Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

The Ending

The mods have closed the adventure thread, so here's what I had thought I would do with the ending (once I got there since I write these things on the fly).

Gerdin realizes that it isn't his dream and implores his wife to pinch him really, really hard. She happily complies and pinches him so hard that all the GordonDuos at their new companies in their non-smurf blue trucks all wake up at the same time from the same dream...

It wasn't Gerdin's dream after all.

Thx to TTR for indulging.


Written Tuesday, May 20, 2014 from the Wal-Mart SuperCenter off exit 153, US 61 South, Maquoketa, Iowa. And on to Indiana... All rights reserved.

 

Seward I-74 Wreck into Bridge Support Last Friday

On the way in today from Prairie du Chien, I took a look at the tracks into the bridge support. Had expected a long, deep rutted (due to wet conditions) path and it wasn't.

Had seen a pickup caught in the median ditch earlier that day, had a big tool box, probably left 600 feet of deep, muddy, rutted tracks and was still trying to power himself out of the median to no avail. Too deep. Sides too steep.

That's not what I saw today at the site of the wreck about 20 miles west of Crawfordsville. The driver was almost on the bridge when the folded-flat grass shows his route at a sharp angle off the pavement and directly into the bridge support. No squiggles, he went straight in. Nor did I see any skid marks that you might expect from the trailer on the pavement.

Was this suicide by bridge support? Wouldn't be the first time something like that happened. When a buddy's brother came home from Viet Nam, they would find him in the basement in the dark, close to the wall, facing the wall. He rode his motorcycle into an oak tree and left no skid marks...

In Illinois, for example, around Peoria, I saw bridge supports in the median that were so well-protected by concrete crash barriers, metal railings or cabled fence that no car or truck could head-on into those bridge supports.

In contrast, the bridge support the Seward driver plowed into stood naked except for some yellow plastic water barrels--not enough to hold a truck back for sure. I don't know if the wreck itself was preventable, but the head-on impact into the bridge support was. Shouldn't have happened. Those unprotected bridge supports are a hazard, a death trap.

Yellow barrels aren't enough.



Written Tuesday, May 20, 2014 while having a draft beer and beefy vegetable soup. Next stop, home. All rights reserved.

 

Job Hazard

Yesterday morning I emailed the broker a list of 'DAY BEFORE's when we could run the Illinois-Iowa the day before the Prairie du Chien pick up. Gives more breathing room. However, on Monday's we might as well do it all in one day, the outbound load from Illinois, deliver that to Iowa and proceed on to Prairie du Chien. Within an hour I had a PU number for today's Illinois-Iowa.

The mystery yesterday was the horse, donkey or mule tracks I found behind my place yesterday morning. They came in off the highway, went 100 feet or so out back and started up a path (wide enough for a dozer) up a hill out back, turned around, then went another 75 or more feet behind my place and started around a large, bushy mound, came out of that and took a route that would have led between my place and my garage. Finally the tracks lead out back to the highway.

Very curious. I was talking about it on the phone with a friend, a gal, who commented how she didn't like my hill even in her car, let alone a horse. Yes, the highway out front is very noisy, no place for a horse. Then I thought about the Amish that I do see on occasion coming down the hill in a wagon pulled by a horse... then I knew or I think I know.

A lone rider on horseback braved the hill. The horse got spooked by a too close passing car or truck or the crazy noisy, unmuffled engine brakes that you can hear a mile into the woods, then saw my drive as an escape. It took a bit for the rider to get that scared animal back under control.

Sorry I missed that.

The job hazard? I've only seen five of the drivers who run out of the yard, met four. On Friday, three of our runs go bye-bye to another company. Apparently we do get four runs to replace those three. I'm told they're inferior and there's talk of drivers quitting. Well, someone MIGHT want Prairie du Chien...

Maybe not. I'm told NO ONE wants the Prairie du Chien. We'll see.

Running out to Illinois last night, the National Weather Service screeched on about ping pong ball sized hail up around Veedersburg, off I-74, so I was glad to be westbound well south of that on I-70. Almost. My destination, in fact, was right in the path of this front but with the front moving at 40 mph I figured it would most likely pass by before I got there--and it did.

The sky, though, was all electric, very Tesla, brightening the horizon repeatedly and silhouetting dark, large cloud formations to the north. Quite a sight.

West of Terre Haute, a flat was being pulled out of the median, managed to stay upright. A while later I thought for a moment he/she had got loose from all those emergency vehicles and passed me when a lumber load went by me in a big hurry, all owner op spec with way, way too many lights.

But no, the other load was steel. And that load's hurry set well aside for now.



Written early Thursday, May 22, 2014 in Illinois. All rights reserved.

 

Shipper Directions vs Trucker Directions

A couple minutes before six, comes a thumping on my door. "What's your number? Want to get started." I give him my PU number. "Wheels chocked?" He would have seen when he walked by that I'd chocked just the driver side. "The other side isn't, I'll get it."

Next to me, for the first time, is another truck, a reefer to a door for an early start just like me. Has his tandems set properly, he's been here before. Inside the break room smells like ammonia and this plant makes nothing with ammonia. Then, in the biffy, I realize the odor that permeates the break room is pee from the urinal. Ugh!

Back in the break room, as I drop 45 cents into the coffee machine for some weak cappuchino, the whse guy says, "Might as well go back get another hour's sleep. Don't have your bills until the office opens at 7 a.m." I figure I know better but complaining's NOT going to get me oughta here any faster. Walking back to the truck I notice my neighbor about to get loaded instead of me's a local guy. Won't help to complain...

Shipper directions? I'll try running a different route from what the Iowa shipping office gave me to their location. "Take 20 out of Dubuque, then 136 to 52." On 20 out of Dubuque is this long, long in-city grade with a traffic light on top and beaucoup traffic. Has caught me both trips.

It's the one spot on the run where the truck is not up to the task. First gear bucks too bad, probably a slightly warped flywheel according to the yard mechanic; second requires feathering the clutch and giving some throttle to pull off from a full stop at that steep angle but it's not smooth and hard on the truck with 44,000 pounds.

"If you're heavy... do you run 20 out of Dubuque?" I asked a leather-skinned, old driver who pulls local for the Iowa company, which has a fleet of their own. "Oh, my, no, NO," comes the response. "You'll break your drive shaft. An anhydrous driver rolled his truck there a year or so back and died. Take 52 straight out from Dubuque. There's a big hill out there, too, but it's out in the country. No problem"

That's shipper office directions versus trucker directions. The shipping office has no clue, really. Yes, a strain for this truck could well spell catastrophe for a tanker where even the surge from a too fast stop, for example, can knock a smooth bore tanker back into a car right close behind. You need a good, steady foot on those stops.

Busy morning, other trucks, vans, reefers and a hopper arrive to load while I wait. They keep coming, too, and I think might have to pull out of the door.

At seven a.m., I'm told that corporate has not sent the bill down so will have to wait until eight a.m. when corporate opens. Hm-m-m, so much for my hometown theory. Guess I'm a little on the negative side this morning.

The South Dakota broker says will make some calls to see what can be done on his end. Probably not much until corporate opens.

Okay, fine. This is trucking, after all. Whse guy comes out to the truck, says the PU number I gave him was shipped last February, need another. We had transposed two numbers. "That's for tomorrow," says the whse guy, pointing to tomorrow's date on the BOL. "You can't ship until tomorrow?" I repeat. "No, this afternoon, maybe. Your fault," he says.

"This afternoon? Okay..." I repeat again. "Nah," he says, "Just jacking with you. Gonna load you right now." So first became last, becomes first.

The day brightens...



Written Thursday morning from Illinois. All rights reserved.

 

Gordon Dispatch vs Haz outfit vs Prairie du Chien run

The differences between how you interact with dispatch with these three firms is extreme. Might even add two or three more, Mid-States Express (out of business since 2008, an LTL--Less Than Truckload--outfit), a mail contractor to USPS (Post Office) and a forklift propane tank delivery company.

Maybe. We'll see. Start with Gordon and see where this goes.

GTI--Gordon Trucking

Gordon with 2,000 seats and a strong presence in the Northwest, part of the Wal-Mart world in the Mid-West; I never got to the Phoenix terminal, did get to Rancho Cucamonga in Southern California and other terminals up the West Coast. Gordon is/was a micro-manager par excellence. And that's not a compliment. Now Heartland/GTI. Dunno about HTLD, except that the negativity from those who loved Gordon is likely highly over wrought.

(Hey! Were they honest about what you could expect from Gordon while they loved Gordon? Then why, why should you trust them now that they've had to move on and hate HTLD?? I ask you... but I digress.)

I signed on Midwest Regional and was told I could make good money, good miles, be home Saturday noon-ish and leave out Monday a.m. each week. Wasn't anywhere near true. What was true is that when you turned your key on in the morning the QualComm would start squawking at you. When you pulled off to pee, it would start squawking. Whenever you stopped, it squawked. Very demanding and messages, all in caps, "I NEED YOUR..." Your whatever. Always something.

Gordon has freight. You will only sit if they want you to sit for some reason. Like shut down in the afternoon, wait until tomorrow and drag a trailer one mile. You're paid on mileage... No, they don't care. Just suck it up and they'll throw you a bone, a better run, maybe. Not much more. Expect that if you get a good load, crap will follow. Sort of karma-ish, if you think about it.

Crappy karma.

You've got just time enough to get to your delivery and they want you to stop and accept a pre-plan. No matter that you're pressed for time, need to pee. Whatever. Once you send in your empty call you get the 'official' load assignment off that pre-plan they insisted you look at earlier. You've got just enough time and hours to get there if you slide fuel, signing bills and getting them faxed into payroll, pre and post trip inspections, scaling and other job-related, non-driving functions into your 10 hours off. Gordon's not subtle but very effective.

You would not believe the TINY pay checks. TINY. Embarrassed to let your bank see them in your account. That's a payroll check???

Embarrassed.

The information they provide you about your next load's designed to push you. Call it fleet utilization. You've got a 14-hour clock and an 11-hour rule. Gordon wants all of it. The information is also very selective. You will be told to deliver at such-and-such a time, when actually the 'window' could be three days from then, even more. They don't want you to know the window.

I learned about the 'window' by accident. A 'Service Watch' load I took to Iowa was a hundred and some hours early despite that the drop-dead arrival I was given was ending just as I pulled up. If you're one minute late on a Service Watch load--Watch Out!! Three of those and strike three, you're out! Bye-bye, probably, like some who now hate the company they used to love... Bye, now!

In a nutshell, that is--or was--Gordon dispatch. Most of your contact with Gordon dispatch is through the QualComm and it's frequent throughout your day. You could go days, though, without a real phone conversation with your DM (Driver Manager).

Gordon's always civil. Always micro-managing. Like you've got a ring in your nose. Your DM's required to keep the rope to that ring in your nose tight. Very tight. That's his/her job, use as much, all of your hours as possible in order to utilize that truck you're living in and make money for Gordon.

Every day.



Written at a pizza place in Iowa, pulled into town about 6:30 pm, parked where will deliver load from Illinois 7 a.m. tomorrow. All rights reserved.

 

Gordon Dispatch vs Haz outfit vs Prairie du Chien run

The Haz Outfit

In comparison to Gordon's 2,000 seats, the Haz outfit has less than 100; 60 or so while I worked for them (technically, I'm still on the roster... ). A boutique trucking outfit with a unique niche.

My most 'memorable' dispatch was near Chicago. "Go to (name of city near Chicago)." Said Dispatch without looking up from his screen; he's got 60 trucks, no QualComm or PeopleNet, just a cell phone to stay in touch with ALL of them.

"Got an address?" I asked.

"No, won't help you, just go. Do you know (name of driver)? If not, he's on your driver list. Got your driver list, don't you? He's ahead of you. Call when you get close. He'll talk you in..."

And that was my dispatch. Nor did he want to hear from me until I got back to the yard. No loaded, empty call. Nothing. Stay off his phone unless there's a problem you REALLY, REALLY need him for. On that dispatch I happened to see one of their trucks, the destination company, and followed their truck in. The driver waiting to guide me in and I both laughed long about that.

You'd never get to this place from your Garmin or Google Maps.

I'd get a call at home. "Can you be in Cleveland tomorrow at 11?" "Have you been to (name of company)?" He'd promise to leave me a map and further info in my cubby and would always forget so I'd have to call him at home, wake him up. And he'd apologize to ME!!

They pay on percentage and very well. On some 'money runs' out of Cincy, I drove over on Wednesday to the terminal and wrapped up Friday evening at the Indy terminal, about a thousand miles. A clear buck a mile to the driver. How's that for a part-time job, grand a week for three easy days. No, every week wasn't like that. But every week I did make more than I made even some of my better weeks at Gordon for a fraction of the time.

The Haz outfit goes to places that don't look like you're on this planet... Chemical workers at these places have similar work-site morbidity issues that truckers have. So combine the work-site morbidity of truckers AND chemical workers and you have... Haz. So that's a rub. You can smell stuff in the air and you'd like to hold your breath until you can get out of the plant.

But very informal dispatch and well-paid. $18/hr for all loading/unloading over two hours, so if it takes an hour to load and sign bills at your first stop to load and two hours at your destination, you're paid for the third hour. Some exceptions. $18/hr for ALL breakdown time until you're running again.

Older trucks, one mechanic to every four drivers. Always have an in-frame going on in the shop. $2,000 for the gear frame (bull gear, front cover of Detroit engine), no problem. Fix it. They like KW's, all good rubber, have ISXs, Cats and, of course, Detroits.

All runs start and end in Indy. Paper logs and magic erasers.


Written Friday, May 23, 2014 while waiting for the warehouse to open up. Then someone will come over and guide me to another 'overflow' shed about the size inside of a football field and the door where I'll unload... been there once but they want me to wait for the escort. All rights reserved.

//Actually, he came over, said, "You know where to go. Meet you there..." Down three blocks, turn into what looks like an alley next to fire station, turn right (carefully) and another two blocks down extra wide alley way, then into the open, back into dock.

 

Gordon Dispatch vs Haz Outfit vs Prairie du Chien Run

Sparrows here at the Great Sauk Trail rest area on I-80 east bound have learned that truck grills contain food, like dead bugs. Watched two of them at work on AR Transport next to me, on my grill and CRST on the other side. This morning a swallow was building a nest in the kingpin access hole up by the bulkhead of a 53' trailer.

Won't it be surprised when that trailer pulls out!

This Prairie du Chien Run

I'm comparing dispatch between Gordon, the Haz outfit and this Prairie du Chien run. Certainly I'm more involved on this run than either with the Haz outfit or Gordon. Gordon micro-managed and stayed in more or less constant contact, the Haz outfit didn't want to hear from me after giving me my marching orders and a lot of the success or failure of this Prairie du Chien run is up to me.

Don't think this driver-involvement typical of this company either. Just a situation that has come up with the run moved over to the Yard Boss, who's my boss and hired me for this run. The Prairie du Chien part has been in place but it's the outbound load from Illinois that delivers in Iowa has me involved with the warehouses in Illinois and Iowa and the broker in between.

The NavMan unit in the truck provides the Yard Boss real-time information on whether I'm parked or rolling such that he doesn't need me to let him know whether I'm empty or loaded. He can tell by my route. "I know everything," he likes to say. The NavMan does NOT provide State Patrols the kind of data that can be pulled up from you QualComm or PeopleNet. Nothing, in fact.

And we run paper logs.

The Yard Boss provides me with a spreadsheet to figure out our PU days in Prairie du Chien and our delivery days in Indiana. It's really up to me to work out the details and we're winging it. Getting a feel for what's important and what's not to each of the stakeholders. In Prairie du Chien, I knew that we had to get the load on our PU day. It turns out we can get it at least a day before, no problem.

The shipper in Illinois on the outbound has let a load go a day early but doesn't like it. He will get cranky fast, though, without the magic PU number. That's a deal killer. No tickee, no washee. No magic number, no load. The warehouse in Iowa closes at five, so wants me there by four. Yesterday I pulled in about 6:30 p.m. and spent the night on their lot, we unloaded today. No problem.

The Prairie du Chien run's the proverbial work in progress.

I'm exploring what's the better route. My latest epiphany's that it's no further to go to Prairie du Chien than out 20 or 52 from Dubuque, so will probably try that next time. I've done 20 twice, 52 once. Neither is trivial; both have long pulls. Right now 52 is by far preferable. It's up to me.

The Yard Boss, at least so far, has my back and is pretty much available 24/7 if I think I need him.

Time'll tell, won't it!!


Written Friday, May 23, 2014 at Great Sauk Trail rest area on I-80 eastbound. Heading back to Indiana, home tonight, for long weekend and nothing until Wednesday or Thursday depending on whether we have another outbound. Thursday if we don't. All rights reserved.

//Currently at the Loves, Le Roy, IL--truck in tire shop. Right-Front-Outer Tandem (trailer) blew retread cap, and rather dramatically. No damage but a lot of blue smoke behind and really hot with steel belt showing, has air, not flat. Limped to exit 142, let the tire cool off and then hurried to Loves Tire Shop at exit 149 before dark. Should be under way in about a half hour.

 

Mid-States Express Compared to Gordon, Haz Outfit, Prairie du Chien

Mid-States Express, an LTL (Less Than Truckload) outfit that went out of business in early 2008, had a terminal in Indy on Dividend Road next door to the then Gordon Indy terminal where I later got hired into Gordon, four years later, in fact.

When I backed in each evening from my run out to Crawfordsville, Attica and Veedersberg at Mid-States, I was usually facing the Gordon terminal. Imagine how odd that felt four years later looking back over to the former Mid-States terminal from the dock at Gordon...

Mid-States was a 'typical' cross-dock operation in that there were areas designated to stage freight on the dock. The line haul runs ran at night, arrived in the early morning and a dock crew would break that freight out and 'stage' it on the dock or move it directly into local trailers assigned to various runs.

Some LTL operations like the one I worked for in Southern California completely separated dock and driver functions. Your trailer was mostly already loaded. Get your bills from dispatch and you're on your way.

At Mid-States, though, you worked the dock in the morning from the bills dispatch gave you to load your outbound trailer on your route. There were never enough pallet jacks, towmotors (forklifts) or hand trucks to go around. So it was a scramble every morning as drivers traded off what they needed in the way of freight moving equipment.

You communicated with dispatch through two-way AT&T radios Mid-States provided. Out on my run, though, my Verizon cell phone had better reception. Never missed a pickup or delivery, despite one of their longest local runs.

Dispatch didn't like calls from your cell but wasn't much they could do. "Okay, tell you what, I'll drive over to a spot where I've got two-way reception... Take me a half hour to get there and we can talk then, if you want." Yeah, sure!!

You'd get your bills and a computer print-out list from dispatch with your deliveries and already scheduled pickups for the day and they'd call you on new pickups as they came in. You'd 'peddle' your deliveries on the way out, interspersed with nearby pick ups, moving your freight around so that your pickups went towards the bulkhead (front) of the trailer and deliveries migrated towards the tail (rear).

Pretty much you were on your own all day. I typically ran a couple hundred miles per day--Hey! A large percentage of Gordon loads ran less than that!! Go figure. Mid-States paid $16/hour which was less than Estes or some of the other LTL that paid about $24. When you hired on, Mid-States wanted assurance that you were good with $16/hour and wouldn't just jump ship at the first opportunity.

Well, I needed a job... Mid-States had no time nor interest in micro-managing. Wasn't in their dictionary. Freight, and therefore, work, was divided up geographically. If you had a short run, you might get off in eight. My run out northeast from Indy was always 10-12 hours, sometimes more.

Never missed a pickup or delivery... did I mention that?



Written Saturday, May 24, 2014 at home, six miles north of Spencer, Indiana. The receiver signed the bill for the Prairie du Chien but the load goes to another warehouse, does not come off the truck. Another $53, but I'll run that Tuesday, not today. Over $500 for the new trailer tire from Loves.

All rights reserved.

 

Double Ironies at the Ex-GTI Thread

Breakfast this morning, the Saturday before Memorial Day, freshly steamed brown rice with lentils, Minnesota wild rice and fresh brown eggs from my golden comet chickens. Had three eggs waiting for me after the Prairie du Chien run Thursday and Friday. Still no explanation for the missing eggs from the run before last. Little mysteries continue... like horse tracks out back.

Haven't found a snake with egg-sized lumps yet, carrying my missing eggs.

Over at the Ex-GTI thread, Denali has voiced what should have struck like an earthquake, that he would have been better off had he not left the outfit that paid him percentage and joined GTI, would still be driving. Made better on one run than a week with Gordon. Where, where has this been said before?? His CDL's suspended. Will have trouble finding a good gig even after his CDL's reinstated next year with a recent year suspension like this.

Will the feckless, former cheerleading Gordon Two acknowledge anything?? Doubtful. Very, very doubtful.

If that's not poignant enough, HeartofaFatTrucker's visiting and they (Gordon Two) apparently WANT to dialog. What giggles this is worth! If there's anything true about TTR, just the mention of an outfit's name brings recruitment, no matter how bad. By providing HeartofaFatTrucker a forum to present the HTLD side, HOAT gets to recruit, something that could not otherwise be done, and through the Ex-GTI thread!! The Gordon Two think they're beating up on HOAT but they're enabling...

Funnee!!

I remember this astounding rant, how this company lied to him, no miles, no money, once he gets a year in he's gone, ya-da, ya-da. About two weeks later a guy asks if the OP's still getting bad miles because he starts orientation in the morning.

You can't make these up.

Leaving Prairie du Chien yesterday I stopped at a fish and cheese shop. Bought smoked lake trout, $6.95 pound. They also had walleye right out of the smoker, northern pike, catfish and more. Also morel mushrooms and were asking less than $30 pound. Here they go for $40-$50 pound.

The smoked fish stunk the cab up nicely. Ditched the wrapper, leftover skin and bones in a trash bin at US 61 rest area, exit 1, just as you leave/enter Wisconsin. Scale there's always closed.

A good thing...


Written Saturday, May 24, 2014 at home, six miles north of Spencer, Indiana. All rights reserved.