Watkins and Sheppard

[Banker]

this company offers training as well. Has anyone got experience with them? Just got my papers from the Motor Vehicles today... YEA... 100% on the Air brakes endorsement...

If not it also looks like Schneider has a school in Ontario... might go that route.

Thanks for any advice

[samael9]

Go ahead, Banker!

If you search the archives, you'll find a long thread I wrote on 90 days worth of W/S experience. In the end, I left them for mostly personal reasons. However, I found that the overall management style lacked a certain degree of pride, finesse and congruency.

Do not mistake this as saying it's a bad company to work for. My dispatchers, through solid communications and delivery performance, treated me like a king. I never sat for much, but I hardly ever got home either. In the end, it's all comes down to what YOU make of it, but these guys will keep you moving. And, for the most part, it was a very satisfying experience. Plus, they have dry van and flat bed divisions. So, you have a choice to run either rig. Flat bed gets more consistant mileage than dry van, but you will have to pull a van for 90 days without incedent before moving to flatbed, if that's your preference.

Their training department is excellent, BTW.

PM Crackaces. He's still running for them. CB JR pulled flat bed for them for a while as well.

BOL

[Crackaces]

I am currently driving for them. You have to make a decision about home time, cpm, miles per week, company culture, how paid, benefits, etc. Each company offers advantages and disadvantages and no company is absolutely 100% perfect where it meets everybody needs.

W&S was built on the preside of LTL furniture and carpet. As more manufacturing is going overseas the furniture / carpet freight is also. Teams move a lot of furniture and carpet from terminal to terminal but solo drivers will be doing lots of brokered loads along with Staples, Home Depot, etc. Do not sign up thinking hey terminal to terminal .... Also you should expect 15 - 22 stop runs from a terminal to multiple mom and pop stores. You get paid for each stop and a premium for tailgating the load.

W&S pays routed hub miles based on practical routing. So the .31 I make now is equivalent to .35 HHG miles for example. Make sure you compare apples to apples. I usually run 2800 -- 3200 miles per week solo. The worse week was 1800. This involved 900 miles over 4 days, followed up by a trailer shuffle, then a 500 mile two stop home depot run. These weeks will happen.

BTW) Trip settlements are gathered at terminals and forwarded, snail mail, or you can UPS at your expense. No Trans-flo or trip pak. If settlements are important you might look at this. I see a terminal at least twice a week so this does not matter to me. Also if a settlement is delayed for a week it is no big deal. But if you live from pay check to pay check and a delay might be costly ... think about this

The benefits are excellent. Your medical options range from a wellness program savings account to comprehensive medical coverage.

The dispatch system is regional based on a first come first served. Teams are dispatched first and long. There is very very little pre-planning. Dispatch is a 9-5 operation by region so if you need a load in the middle of the night -- you will wait until morning. I manage this.

W&S does not have a home time Qualcom macro. If home time is super critical to you and you do not live near a major W&S freight lane you might look elsewhere. You need to understand where W&S moves freight and make sure you home is in a freight lane. More so than with most companies. I run 6 weeks and then beg for a ride to Phoenix. For while, I rented a car in LA and commuted back and forth because I could not get a load to Phoenix for example. Home time is not that important to me because of the 6 week runs so I endure this because ...

I like the smaller company culture. I am not messed with too much from HQ. The Staples and Home Depot runs have absolute appointment times but many of my loads leave it to my schedule. I can better manage my hours that way. That is a huge plus for me.

PM me with any other questions ...