Hi everyone glad to be back great to be back. I hadn't really gone away per-say, but I was oh I don't know busy working and I figured everyone was like, oh this guy's posting more about working for GFS (were actually Gordon Food Service now they dropped the GFS like a hot potato.) Frankly I liked the old GFS 100xs better then the new Gordon Food Service, but that's the way things go.
Anyhow lets start things off around October or November late in October yeah, I got a new truck to drive for work. Well what happened my old International clunker went on extended vacation to the shop and when stuff goes to the shop sometimes especially the Internationals it's like they enter a gigantic black hole and when there coming back nobody knows because the shop thought my 2006 International was a spare even though it was clearly assigned to our yard, anyhow that truck should be retired they keep saying there going to get rid of the rest of the corn binders, but they never do. Gordon's bought some Internationals in 2006 and had real bad luck with them and cancelled there purchase order with International Harvester after taking delivery of I don't know how many trucks, but it wasn't good, they told International we need you to make improvements here here and here on these trucks and International said "We will not make those improvements" Gordon's said "We will not be continuing to do business with you if that's you're attitude."
The Internationals were after the Sterling Era and the Sterlings were a disaster although I guess they did have Cummins Turbo Diesels which was there one redeeming quality, but outside of that my boss kept on saying those trucks were junk and I know the warehouse in Dayton some was able to get rid of all there Sterlings, we had one at our yard it ended up having some major mechanical drive train issue and went back to the warehouse up near Detroit and we never saw it again I think my boss was trying to get it out of our yard anyhow. I think Gordon's sold off most of all the Sterlings there's a few stragglers here or there, but there pretty much done now I think they sold them all to Mexico or something.
Like you guys know the grocery store chain from Chicago known as Jewel Osco Drug?
They had all those Ford Aeromax trucks that they sold off to Mexico.
Anyhow all that aside the Internationals and Sterlings only existed in the GFS fleet in the mid early 2000s because GFS wasn't getting there price from Volvo, but then they learned after the Sterling and International debacle that they should go back to Volvo, pretty much that's all we have besides some Internationals that are spares. Anyhow all that boringness aside I had an International that was assigned to me, then someone quit and I wanted there truck then someone got promoted and one quitting and one promotion later I ended up because I "don't use tobacco products" got my self a nice spot in a 2015 Volvo. Can't do much better then that.
So anyhow that's all been real good, and it's been good really it'll be a year at the beginning of March at Gordon's and from March to Dec I made 57K well I'm pretty sure that come the end of this month I'll probably be in the 62-63K a year mark which actually surpassed my goal. So I can't complain about that at all it's over 20K more a year then when I was doing beer.
Anyhow so we got the money portion covered and it's good I think middle of next year I'll move out of mom and dad's house, but for now there's no real reason to leave yet. Everyone always said "Live at home as long as you can." Well I've pretty much done just that, yeah I listen. However time moves on and I can cut the cord give mom and pop a break, although my parents are pretty much empty nesters my brother moved out heck doing the simple math will just say a couple years ago he lives with his "girlfriend" that just showed up a few months after he moved out of state, at any rate though that's none of our concern. One of our ATMs said "You live at home?" I said "Yes" He goes "How much money do you have the bank?" I said "Oh I'm doing okay more and more every week ha-ha." He goes "Yeah I figured so much, just stay there at home as long as you can." So that's how that's going. In late October I went on the first date I have ever been on in my entire life we went to a place that I helped open up back when I worked in the restaurant industry a few years ago. It was a franchise of the place I worked at, nice place and I wanted to see it again and anyhow it was cool, the date it's self was pretty awkward and what not, but that's not important either, hitting a lot of mile stones that's the big thing :)
Anyhow you know it's interesting just late last month I was working on a budget for my self and I thought man Banker's the man who knows all about that stuff. The good news is see I own 3 cars (only one of those cars lives at home with me the other 2 my friend has parked at his place and he looks after them) actually I tell you what I've always had more then one car because sometimes you need one as a spare in case you're everyday car has to get worked on. Like my mom had to send her car in because it needed some work so I said well here you can barrow one of my other cars as a spare and she did and it worked out very nicely. However at this junction in time I am going to sell one of the cars off and my brother wants it so that works well so I'll put that money in my pocket. I did decide to keep my 15 year old pick up truck another year and I'll put new tires on that.
Anyhow over Christmas time I got to do some cool stuff at Gordon's I got to use my double/triples endorsement and on Christmas day I took a set of double to Pennsylvania where the warehouse is, that was my first real big trip not that it was a huge trip, but that was my first road trip in the big truck and it was a lot of fun. Then once I got to the warehouse I hooked up to a big Volume trailer and did Volume run to our Market Place Stores. It's cool because GFS lets you do stuff and that's pretty cool plus working on Christmas Day pays really good and I'll make an annual thing out of that if they let me. I also now have my own badge to get into the drivers office at the warehouse pretty cool huh?
So yeah it's been good and really I try to make it all sound like fun, because Grocery Thrower makes working at Sysco sound like fun or at least he's able to make it seem fun and that's what I try to do. It's cool when I get new guys not that I'm that old or have been around a long time asking me yeah how do I get into hauling food you make it sound fun.
It happens believe it or not. I always tell guys you need to have you're pulse on the whole industry though. Like tomorrow I have my route that I nicknamed "The Crosstown Beatdown" Alright it's ballooned up to 18 stops and 20,200 lbs I'll be out 13 hours tomorrow actually one stop that has to come in and if it does I'll be 19 stops and gosh probably 21,000 lbs. At any rate though I'll get it done. Today I had 12,000 and 12-13 stops day started out kind of rushy rushy, but after it was all done it was alright and I tell you what Monday fly's by time wise I mean it wasn't a bad day at work or anything, but Monday just fly's time wise. Anyhow that's a good start as Ted Ward would say more on this later.
Anyhow lets start things off around October or November late in October yeah, I got a new truck to drive for work. Well what happened my old International clunker went on extended vacation to the shop and when stuff goes to the shop sometimes especially the Internationals it's like they enter a gigantic black hole and when there coming back nobody knows because the shop thought my 2006 International was a spare even though it was clearly assigned to our yard, anyhow that truck should be retired they keep saying there going to get rid of the rest of the corn binders, but they never do. Gordon's bought some Internationals in 2006 and had real bad luck with them and cancelled there purchase order with International Harvester after taking delivery of I don't know how many trucks, but it wasn't good, they told International we need you to make improvements here here and here on these trucks and International said "We will not make those improvements" Gordon's said "We will not be continuing to do business with you if that's you're attitude."
The Internationals were after the Sterling Era and the Sterlings were a disaster although I guess they did have Cummins Turbo Diesels which was there one redeeming quality, but outside of that my boss kept on saying those trucks were junk and I know the warehouse in Dayton some was able to get rid of all there Sterlings, we had one at our yard it ended up having some major mechanical drive train issue and went back to the warehouse up near Detroit and we never saw it again I think my boss was trying to get it out of our yard anyhow. I think Gordon's sold off most of all the Sterlings there's a few stragglers here or there, but there pretty much done now I think they sold them all to Mexico or something.
Like you guys know the grocery store chain from Chicago known as Jewel Osco Drug?
They had all those Ford Aeromax trucks that they sold off to Mexico.
Anyhow all that aside the Internationals and Sterlings only existed in the GFS fleet in the mid early 2000s because GFS wasn't getting there price from Volvo, but then they learned after the Sterling and International debacle that they should go back to Volvo, pretty much that's all we have besides some Internationals that are spares. Anyhow all that boringness aside I had an International that was assigned to me, then someone quit and I wanted there truck then someone got promoted and one quitting and one promotion later I ended up because I "don't use tobacco products" got my self a nice spot in a 2015 Volvo. Can't do much better then that.
So anyhow that's all been real good, and it's been good really it'll be a year at the beginning of March at Gordon's and from March to Dec I made 57K well I'm pretty sure that come the end of this month I'll probably be in the 62-63K a year mark which actually surpassed my goal. So I can't complain about that at all it's over 20K more a year then when I was doing beer.
Anyhow so we got the money portion covered and it's good I think middle of next year I'll move out of mom and dad's house, but for now there's no real reason to leave yet. Everyone always said "Live at home as long as you can." Well I've pretty much done just that, yeah I listen. However time moves on and I can cut the cord give mom and pop a break, although my parents are pretty much empty nesters my brother moved out heck doing the simple math will just say a couple years ago he lives with his "girlfriend" that just showed up a few months after he moved out of state, at any rate though that's none of our concern. One of our ATMs said "You live at home?" I said "Yes" He goes "How much money do you have the bank?" I said "Oh I'm doing okay more and more every week ha-ha." He goes "Yeah I figured so much, just stay there at home as long as you can." So that's how that's going. In late October I went on the first date I have ever been on in my entire life we went to a place that I helped open up back when I worked in the restaurant industry a few years ago. It was a franchise of the place I worked at, nice place and I wanted to see it again and anyhow it was cool, the date it's self was pretty awkward and what not, but that's not important either, hitting a lot of mile stones that's the big thing :)
Anyhow you know it's interesting just late last month I was working on a budget for my self and I thought man Banker's the man who knows all about that stuff. The good news is see I own 3 cars (only one of those cars lives at home with me the other 2 my friend has parked at his place and he looks after them) actually I tell you what I've always had more then one car because sometimes you need one as a spare in case you're everyday car has to get worked on. Like my mom had to send her car in because it needed some work so I said well here you can barrow one of my other cars as a spare and she did and it worked out very nicely. However at this junction in time I am going to sell one of the cars off and my brother wants it so that works well so I'll put that money in my pocket. I did decide to keep my 15 year old pick up truck another year and I'll put new tires on that.
Anyhow over Christmas time I got to do some cool stuff at Gordon's I got to use my double/triples endorsement and on Christmas day I took a set of double to Pennsylvania where the warehouse is, that was my first real big trip not that it was a huge trip, but that was my first road trip in the big truck and it was a lot of fun. Then once I got to the warehouse I hooked up to a big Volume trailer and did Volume run to our Market Place Stores. It's cool because GFS lets you do stuff and that's pretty cool plus working on Christmas Day pays really good and I'll make an annual thing out of that if they let me. I also now have my own badge to get into the drivers office at the warehouse pretty cool huh?
So yeah it's been good and really I try to make it all sound like fun, because Grocery Thrower makes working at Sysco sound like fun or at least he's able to make it seem fun and that's what I try to do. It's cool when I get new guys not that I'm that old or have been around a long time asking me yeah how do I get into hauling food you make it sound fun.
It happens believe it or not. I always tell guys you need to have you're pulse on the whole industry though. Like tomorrow I have my route that I nicknamed "The Crosstown Beatdown" Alright it's ballooned up to 18 stops and 20,200 lbs I'll be out 13 hours tomorrow actually one stop that has to come in and if it does I'll be 19 stops and gosh probably 21,000 lbs. At any rate though I'll get it done. Today I had 12,000 and 12-13 stops day started out kind of rushy rushy, but after it was all done it was alright and I tell you what Monday fly's by time wise I mean it wasn't a bad day at work or anything, but Monday just fly's time wise. Anyhow that's a good start as Ted Ward would say more on this later.
