Wenger
 

Well after playing the waiting game with swift for two forms to get approved, my hubby got a call from Wenger and was already pre-approved. Swift was waiting for a release form from a former employer and another form that we NEVER had to worry about before. He starts orientation next Tuesday in Iowa. Fed up with waiting for swift he decided to go with these guys. It's mostly east coast but that's ok we already know it from Jb Hunt lol. We will post how it goes.

Maybe he could somehow help the process with the new company. Find out if you guys can get the release from the previous employer and have it in hand when he goes in.

I know that they do have to verify ALL employment and times of unemployment for the last three years as per federal regulations.

My husband needed to have unemployment information from the state of Washington as just the 1040's were not acceptable.

I would make certain that this will not be a problem with the new company. Try to find out exactly what they need.

Good luck!

Goin Fer It's Wife

It's just taking them too long she finally got the one from wil-trans but is waiting on a release from the doctor when he had a medical issue this past feb for national distributors. And we have never had to deal with this before. So he decided we can't wait any longer and he called her today to tell them we're going with another company. Thanks, we need a lot of good luck these days lol

Maybe you could have his new company call Wil trans early and explain how long it took them to get the information they needed at Swift and I would call the doctor and get the release and have it in hand just in case. This will help get things rolling if they require the same things. It is better to be safe than sorry.

I know I wanted to make certain that my husband had EVERYTHING he needed for May Trucking. We had read that to many times people were sent home from orientation because they could not confirm employment, unemployment or get the necessary documentation. Having three children and we were not in the financial position were we could deal with any time lapses from school and going to work.

Keep us updated! I hope it works out for you.

Goin Fer It's Wife

Thanks, well it's been good so far with evry other company he went to orientation. This is the first time we've ever come across this. The cool thing is, I get to go to orientation with him. And we already have a place to park the truck when we get home.

Sevlow, you say its been good at all of the other orientations. How many orientations?? Just curious. How come nobody is hiring him if things are going well at these orientations?? Your right though, it does seem pretty cool that you've been able to go with him to these things. I've never seen that on this board before. It costs the companys money just to bring in a " prospective " driver. Gotta cost more when they allow their spouses to come along. Buuuuuutttt, I've been surprised before.

There was 2 other orientations, Jb Hunt and Knight. Yes I was suprise to, I'm soo excited I can't wait!

Our first week with Wenger:

Orientation was great for hubby. Their orientation is paid which is $100. Tuesday was the first day. Which consisited of road test, drug screen. Wednesday was paperwork ALL day, meeting your fleet manager and getting your truck. Thursday was Smith System test and quall comm review. They g ive you $20 for Tuesday and Wednesday. Then on Thursday you get $10. And you get the rest once you're dispatched which is $50. Of course they tried giving us this piece of crap 2001 international. The seats were so disgusting I didn't even want to sit on them.

So I told hubby to keep on his recruiter. Because he promised over the phone and when we got there that we would have an '04 or '05. Well by the end of the day on Thursday he finally came through and got us an '04. It's pretty sweet looking. All decked out in chrome, has some nice graphics on it as well. And pretty clean inside, it was from a husband and wife team. The hotel was nice. We stayed at the howard Johnson there in Davenport and got a company van to cruise around in all week. The only thing about internationals is the sleeper berth is to short! And the clutch fan has a very annoying whistle!

We were suppose to be home on Friday but didn't get home till late Saturday night. We got our dispatch Thursday saying our load would be ready at 6am. Well Purina didn't even have a trailor for us! So we went to hook up to an empty to take over to the shipper. Ended up getting stuck in the yard and had to be pulled out. So we get pulled out and the trailor needs a tire. So we went and had breakfest while waiting for it to be repaired. I believe the yard guy took our trailor to the purina lot to get loaded. We get to the other purina lot and it's not ready would take like 3 hours to load it. We were running on 3 hours sleep mind you. After getting up at 5am thinking we had to pickup at 6am. So after all the bull crap, weasting a whole day. We decided to stay another night and sleep in the truck to get a feel for her. It's not bad just more noisy than a freightliner. Our first delivery is in Livonia, MI, 40 mins from our house.

I will keep you all posted on how things go with this company. They are small and I'm REALLY hoping the miles are there for us this time. Their beni's are ick, but they are working on getting better ones.

Well our first three weeks with Wenger has been alright I suppose. Not really what we were expecting. Their fleet runs 2001-2006 internationals. First we were promised an '04 international and they gave us an 01 that was NASTY inside. We waited and pushed for a better truck. Finally got one which is an '04. It's not bad, we had to have some work done to it. We ran from Livonia, MI to Bedford, PA, to Binghamton, NY. We thought there was a problem with the turbo but there wasn't so our load got repowered cause we were at the international shop all day. The original load was suppose to be bedford, pa to johnstown, NY to lewiston, Maine.

so after everything was ok, we went to Walton, NY Kraft down to Norcross Kraft in Atlanta, GA. They thought we stole our trailor because we were checked into the system then the guard tells us to go get fuel for the refeer. You need 3/4 fuel for kraft. On our way to get fuel a guy pulls in front of us and slams his breaks on and gets out saying he's going to call the police if we don't return to kraft. MY husband told him he needed to get fuel. We found out a lot about this company from it's drivers while being out there. But still kept going. After atlanta we went back to davenport and got stuck there all weekend of the 18th because they said they had a load for us to go back to detroit with but it got all screwed up. But we at least got paid $45 a day after Friday. We were there till Tuesday.

Tuesday we ran from Musctatine, IA to fremont, OH and back all week. We were suppose to be home on the 24th but got home on the 25th at 1:30am. Our dispatcher is kind of a smart ass. Why do we always get these kind of dispachters? Anyway there is no night time dispatch, no prepass for scales cause the owner is to cheap to spend $30 for it. The shop people are ok, I would say there is only 2 nice guys there so far. The other day my husband noticed chunks of rubber missing from his steer tire, we were in Minooka, IL. The shop guy wanted him to drive either 50 miles or 10 miles to the nearest shop. My husdband I'm not going anywhere send someone out here now! The shop guy gave him a major attitude swore at him and was upset because he had to send someone out to fix a tire.

They also make you sign a paper during orientation statting that if you leave before six months they will make you pay for everything! Including: Hotel, bus ticket, drug screen physical, toll cards, orientation pay and any other expenses the company had to pay for you. The miles I hope are going to get better. Our pre-prass still isn't working after they reset twice. So we are leaving tomorrow to go to Freemont, Oh then back to Muscatine, IA, the terminal is 22 miles away. Hopefully we can get a new one so we can stop taking pay advances!

Sorry for the long post but I hope this helps provide some info for people looking at small companies. Be VERY careful, if they have to doctor up your app, then run away!

Sounds like 3 weeks of garbage . Have you tried barr-nunn ? You live in a perfect area for them and they get you home every weekend .

I have never heard of Wegner only Werner. Is it two different companies or just a misspelling? No offense, just wondering.

Two different companies , Wenger has maroon intenationals and gold lettering , only similarities are they both seem like lousy companies

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

Second time out with Wenger:

Well where to begin? The dispatcher we have is unbelieveable. We haven't gotten a FULL ten hour break this week untill like thursday when we had to run from Davenport to Omaha, Nebraska. He also loves to seem to jump at giving us impossible preplans when we aren't even done with our original. Like we had one last week going from Heinz in Fremont, OH to Muscatine, IA.

We left our area around 12:30noon, He said we could pick up early and our devlivery was for 8pm. Well we got there about 2:30-3:30pm and they wouldn't load us till about 7:30-8pm. We didn't leave Fremont till about 9pm and our 14 hr day was expiring at like 10:30pm. So we stopped in South Bend, IN to take our ten hr break.

First thing the next morning the dispatcher is all over us asking why haven't we left yet and why aren't we moving. First of all the delivery wasn't due till 10am the next day. My husband calls the guy and he tells my husband that this isn't to be taken at our leisure. He then tells my husband we need to get to muscatine by 2 pm. Well we got there about 4 cause of traffic and it's only 55 in IL, and construction. He fails to see this.

He sits at his desk and takes out his calculator and devides 55 by how many miles it is. And expects it to happen ALL the time. Then he tells my husband that he shouldn't have logged driving from Sterling Hts, to the Pilot in Monroe, MI. That would have saved us some time. He then proceeded to send us like 3 different preplans when we weren't even in Muscatine yet. We also got screwed out of our home time this weekend.
We got today off but still had to deliver this morning and got home last night at about 11pm.

He told my husband to take saturday night off and sunday. We were in Lincoln, NE Sat morning. We had to stay at the Flying J in Davenport saturday night. How did he expect us to get from Lincoln, NE to Sterling Heights, MI in one day being in a truck? When it takes 8 hrs or more to get from Davenport to Fremont, Oh?

Second time out with Wenger cont.

We had a del monte load to be picked up at 3pm one day as well, this was after being in chicago and being stuck in oh for all of labor weekend. We get to del monte at 1:30 pm and they were not done loading us till 6:30pm. My husband was on the phone all day talking to the dispatchers saying his day was gonna run out at 8pm. We started our at 6am in chicago. And went over to del monte in rochelle, il. he called them back at wanted him to bring the load to the terminal in davenport. We were on the 39n at exit 99 a few miles down. We were told to avoid toll roads unless you are delivering to fremont oh. We got the load done and scaled it and headed over to theor bellevue flying j in laselle. My husband called again trying to get a repower. They wouldn't send one because they tried blamming him for the way he logs.

And he should have taken the I-88 instead of the I-80. The night time dispatcher lady wanted him to continue to take the load and it was 8pm, this is all centeral time. His 14 hr day expired at 8pm. She wanted him to still drive the load to the terminal in Davenport, IA. Now we are not going to get our detention pay because this load had to be reset for the second stop and third stop.

The trucks are all junk. Even the brand new internationals are falling apart. When we got there they tried telling us your truck is based on your experience. That WAS not mentioned on the phone or on the tour the recruiter tooks us on. Also if you don't stay with them for 6 months they will make you pay for everything, not only your drug screen and physical, but your orientation, orientation pay, hotels and everything else, including bus ticket. They love to try and charge you for out of route miles, blame the driver for every dam thing. Expect you to speed and lie on your log book as well. Of course they won't say it but once you get there they will expect it. They higher guys with points, felonies and doctor up apps.

All the trailers dog track bad to the right, the main shop guy is a complete jerk. He wantd my husband to drive on a steer tire with chunks of rubber missing. He got pissed when my hubby told him to send someone out to the pilot in Minooka, IL. Swore at and hung the phone up. The night time lady dispatcher did that to to him when we needed to repower the del monte load. This company just rips off it's drivers left and right. You're only allowed to fuel at certain ta's which is like 10 and certain pilots only 50 gallons. You cannot fuel in IA or IL.

Also they only have 4 dispatchers, night time dispatchers are a woman who does it out of her home and you can hardly ever get a hold of and a guy who answers his cell phone. Their terminal isn't impressive at all either. I'm sorry to say but Swift is sounding sooooo much better.

I would stick it out until you know that he will have another job for a FACT.

It does not sound good but remember the problems he had getting hired on.


I just don't want to see you guys back in that position. I would look for another company but tell your husband NOT to run illegal it is his future.

Take Care

Goin Fer It's Wife

He didn't have any problems getting hired on with this company, now they are asking him to back log and because he won't run past his 14 hr day or over his 11 drive time they are only giving us 12-1500 miles a week. Everyone on his dispatchers board lies. They all have notebooks and write there day down in that then do it when they finally stop. Ever wonder why you hardly see a Wenger truck at a truck stop? It's because they don't stop. One guy drove 1100 miles straight without eating or sleeping. Why stay for that? We are once again living on our pay advance and our pay checks are always $188 every week. Hell the recurtor even is telling him, why are you stopping an hr early, to find a park you should keep going, meaning keep going and don't bother stopping. We have only had 2 FULL legal 10 hour breaks since we've been here. Every morning his dispatcher on the mobile max asking, why haven't you moved yet, are you rolling yet, get moving.

And now all of a sudden your only allowed 36 hrs off at this company but in orientation he was told 1 day off for every 7 out. We were suppose to be home Friday cause his dispatcher screwed him out of our hometime last weekend to. He had a load going out of Davenport for us to MI Friday at 7am. Then he changes it cause we basically took our ten hr in WI cause his 14 hr day ran out. So he screwed us out of our hometime. We didn't get in till 11:30 last night. And Mon we have to deliver at 9PM. After what we found out Friday We feel like we're working for a company ran by children.

if i may ask...how much experience does ur husband have?

a yr