Watkins/Shepard -Husband doing 10 day training
Because this board has been so helpful to my newbie husband and I, I would like to return the favor and provide information on Watkins/Shepard. As many of you know, their website has very little information and we almost dismissed them because the recruiter wouldn't answer any questions from me, but insisted on talking directly to my husband (I talked to a dozen or more recruiters while making this decision). I will try to answer any questions based on our experience and information that we're given.
After faxing a lot of information and talking over the phone, my husband was sent to a near-by clinic for a physical and drug test. He then had to answer questions by phone regarding any past injuries and/or physical limitations. After that they scheduled his trip to New Jersey for the 10 day training. Training was to start on Wed 10/31 and he left the Monday before and rode the Greyhound all night arriving in NJ on Tue. morning. A cab picked my husband up at the bus station and he was taken to W/S. Once there, they gave him a car to drive to the hotel and he was able to go right over and rest up for the next day. He drives back and forth to training and to dinner. They will re-imburse up to 20.00 a day for food (with receipts) and they put gas in the car.
There was one man finishing up when my husband started and there is only him and another guy right now. I think they only train up to 3 drivers at a time. The trainer is the safety manager. He has had to take time away to deal with driver's with problems, but my husband was glad to see that they were quick to help their drivers. The trainer said he is always available when they're on the road.
The first 5 days were spent watching videos, taking some tests, logs, quallcom, and load distribution. My husband found the information extremely helpful. Although he was happy with his schooling, he said they taught him how to drive a truck and W/S was teaching him how to be a truck driver. No work over the weekend.
Driving started on Monday. They delivered 2 loads in NJ and drove the highway that runs along the ocean. The next day they did manuevers in a parking lot and yesterday they drove in the hills of PA.
So far, we feel good about this choice. As a family making a career change during difficult times, we couldn't figure out how to survive during the lengthy training periods required by the other companies. That was the determining factor in our decision, but we do like what we've seen and heard so far.
I will try to update this as we go. My husband will finish up on Friday, but we don't know if they will assign him a truck there, or if he will ride back with a driver to Taylor and get a truck.
Thank you to all who have posted and helped us newbies. I particularly appreciate the advice of Skywalker and Uturn and others whose name I can't recall. You made me look good to the recruiters I talked with. One said, "Are you sure you don't want to drive team? You asked some great questions!" :wink:
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