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Offered a Job at Gordon Food Service

MikeJ

MikeJ

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So today I had my face to face interview with Gordon Food Service and the interview turned into a big conversation. I talked about beverage distribution and all kinds of things and how our business work and Gordon's talked about how they do things and by the time it was done the guy said "I would like to hire you." So I have to go in for there physical and evaluation. Then give the beer distributor 2 weeks notice.

I will say this, unlike my job at the beer distributor my Spidey sense is not going off. I am not comfortable at the beer distributor, I know the reasons personally, but I am not going to discuss them in public if you PM me I'll tell you, but Gordon's sounded okay it can't be any worse then where I work right now.

Actually the boss and I had a nice conversation. He said to me how are you at backing? He goes I've hired beer drivers before, some work and some do not.
He goes beer drivers because of the side load trailers generally don't know how to back well.

I understand exactly what he is saying and where he is coming from. However I said to him that I do have a couple backing maneuvers that I have to perform each week and one of them is down a fairly long alley that he knew of so that's alright.

Plus GFS's broad line division is all 28' trailers anyhow and the 14-16 bays I pull are pretty close to a 28' footer.

Any how we had a pretty good conversation he offered me the job on the spot. I know it's hard because none of you have met me in real life so you don't know what I am like, I was just my self and spoke from the heart and I told the boss that I had been following this industry for sometime.

I have probably been following this industry (food) since I was in 9th grade. Not to many High School freshmen interested in broad line food service.

Hopefully I can do well at GFS not going to lie a tad nervous about the switch, I think that's normal and I told the boss such and he said "I understand switching jobs is always a little scary."

That being said though because of where I live they said it is possible I could get a Lorain County Route because they have trucks parked in the same lot as Jack Cooper near the Ford Plant. Isn't that funny GFS has trucks parked in the same yard as Jack Cooper. The Jack Cooper office is where GFS has it's trucks parked.

So because of where I live I can go to either spot I live in the middle. Personally I would be thrilled to get a Lorain County Route that would be great, I would be thrilled to get out of Cuyahoga County.

Anyhow here I go working for the big boys now not some overgrown local beer distributor.
 
Well good luck I think you will be fine. GFS seems to have their act together pretty well. The hardest part of food service getting started is learning the product, so when you delivering you know what your looking for instead of reading ever box you can see it and grab it. You shouldn't have to dig a huge amount their trucks are loaded pretty good from what I've seen. Its 99% mental you'll be fine.
 
johndeere4020 said:
Well good luck I think you will be fine. GFS seems to have their act together pretty well. The hardest part of food service getting started is learning the product, so when you delivering you know what your looking for instead of reading ever box you can see it and grab it. You shouldn't have to dig a huge amount their trucks are loaded pretty good from what I've seen. Its 99% mental you'll be fine.
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Trucks are floor loaded, but I guess. They try to keep stuff in order. Doesn't happen all the time, but they try and the scanner tells you how much you have to pick from, dry, cooler and frozen.
 
Don't pass this up. GFS is a good company and is still growing. They promote from within also, so opportunities are there for future advancement.
 
I called the office to tell them I'm in but there closed today, so I'll call on Monday and tell them I'll take it. The folks are happy to there pretty excited about it.
 
double r said:
Don't pass this up. GFS is a good company and is still growing. They promote from within also, so opportunities are there for future advancement.
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They talked about that and said there are other opportunities at GFS that come along just a matter of keeping you're eyes and ears open and knowing when to speak up.
 
MikeJ said:
Trucks are floor loaded, but I guess. They try to keep stuff in order. Doesn't happen all the time, but they try and the scanner tells you how much you have to pick from, dry, cooler and frozen.
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Don't worry about the floor loading, the will put it on a pallet if the stop utilizes pallets. The way they load their trailers from front to back as the product comes down means its loaded pretty well in order. The way Sysco builds their pallets means a lot of digging from the selector paying no attention to stop numbers or pallet zones. So the floor loading is no big deal, I also think they load the left side of the trailer heavier so you can get to the bulk head quicker. To me delivering groceries was 99% mental, learning how to work your trailer and stacking your two wheeler is a big part of it.
 
The floor loading is nice. Should be minimum digging unlike sysco and other places. Just gotta look for the stop number on each case.

Congrats on the job. Gfs is a great company. I hope your body can hold out throwing groceries. But there you can move into a shuttle position
 
Moneyman01 said:
The floor loading is nice. Should be minimum digging unlike sysco and other places. Just gotta look for the stop number on each case.

Congrats on the job. Gfs is a great company. I hope your body can hold out throwing groceries. But there you can move into a shuttle position
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GFS has shuttles like crazy around here because Cleveland isn't a warehouse it's just a sales office. The warehouse that Cleveland gets loaded at is in Brighton, MI. It was Springfield, OH but I guess Springfield is to busy they don't have room for Cleveland so Brighton is the Cleveland warehouse.
 
congrats Mike, and not trying to rain on your good fortune but it seems like you are changing jobs a lot. I know you are new to trucking and trying to better yourself, but you need to stay @ a job for more than a few months or the company's are going to start looking at how you jump around and decide you will not stay long enough to waste money on training you. just something for you to think about.
 
I've only been at the one job. Not really trying to change jobs a lot. If they didn't want me I would have stayed where I am now. Although I'll make this work no matter what I don't really want to change a lot either. I applied to a few different places, but only have ever worked for the same company. What's funny is they didn't even bother to really read all that deep into my resume. Yes I do understand hopefully this will be it for a long time.
 
MikeJ said:
Trucks are floor loaded, but I guess. They try to keep stuff in order. Doesn't happen all the time, but they try and the scanner tells you how much you have to pick from, dry, cooler and frozen.
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Every box has a label with the route and stop number. You'll do fine.

Welcome to the Gordon Food Service family.
 
Thank you. I'm calling Monday to accept the offer and then I have to go to the plant down in Springfield and do what ever testing they need and then will take it from there. Once they say I am clear I'll give my notice to the beer company and that should be that, this should also be the end game I'm not switching I'm going to try very hard to make this work and stay put.
 
Food service is easier them beverage. Did beverage before I went to food service. But food service still sucks. Just take care of your body from the lifting. Don't rush especially going down the ramp. I know if I went back to food service I'd get hurt. When I left my shoulder was really bothering me, my elbow and knee was hurting. And my back was always sore. But good luck. I know you'll like working at gordon. Do me a favor. Order me there diecast trucks for me lol
 
Moneyman01 said:
Food service is easier them beverage. Did beverage before I went to food service. But food service still sucks. Just take care of your body from the lifting. Don't rush especially going down the ramp. I know if I went back to food service I'd get hurt. When I left my shoulder was really bothering me, my elbow and knee was hurting. And my back was always sore. But good luck. I know you'll like working at gordon. Do me a favor. Order me there diecast trucks for me lol
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I'll look into that. for you. It's going to be a new experience, but hopefully working beer can take a small bite out of some of the learning curve. The first they asked me was how's you're backing? I know why because in a side loader it is possible to do very little backing. However my route has some backing and I usually back to challenge my self so as far as bumping docks and all that it should work.
 
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