Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Blu, I've talked to these folks, CTI. Have 2 listings on CraigsList every day for the last couple years. Their HOS is okay, Vehicle Maintenance outstanding at 3.5%. But their Unsafe Driving's a whopping 47%, 18 tickets in last 2 years for seatbelts! Lots for speeding 6-10 mph. They talk about shuttles to St. Louis, told recruiter had my fill of nights. "Well, you have to go when the load's ready," came the reply. Must be push, push, push for that Unsafe Driving. Anyway, I blew it off. (Some part-time!)

I can see where hub system would fork your game. Not the same for the larger OTR industy. Right now, Just In Time loading is king and drivers, pawns. If you stood that on its head, so that driver quality of life came first, the industry would have to move to something like hub system just as it did from loose freight (as it was when I started trucking) to palletized today.

 

Thursday evening on Dean Hill, about six miles north of Spencer, Indiana, sleet in small, 1/8" ice chunks started to come down about 4 pm while I worked on chicken coop, last of insulation, hanging vinyl on the interior, then a roost, which is just a horizontal pole for the girls where they spend the night.

I'll swap pole out for a good 2" tree limb sometime; rounded top with Bosch plane. Good for now. Then built a nesting box. Still there's a little more to do, not a lot. Girls're in for the night. One took right to the nesting box...

Thursday nights are good; Little Steven's Underground Garage at 10 pm on WTTS, a favorite. Whether I drove out of Bloomington, IN or Columbus on Thursday nights it always hurt a little bit when the signal faded. That was before Gordon. Most nights at home the problem is whether I can stay awake or not. Got a nose guard to replace on my glasses from nodding off the other night watching a DVD. Hate that.

Moved the car around up by the highway just in case. High tomorrow 29 degrees. Too many vehicles, two-axle dump truck, two '97 Mercury Sable wagons, F350 6.9 liter flatbed, F150, '93 Mazda MPV. A couple car hauler trailers. Need to get some sold. Haven't heard from a buddy who drives for Landstar and wanted to borrow at least the better car hauler to bring a couple cars he bought home. My bet is he hasn't got them home yet. Last time I saw him he was a very tired puppy. All new rubber, though. Tractor AND trailer.

KRD came down the hill with respect--smart, that. The hill can be vicious, a blind S-curve has taken many lives. Gal who grew up here asked me about things that bump in the night, dogs barking over nothing and the like. Disappointed when I told her, 'No.' I left it at that. No, there's one cross right at the drive, two farther below and could have a dozen more including a fellow from nearby Ellettsville who had all of 85 miles on his brand new bike.

But on a night like this, nothing would surprise me.


/Written Thursday, Dec 5, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author. Awaiting Little Steven's Underground Garage at 10 pm on WTTS, popcorn with melted butter and the last of some Sweet Red. Don't remember when I opened it, maybe Sunday night, not sure. Still good what was left. From a red, plastic picnic cup about a third full.

//Nelson Mandela died today at 95. RIP, great one. Thanks for the inspiration.

///A good 6-8 inches of white stuff out there this Friday morning.

 

Ha ha. A buddy came in Friday night with a load to deliver in Evansville, went to park trailer and it was too slippery to get out from underneath. Spent the night there, I think, a few miles from home fearing the bad folks would rip stuff out if he left truck. Plans to borrow chains or wait for large wheeled loader to pull him out Monday. And he's on flat ground.

Had to take three run-ups to get into Dollar General myself last night. In car, though. Check out new thread: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...as-just-abandoned-trainee-12.html#post3701366

 

Well, back home. Been here about an hour or so. About 3 pm got a call, that I hadn't worked for a while (my choice) and name had come up for a random, would I like to come in, if so, when. Very nice, really, our Safety gal. Well, gee, what are my options. If they spend a hundred bucks on a pee test it's kind of like job security, right?

I live about an hour from Indy but said I'd put the dogs in the car and come right up. Safety said I had some logs to sign and she'd have those out, and she did. We run paper logs and then those get keystroked into a software that tallies your mistakes and gives a point count against you depending on the type of mistake. How severe a DOT violation.

I'm such a stickler that I'm always surprised and frustrated at my mistakes. It's serious, too, because you can get a written reprimand, layoff or even terminated. Points too high? Have to wait 'til they drop off to work again. Really. Safety had already taken five 7-point days off. Turns out they weren't my logs. I hadn't even worked those days.

Someone else's log sheets got in my folder. To start off it looked like I had HUGE points, then Safety whacked 35 off before I got there.

Now, those points have been there counting against me all this time. Fortunately, I haven't wanted to work. I thought I have it pretty good; turns out my points were too high to run me. Then there were the two days I used the 8/2 Split. Software doesn't pick those up right.

She crossed those points off.

She had me down for 75 hours in my 70-hour period. 'That's not possible,' I said, 'I'm part-time.' Safety ran them through her adding machine again. Nope, she said, ran it twice now. 'Can I look at them,' I said, 'maybe...' Nope, she said. Not gonna worry about 5 points, Vic. Your're fine, don't worry about it. Go do your pee test. We can live with 5 points from you. Wish that's all I had from most of our drivers.

All this time I've been thinking what a great job! All this time off! My points were too high for them to run me! Ha ha. It is a pretty great job, though. And with this lousy, icy weather I might as well work.

Can't get much done at home now.



/Written Dec 9, 2013 at home, six miles north of Spencer, IN. All rights reserved by author.

 

Thursday evening (12/17/2013) just finished installing iOS 7 on my iPad and updated my Dell laptop. Whew, four hours. Yes, I've been away from TTR since last week, first real break since Spring when I started this thread. Been very concerned about the time I spend here at TTR. Will probably do a book review in the not too distant. Have to say, though, I haven't felt much like I needed or wanted to check in.

Sharply ratcheting down my footprint here.

Enjoyed the writing about my time at Gordon, nice how the HTLD acquisition finally revealed the truth about Gordon short runs after all and felt privileged to assist Pj with her predicament in Cle Elum.

I need a more productive use of my time. Right now it's building a salesforce app over at Udacity.

On Dasher!! On Dancer!! ...