Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

For some perspective, chart XTN (a transportation index) vs HTLD over various time frames.

 

Figured I would throw in my two cents on our experience with Gordon. My husband started orientation the same day that Heartland acquired Gordon. We were made the usual promises of nice equipment no older than 3 years and averaging 2800 miles per week. So he finishes orientation in Indiana on a thursday. They didn't have a truck for him there so they put him on a truck with one of their other drivers to get a ride to Pontoon to pick up his truck there. You are told to do an initial walk around of the truck and note anything wrong with it (obviously hadn't driven it yet). So first thing that sticks out besides it being filthy on the outside and reeking of cigarette smoke is the cracked windshield. So it's our first day and the truck has to immediately go in the shop (even though it had been sitting there for at least a week or two). 5 hours later they replace the cracked windshield.

We were given to a pair of temporary/training DMs. These DM's did absolutely NO training whatsoever. The female was relatively nice and bubbly but tended to make you feel like a bit of an idiot for not knowing how some of their different procedures worked when you asked her. She is only there half the time. The other DM that is there for basically the other half is a complete jerk! If you can get a respond out of him at all, it is demeaning, rude, and talks to you like you are a child. After driving the truck we discovered a lot more was wrong with it than just a cracked windshield. We ended up putting the truck back in the shop the following week at their Rancho terminal.

We had a pretty long list of repairs because lets face it.. this truck was a POS with 325,000 miles on it and a 2011. The windshield wiper on the passenger side didn't even touch the windshield so it was useless when it started snowing. It was near impossible to shift, had NO power whatsoever pulling hills.. HILLS not mountains. A 25,000 lb load going up a slight grade in MO shouldn't drop your truck down to 8th gear on a 10 gear truck. The truck was going through MASSIVE amounts of oil. About a gallon a week with no visible leaks anywhere. Everytime you hit the brakes to slow down the front end had a loud clunk on both sides of the axle and the braking was.. sketchy. Oh and it was in desperate need of a PM (they had no idea when the last one had even been done). Everyone we came across asked us why we were even in this truck because it was so old and had too many miles. But ok.. we put the truck in the shop and tell them what is wrong with it.

Rancho takes about 10 hours to repair the truck. They fixed the windshield wiper arm that was bent out awkwardly (probably from the guy that replaced the windshield). They did the PM of course. The clunking they accuse of every single brake on that truck being out of adjustment. They were appalled that Pontoon had even released that truck to me in the first place. The oil usage they told us was "normal". He tried to tell me there was a drain pan underneath where all of the oil went and recycled through. Mmkay. Well we get our next load and it is apparent that those above repairs is all they did. The truck is still clunking in the front end, it still has no pulling power, still won't shift worth a ####, and it is still drinking oil like no tomorrow. They obviously never even test drove the truck to see what is wrong with it.

Couple of weeks later when the weather got really chilly they started sending out those messages about making sure to put the fuel additive in the trucks so the fuel wouldn't gel. We were headed south to Louisville, KY were it wasn't as cold so we didn't add any. We did our 10 hour break at a rest area and started the truck occasionally just in case. It was reading 25 degrees outside, so wasn't overly concerned. The next day we are driving down the road for about an hour or so with no problems whatsoever when suddenly the check engine light comes on and the truck is loosing all of it's power. A code pops up, truck starting sputtering but only when going up hill. If it was flat or downhill, it worked fine but as soon as there was even the slightest upgrade the truck would loose all of it's power and had to drop down into 4th gear. Naturally we pull over and call roadside. An hour later they finally get back to us and say the "fuel gelled". Didn't see how that was possible but ok.. just send help! They send another gordon driver to grab our trailer and to follow us bobtailing to the nearest truck stop (30 miles). The truck is just getting worse and worse. He followed us limping the 30 miles to the truck stop. Truck wouldn't go over 15 mph so we had to hobble along on the shoulder with it trying to die every few minutes. We got it to the truck stop for the night (at least we weren't on the side of the highway anymore) and stay the night there since it was so late anyways. Roadside wants us to hobble the truck the rest of the way to Louisville, KY since we obviously had no problems getting it the 30 miles to the truck stop (kidding me right?!). The next day the truck is running a bit better on its own. It still cough and hiccups stuttering a bit on hills but it was better than 15 mph on the shoulder. We get it into the shop at Freightliner and sit in their waiting room all day. Guy comes up to tell us that there is NOTHING wrong with the truck.. no codes.. no check engine light.. nothing! He said that the most recent code was over 300 key hours ago. He even took it for a spin and it worked fine. Well call us a liar, stupid truck!

This is the third time this truck has been in a shop leaving us sitting in three weeks. Not good. Well it's a friday when we leave freightliner. Sent the dm a message (the male dm) letting him know the truck was out of the shop and we were ready to roll ( we had already been sitting for 2 days because of this mystery incident). He says ok what's your PTA. Well it was already fairly late friday night so we said first thing in the morning. We get a "10-4 PTA set". Saturday is ticking away and it's starting towards afternoon. We sent another message to the DM (same guy again) and he replies almost 2 hours later with "Are you even out of the shop yet?" You've got to be kidding me.. like this guy has to got be messing with us. Politely tell him that we had already told him the truck was out and that we had set the PTA for that morning. Another hour later he responds again with "10-4 thanks". That's the last we hear of him that day and we don't get a load. Sunday we send another message trying to get a load and thankfully it's the female. We told her how we've been sitting since thursday morning because of this whole mishap with the truck and really needed to get moving again. The only thing she said was that she couldn't get us a load until Monday morning. She gives us a 300 miles load up to Indianapolis. We drop it off at the yard monday afternoon with PTA set immediately afterwards. A load never comes. Next day it is pushing towards noon again and we still don't have a load. So we ask the DM if we can get a load moving out of there. She responds almost immediately "is your truck out of the shop yet?" ....... What the heck is she talking about?! So we asked what she meant. She says that got us up to the indianapolis yard because there was a note that our qualcomm needed repaired. ??????????? We really have no idea what is going on at this point but we are pretty fed up. We told her we had no idea what she was talking about and that there was nothing wrong with the qualcomm. Naturally she has nothing for us the rest of that day.

Well after all that has been happening we obviously needed to start going above the DM's head to get some answers because it appeared we were being toyed with or trying to be starved out of a job. All of this time sitting in Indianapolis left us time to talk to some higher ups at their terminal. They were not happy to hear what had been going on and couldn't understand why it was happening because my husband was doing an excellent job with high scores. He ended up calling up another big wig at the headquarters in front of us letting him know what was happening. That day we were moved to a new DM and to the TC fleet (since we had prior experience).

The only "odd" thing noted was that our new DM did not introduce themselves. We didn't even know we had a new DM until we noticed that all of our messages were coming with new initials. We didn't know if JD1 was a male/female, their phone number/extension, or where they were even located. But on a positive note things started going really well. Great loads were coming in and the miles were more like what they promised. Pre plans were being sent before we ever even came close to completing the current load. We figure things are finally starting to really look up and that all the prior nonsense was just a fluke besides the pos truck of course.

This new DM is good about answering questions fairly quickly but still tends to talk down to you (a common theme around here). We get a call from our buddy that was in orientation with us that we kept in contact with. He told us he quit working at Gordon for various reasons including some of the same issues we had. He didn't like being talked to like a child, talked down to, and having to put his truck in the shop almost every week for repairs they just never seemed to fix. He also told us an incident where his load was overweight and he had to take the load back to get some product removed. Apparently Gordon had yelled at him telling him he had cost them a lot of money for taking the entire load. Not sure on all the details or the validity of his story but it was what the straw that broke the #####'s back for him.

Things were still going fairly well for us for a couple of weeks until we ended up in Denver. We had to do a 34 reset once we got there so we opted to get a hotel room for the night. This is during the BIG FREEZE going on Indiana at the beginning of the year. Since the "mystery" fuel gelling problem we had been putting the additive in religiously when needed. Suprisingly it's not very cold in Denver like it is in the rest of the country. Truck is registering about 27 degrees. We go back out to the truck the next day after staying at the hotel to find that the truck will start but it won't stay running. Great.. here we go again. Get ahold of roadside once again and of course their immediate response is "fuels gelled up again". Who's going to bother arguing with them? They send a guy out. We tell him roadside thinks the fuel gelled. He looks at us strange and says he highly doubts that's what is wrong because he hasn't had any other calls about that in the past few days. The check engine light is on and there a few codes popping up. He wants us to try to follow him to the shop so he can put the truck on their computer to see what the codes are but first he changes our fuel filter to make road side happy. He doesn't see any gelling in it though and the codes are still there with the check engine light. Naturally the #### truck fires up, stays running, and runs perfectly fine all the way to the shop. This truck hates us! He can't work on it that night so he tells us to hang tight and they'll work on it the next day.

We wait all the next day for them to look at the codes and they can see that something is causing the truck to lose power (you don't say!). We told them of all the problems we had with the truck.. even the "mystery fuel gelling" incident before that seemed very similar to this time. They could see something was clearly wrong with this truck and that all of our pulling problems and the mystery time is all linked to what is wrong now. They replace a couple of sensors to see if it fixes the problem but the codes are still registering (it is obvious to us that this mechanic is a new guy btw). The truck is also due for a PM again so we asked them if they could ask roadside if we could get that taken care of too since it's already in the shop. Roadside refuses.. says it needs to be done in house.. put the truck in the shop again.. yay! He can't figure it out and wants the head mechanic to look at it but he won't be in till the next day (fantastic..). We have to go and stay at a hotel for the night and they told us to call back the next day at 10:00 to see if it was done.

That next morning around 0900 we get a call from our mystery DM.. his name is Josh! And he is PISSED OFF!! He starts yelling as soon as the phone is picked up. "Where the HELL are you?! Why aren't you with your truck?!? The shop called and told us your truck is ready to go.. why the hell are you still at the hotel?! We have loads that need ran right NOW!" There was no talking to this guy, so we just told him we didn't even know the truck was done and that we were on our way.

Just a sidenote in this terribly long story (if you are even still reading).. another small incident that set us on edge. We had arrived to a reciever 24 hours early that was supposed to be a dropped trailer. We had no idea it wasn't allowed to be dropped early though. We got there and they said you can only drop 1 hour prior to your apt time. That wasn't a big deal but we wanted to inform the DM because our ETA/PTA was no longer accurate. So sent him a message letting him know what was up and that we couldn't drop until tomorrow. It wasn't our usual DM that responded but some weekend guy. His exact response was "Aww I'm so sorry that you have to sit there and wait now. Sure wish there was something I could do for YOU on my end, but there isn't so good night" I think I saw red... that response was completely uncalled for. I wasn't asking him/her to do anything.. i just wanted to give them an update. I gracefully did not respond.

Ok coming up to the end now.. We finally get a load up to Pacific, WA so that we can put the truck in the shop for it's now overdue PM. The truck is STILL clunking in the front end, going through over a gallon of oil a week, and shifting terribly. We figure since it's their headquarters that they may actually care about fixing it. Freightliner tells us it's going to take 3 days to fix the truck. Thankfully that means we can get put in a loner truck and not have to spend more time sitting around. Now I want to point out there there is an ABUNDANT amount of brand new trucks sitting in their lot ready to go with no assigned drivers yet. I don't want a new truck.. i know that's now how this works. But I would like a "newer" truck with a little less miles and a little less run in the ground. We still keep hearing everywhere we go, including all the shops its been in that they are shocked gordon has even put us in this ancient truck. We were also told who to talk to about getting put in a different truck. Well heck yeah, let's go see the man. He informs that that only the drivers that have been with Gordon for a long time get new trucks (to be expected) and that we had not been with the company long enough to get a different truck (oh). He said to tough it out a few more months and they can put us in something different. So it takes Gordon a day and half to find us a loaner truck. With all of these brand new trucks just sitting there, i have no idea how this is even possible. They tell us to go find truck number such and such and do a once over on it to make sure it still runs (uh oh). We find the truck alright... it's a 2006 columbia that looks like it has seen better days. Get inside it and it's horrifying! There are wires hanging down under the steering wheel, the seats are barely even covered with cushion and fabric anymore. Fire it up, and the thing sounds like it's going to dig it's own grave right there and bury itself in it! Told the dm there was NO way we were going to risk taking that thing out. So about 5 hours later he finds us a different truck. This is a nice truck! It's not brand new but it's only got about 150,000 miles on it and it was well taken care of. It also belonged to someone that was apparently taking some time off because a lot of belongings are still in it. But hey it's a truck that runs right?! They give us a load (Finally!!) for a whopping 9 miles to be delivered at 2200... that's what.. $3 of pay?? Not really even worth the time but whatever.. gets us moving. The next day we are sitting again.. all day. What the heck? We get a call that we need to get into a different loaner truck because they guy that runs this truck is coming back tomorrow and is obviously going to need his truck back. Ok.. no problem. We respected the guy that drove that truck that clearly was neat, organized, clean and took great care of his truck. We left it cleaner than when we got in it. Well we can't get in our next loaner truck until the owner of THAT truck comes up and gets a "few of his belongings". We can see the truck we'll be moving to so we'll know when he gets there. Here he comes strolling up with a bottle of some random cleaner (sweet.. he takes care of it too). He hops in the truck and starts driving away with it. Odd.. but ok. He pulls up next to a garbage can, pulls the brakes, and clambers out. Even odder. He comes around and opens up his passenger door and trash starts falling out!! OMG! He is scooping armfull after armfull of trash out of the passenger side of his truck right into this waiting trash can below. Clearly this guy uses his passenger side as a garbage/dump area. This isn't good.... This goes on for about 20 minutes. Him throwing more and more trash out of this truck. He then climbs back in and drives away. Presumably closer to his vehicle so he can get his belongings. About an hour later he comes back with the truck and parks it a few trucks down (he doesn't realize we are the people taking over his truck and can see him). Believe it or not he walks by with more trashbags of trash 2 or 3 more times. Finally about 20 minutes later we see him walking away from his truck with a pillow and small bag of whatever and he disappears. Guess it's time to switch to our new loaner truck.

Now after witnessing all of this trash flowing out of his truck, we weren't expecting a palace naturally. But nothing could have prepared us for this truck. Very first thing you notice when you open the door is the SMELL! I actually start gagging immediately. We aren't smokers so the smell of smoke is disgusting enough. This guy was clearly a 2 pack a day kind of guy. But that wasn't all.. the B.O. almost overpowered the smoke smell!! The seats are wet (i don't want to know why), your shoes stick to the floor everywhere you step, there are various stains EVERYWHERE (even on the ceiling). The bed has toenail clippings on it. There is a cigarette like permanently stuck to the floor behind the seat. The steering wheel is sticky. This truck is horrifying and nothing short of repulsive... and it's old ( a 2009!) What happened to the "all trucks are 3 years or newer"? The vacated 2006 i understood.. it wasn't being driven obviously. But this one we just saw the driver. Another older woman we talked to showed us her truck. She had just finished orientation 2 weeks ago and was put in a 2006 with no bunk heater or APU.

So here we are stuck in this appalling truck until ours is fixed. They give us a 1200 mile load (finally.. we had only turned in 900 miles the previous week.. i'm sorry 909) down to Rancho with a promised turn around to get our truck that was in the shop. That means we are stuck in this truck for at least 4 days ... eww. As i'm sure you can tell at this point we are quite fed up with this company and about on our last straw. We got our load back to Tacoma, WA last night to be delivered at Mclane at 0100 this morning. We got back to the headquarters and officially shut down at 0400. That means our 10 hour break obviously isn't going to be over until 1400. Our good buddy Josh starts calling at noon today and we missed the first call. His message on the phone says "you are supposed to be working right now and you need to get going on these preplans". For starters.. we haven't recieved any preplans at all and none have been mentioned. He calls back again about an hour later and my husband answers. He starts yelling and cussing about these preplans we're supposed to be picking up (supposably there are two of them). Again there is no talking to him and quite frankly.. we're done! He hung up on crazy angry Josh, we cleaned out the truck, and turned the keys in.

We told them what all was going on and the last call from the DM that was certainly not appreciated, especially since our 10 hour break wasn't even up yet. He was sorry to see us leave the company, said he would be taking care of the DM, and listed us a rehire. I know this was incredibly long but anyone that is looking to make a move to "one of the top fleets to work for" will have a true experience to look at before deciding. We will definitely be moving on and never looking back. Thank you to all that care to read and baring with me.

 

It should be SOP for companies to give new hires trucks hat have been detailed inside & out (including mechanical). What kind of message does it send to give a guy a thrased truck? What would a new ceo think if he was shown a trashed office with scuzzy desk? "no one cares here! guess I shouldn't either."

Was there some histoy with this guy? I just read it as "hey guys, I'm sorry you have to wait an extra day. I know that must suck & I wish there was something I could do but my hands are tied."

 

No.. it was the first time we had heard from this particular guy but seeing as all previous experiences with almost all of the staff you talk to was demeaning and talking down to you like you are a child (even on the phone), it was just how we perceived the message. Guess that's the problem with text, email, ect. You can't express emotion or tone properly. So you are correct. He could have been being a smart ### or like you said. Either way.. we didn't respond back so no harm no foul.

 

I appreciate your understanding. I too feel that Gordon has been greatly misrepresented by other drivers for whatever reason. I had learned the hard way to always research companies before even considering applying. But when I researched Gordon it didn't seem like a terrible company. There were a few complaints but not as many as the positive. So we certainly felt that it was worth checking in to. The impression I received at Gordon is that they only take care of and truly "care" about their drivers that have been with them 5 years or more. The rest of them are worthless and not worth their time. But the problem with that is that all of those "loyal" drivers are eventually going to move on or retire. So what does that leave you with? Not much because most everyone else is quitting before they reach even a year mark because of the poor treatment. And you are certainly right about them running you into the ground. The only reason i had mentioned our friend that had quit before us, was because I wanted to show that it wasn't just a fluke. It wasn't just us getting the poor treatment. I don't know how Gordon was before the Heartland acquisition, but we even told ourselves that maybe the problem is that they just don't care now. Or maybe it was always that way and like you said no one speaks up.

 

Oh and speaking of driver pay.. that was another thing that greatly bothered us. They mail you your check statements to your house! Now for us that was terrible. We had no idea what we got paid for, what we didn't get paid for, or if there was an error because we NEVER GO HOME! So they could've been screwing us the whole time and we have no idea. The last company we worked at sent us the statements on the qualcomm so we knew instantly if there was a mistake. Another sidenote for those of you that it would matter.. There is NO TOP BUNK! The trucks with top bunks are only for the drivers that are teaming. They will make "special exceptions" if you hound the piss out of your DM begging for a different truck with a top bunk but we never wasted our breath with it because we had bigger fish to fry with them. Though with us essentially living out of our truck, not having a top bunk was detrimental because we had always used that as storage. We had to get rid of a lot of stuff

I keep remembering the little things that we couldn't stand. Now we have always hauled reefer and enjoyed it. Something also that stood out at Gordon was when we switched to the TC fleet (temperature control) and needed a trailer washout. Now with the last company trailer washouts were a slight pain if you had to get an express code and could sometimes take a long time. With Gordon?! They make you contact ROADSIDE for a trailer washout!!! So we would have to send a mac to roadside requesting a trailer washout. Then they MIGHT get back to you in the next 30 minutes but most likely not so you have to call. There's another 30 minutes waiting for them to pick up the phone. Then they send you directions to the trailer washout facility they choose for you. Once you get to the place you have the trailer finally washed out, the employees there have to call roadside for approval/payment!!!! First off the workers were apalled that they had to call someone to get paid. And it they too had to wait on hold once they called for 30 minutes. After all of this was finally said and done, we were late picking up our load and got chewed out for it.