or concluded in hindsight. So whatever insights into the culture at GTI I have, if any, it's not spread out full blown. Some parts are written straight on, others as if I stumble upon something around a blind corner that sheds new light on everything that came before. A word for that new/old discovery/insight is 'epiphany'. Like learning how to 'correct' my log and waiting to get everything possible done before turning my clock on.

It was always there but it's still new to me.

My experience is just my experience and not yours or someone else's, which could easily be quite different. For example, someone who knew his/her way around the QualComm will/would have a VERY different experience from mine, at least at first. I simply did not have a clue. Conserve on-duty hours on the QualComm? No clue.

I was the only person at my Orientation who did not have some kind of background with QualComm. None of them would have been pulling over to the side of the road every time the QualComm squawked for their first few dispatches. I certainly did. It's funny now, but I was dead earnest in thinking I had to pull over and check every message. Okay, maybe I'm a little slow...

I like to think for myself. Like I think there is a definite two-tier system at Gordon. Part of the Gordon system to bring new drivers on board seems pretty innocuous: new drivers start out with the Intimidator and Favorite DM and transition to a permanent DM after about 30 days. My hindsight on this is that new drivers get a lot of already failed loads and stinker loads. (They can't do much harm on the first and their income is suppressed on the latter.) Someone has to do these loads and Gordon funnels as many as possible to rookies, IMO.

I'd like to see the Say-It-Ain't-So's who run 2800-3500 miles per week ante up and disclose how many of their loads pay only $60 and/or less than 200 miles, for example. Let's compare. At this point in my narrative over half my loads were 200 miles and under. It also occurs to me that Gordon, a very smart company that knows how to cattle-herd 2000 drivers day-in-and-day-out, may keep new drivers with the Intimidator and Favorite DM until Gordon thinks those crappy stinker runs offset that big sign-on bonus!

If so, there is no bonus. It's eaten up in crap work!

Now there's a thought! Almost diabolical, but it makes sense. Gordon neutralizes the advantage that might be gained from that bonus by crappy loads that don't pay... I think so! And if so, it benefits drivers who would otherwise have to share in those loads at the expense of new drivers who don't have a clue what's ahead. I think Gordon is VERY circumspect with new drivers and keeps them pretty much in the dark, IMO.


Written July 21-22, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. Correction: The trailer in the photos with the flat spot is E54272, not P55706. I hooked E54272 in Topeka with bad trailer brakes and bad tiire (although it held air and was 'safe' to Pontoon Beach). I delivered E54272 loaded to St. James, where I left with P55706. Small detail but that's where the devil is, right? It's too late to do edits w/o rousting an Administrator. All rights reserved by author.

 

The Ten (10) Magic Crappy Loads

How does that $750 or $1000 (paid first week and more later) bonus sound if Gordon plans to just take it away with lousy dispatches? Not so good, I think. Now that I think about it, the Intimidator even mentioned if you'd gotten 10 short loads in a row. (See page 3, message #30, paragraph 3--I like that: 3, 30, 3.)

Here's what I said on page 3:

Was she spilling the beans there???

Is ten (10) crappy loads the Gordon magic number? Is this the target in grief that in your first thirty (30) days with Gordon as a rookie you have to load, unload and scale--all for free--10 crappy loads that make you no more than I made on two loads in week six?

Let's say you spend just an hour loading, an hour unloading (all drop-and-hook) and an hour scaling each of those ten (10) loads. That's 30 hours, almost three-quarters of a standard 40-hour work week that's free to Gordon. That's a big chunk out of a month or six weeks. Takes a lot of bite out of that bonus. Can you hook two of those under $60 loads together and pull out an up to $120 day? Maaaaaaybe. Just maybe.

By week six I had 13 stinker loads. My first two loads, Indy-Olney, Olney-Effingham-Seymour a more experienced driver could have run. I was too engrossed in the QualComm... But nothing is going to help on the Marion, IN to Lebanon, IN with trucks lined all the way back into the Flying J for hours, the wait inside for a door assignment and then back in line to get out. Figure to add a minimum 4-5 hours on a good day. That's just for the delivery. I had to drive from Gas City to load in Marion for that Lebanon load. Can't remember if that was drop-and-hook or live load.

Add that to 30 hours of free work for Gordon in your first month. I have a stinker coming up where Gordon has me shut down in the early afternoon, drive (I think) 43 miles the next morning and drag a trailer one mile for an 8:00 a.m. appointment. If you drive for Gordon, you won't soon forget Neely's Landing, now will you?

So then you shift into where you trade one peewee load to get a really good load? Dunno. Sure seems like it. I think Gordon drivers understand this one-sided, lop-sided do-something-free-for-Gordon to get a good load.

Yuppo! I think so! That's the Gordon way, the Gordon culture. IMO.

The only thing free is your time, my time.

Doesn't matter to Gordon. IMO.

You got a bonus? Okay, fine.

Gordon figures out how it gets neutralized. IMO.

If your experience at Gordon was different--and I know that some are--let's see your trip and pay details. Start a thread. Let's share. The truth will do us all good. I'm wondering if we'll ever hear from chowick1966 again. It's been a while...

chowick1966 ('Pastures new @ Gordon') where are you?


Written July 22, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author.

 

Triangles that Work


It might be interesting to start a thread on stinker load triangles that work for both Gordon and driver. The Trainer I drove with, for example, made Indy-Spring Valley-Hammond-Seymour-Indy work over the course of 24 hours for both himself and Gordon--with me driving. The Trainer navigated.

Indy-Olney-Effingham-Seymour-Indy works. (Indy has 'Channel Boys' who run Indy-St. Louis all week long.) Indy-Cincy-Indy works. Here's where loads off yard and to yard make lots of sense.

The definition of works here is makes money for both Gordon and driver, despite under $60, 200-mile loads with few empty miles. Triangles, parallelograms, who knows? New thread...

 

Well the best triangle I have had (a few times, but not enough lol), is WA state down to MO or AR, then over to CA, then back up to OR or WA, wash and repeat. I am lucky if I get one of these cycles each time I am out, the rest are a mix of stinker and "average" loads.