[ThinkingAboutTrucking]

Just finished my six weeks of training with Werner, and plan to test out later this week.

But to be honest, I don't know if I want to continue with this company. My trainer, who was wonderful, has lost $3000 in the past month or so because her truck was down. Werner sent us to JFK to get a load even though we had a faulty starter. So, that meant we couldn't shut the truck down in NYC, where they have no-idle laws. My trainer said if we got nailed with a ticket, she'd make Werner paid for it, since they weren't going to approve getting the starter fixed until we got back to the terminal.

There are lots of other things going on too, my first roommate at the hotel got finished with training without taking any paid time off, and thought she would get the $500 bonus for going all six weeks without taking a break. She went through HELL but kept going. She tested out, then, since they weren't going to issue her a truck, made her go home. After about 2 1/2 weeks, she finally did get a truck. She made her first delivery, and tried to get her $500, but the company said she took off too much time between testing out and delivering her load, even though they MADE her go home, so they didn't pay her the $500. Not surprisingly, she quit. I've heard a lot of unhappy Werner drivers complain about stuff, breakdown has to be the worst.

Can anyone suggest a decent company that will hire inexperienced drivers who want to travel with a small dog? Thanks.

[BIG JEEP on 44's]

Originally Posted by ThinkingAboutTrucking

Just finished my six weeks of training with Werner, and plan to test out later this week.

But to be honest, I don't know if I want to continue with this company. My trainer, who was wonderful, has lost $3000 in the past month or so because her truck was down. Werner sent us to JFK to get a load even though we had a faulty starter. So, that meant we couldn't shut the truck down in NYC, where they have no-idle laws. My trainer said if we got nailed with a ticket, she'd make Werner paid for it, since they weren't going to approve getting the starter fixed until we got back to the terminal.



There are lots of other things going on too, my first roommate at the hotel got finished with training without taking any paid time off, and thought she would get the $500 bonus for going all six weeks without taking a break. She went through HELL but kept going. She tested out, then, since they weren't going to issue her a truck, made her go home. After about 2 1/2 weeks, she finally did get a truck. She made her first delivery, and tried to get her $500, but the company said she took off too much time between testing out and delivering her load, even though they MADE her go home, so they didn't pay her the $500. Not surprisingly, she quit. I've heard a lot of unhappy Werner drivers complain about stuff, breakdown has to be the worst.

Can anyone suggest a decent company that will hire inexperienced drivers who want to travel with a small dog? Thanks.

JFK were you running ForwardAir ?


Pay was my biggest issue with Werner ,as their CPM is super low ,and has no room on it for their 100-250 mile trips with tons of dock time , Un-paid detention , no lay over pay for sunday which means if you are sitting from noon on Sat until noon on monday those 2 days don't qualify for layover pay ,because Sunday don't count ,and it broke up the those 2 days so in their eyes you didn't sit that long , And many other things I know that this takes place throughout the industry , But if you don't pay well per mile you better have good quality long mile runs to make a driver 3000+ miles a week to equal out , But Werner don't ,And if you have a dispatcher that wants you train he will play games with you if you do not I trained ,and quit after first student ,and then he started pulling loads from me by moving up the ETA ,and then saying..IF I HAD A STUDENT ....iI cvould have kept the load .


Werner has decent trucks ,And many nice things....But miles/money will not be one of those nice things you experience there . :wink:

[Uturn2001]

Just so you know, if you switch now you will have to repeat your OTJ training at the new company.

[BIG JEEP on 44's]

Originally Posted by Uturn2001

Just so you know, if you switch now you will have to repeat your OTJ training at the new company.

I would put out me resume to better paying outfits , And stay at Werner until I was called by one of these companies...Just be super carefull not to get any preventables ...I mean super carefull , As many companies don't want to see any within the last 12 months . Most companies will require you to go out with another trainer if you have less than 6 months experience OTR Crete is will require it if you have less than 1 year experience ...However you will find that if a company pays you $500.00 wk in training that this will be comparable to what you will be making at Werner at .26CPM and only 1800- 2200 niles per wekk , So it's not a pay issue ...However I'm sure you like I really do not want to share the cab with a trainer if you don't have to .

[johnday]

Werner has decent trucks ,And many nice things....But miles/money will not be one of those nice things you experience there . :wink:[/quote]

I really have to take issue with this. I've been with Werner 3 weeks now, and really plan on giving them a chance.
I'm a Canada driver, by choice. The first truck I was issued, I refused to take the POS into Canada, it was nothing but a magnet for the MTO. The second truck, a little better.

The first one had dry rotted drive tires, 3 out of 8, the engine was covered with close to 1/4" of grunge, the rear brakes were next to marginal in pad thickness, also had numerous leaks in steering, and engine leaks. The cab was filthy. I told them I didn't want that truck in Canada, so they sent out a halfa88ed mechanic to look at it, he said there was no problems with it.

The second POS that I accepted, has both cab extensions caved in, an aluminum patch holding the left front fender together, the right front fender is gouged very badly as well. The cab was completely filthy, the dashboard falling apart, as well as one of the cabinets. My clutchbrake maybe works 20% of the time, my windshield washers/wipers are next to trash, niether one of the doors will open without operating the latch handles a dozen times or more. NONE of this is exageratted, it's the Godhonest truth.
This company wants you to take "Pride in your ride", their words, not mine.
During orientation, a couple other experienced drivers were looking around. Guess what? The only trucks any of us saw that didn't at least have caved in extenders were the O/O trucks.
After seeing some of the moves from other drivers in this company, I can "almost" see why the trucks look like s%6t. Will I be there very long? I'm not sure, like I said, I plan on giving them a chance.

[johnday]

Oh, one more thing. They advertise the average age of the fleet tractors as being 18 months. Well, hmmm, mine is a 2005 that was put in service in June of 2004. Mine is probably one of the oldest trucks, eh?
One MORE thing and I'll stop. When I was issued the POS I now operate, it wouldn't start due to batteries being bad. Had it jumped twice at the terminal before I could even run thru the safety lane. Safety found a couple stone chips in my windshield, they were over-ridden by the mechs who said they weren't bad enough to replace the windshield. Well huh!!! Mechs having more say than safety? Something wrong with this picture.
Anyway, my batts were checked out. Yep, all 4 of them bad. Well, guess I'll get new batts. NOPE!!! Was told the truck was too old for new ones, put some used ones in. You guessed it, used ones no better than the old. Had to have it jump started 2 weekends in a row at home before I could get the POS out the driveway and to the dropyard. The second time though, the POS was taken to the local T/A where all 4 batts were replaced. Found from other drivers that if you have truck problems, don't expect the Werner mechs to fix it. Wait till you get out in the middle of nowhere so it HAS to be repaired.

There's more, but I'll stop for now. :evil: :evil:

[movinit]

Werner is famous for assigning a great high mileage load to a solo then after you find an empty trailer, spend all the time at the dock getting un-paid detention and drive it about 200 miles they will repower you to meet up with a team. You will receive yet another empty trailer or the tail end of a high mileage load (less than 200 miles) to deliver. We know this for a fact for we teamed for them. As we were swapping out the loads we would hear these drivers stories of unpaid bills, $250 paychecks and literally starving on the road. Many were trapped for they didn't even have enough money to quit, yet we were getting so many miles we were running out of hours every week. We quit because we didn't want to be a part of the game Werner plays on their solos. It has been several years since we left but from what we hear at the truck stops the game has continued on.

As for equipment, yes you can get good equipment by being a team.

[BigAtrukn]

Dont feel bad, Schneider is just as bad. Our daycabs date back too 99 with 600k plus miles on them and as for OTR trucks they date back too 03 with 600k plus. As for damage, if it doesnt affect your driving they wont fix it. We had a class of like 20 graduates at our terminal but they didnt have any trucks availible and schneider doesnt plan on buying any this year so far, hence keeping the older equipment.

[johnday]

Oh hey!! I don't mind a high mileage or older truck at all. Between CFI and Werner, I was with a very small company. I was given a 1999 379 Pete, that had well over a million miles on it, and looked very nice. Drove very well. The Century I'm in now does drive and handle well, just looks like a junker is all. It's certainly seen some very careless abuse. With my two former companies, you'd have been fired for abusing a truck like this. Sort of makes me wonder what happened to the former "drivers" of this truck. With a little money laid on it, it could be a very nice ride for someone who cares.

[BIG JEEP on 44's]

Originally Posted by johnday

Oh hey!! I don't mind a high mileage or older truck at all. Between CFI and Werner, I was with a very small company. I was given a 1999 379 Pete, that had well over a million miles on it, and looked very nice. Drove very well. The Century I'm in now does drive and handle well, just looks like a junker is all. It's certainly seen some very careless abuse. With my two former companies, you'd have been fired for abusing a truck like this. Sort of makes me wonder what happened to the former "drivers" of this truck. With a little money laid on it, it could be a very nice ride for someone who cares.

You know the funny thingis I wouldn't take a truck at Werner with bent fairings or a a badly tweaked bumper ,Because it was a refection of me , And to date the most I did was rub a bumper on the tail of a flat bed ,but it did no damage to the truck I was driving as it was a T-600 and the bumper moves back and forth a few inches on it's mounts ...Now in july of 2007 on the 3rd they traded out the brand new 387 they gave me to the Wal-mart fleet for APU's , and I bitched about wanting truck with straight fairing ,And I got it ,because I was listed as a trainer ...Now I got a trip to budweiser in Fort collins Co ,and went home after after dropping at BUD for the Fouth , And on the 6th I picked up a load at Peps in Denver CO ,and on my way across US 160 through Pagosa springs CO I hit derr that ran across the road about 100ft infront of me ...SO MUCH FOR THE PRETTY TRUCK ...



I took a leave in september returning on the 25th of October ,and I got lucky to get a T-600 in Pepsi blue with only a few scuffs on the bumper ,but the rest of the body was immaculate ...Well I took it home to get all my stuff ,and on the way back down to the terminal ...I hit deer on US 285 comming through Morrison Colorado cracking the entire quarter fender ....


Now you know if these trucks were beaters I never would have hit the deer ...However I like a good looking truck ,So the first time going through the Omaha terminal I sent it to the body shop , and they do great work s, And both times the truck looked better than issued .