As most of you know from my other posts, my husband and I have decided after IDC fell through, to go with Werner. We leave this weekend for school in Nebraska.

Well, just a little bit ago I got a call from the Regional Manager saying that he was calling to welcome my husband and me aboard and he wanted to make sure that we had all of our questions answered. I have to say that I thought it was nice he called to check on us. He had called me this afternoon and I missed the call and I had to leave him a voicemail when I called him back. He called me back after hours and was at home when he called. (He told me sorry he did not get a chance to call from the office but he did not want to leave me hanging. I also could hear his kids in the background playing.)

I told him that I did have a few things that I wanted to go over while I had him on the phone. Here are the Q&A's:

1. How much will be taken out of our checks each week to pay back the school and when does this start?
A: Nothing will be taken out of your check. You go to school and we pay that upfront and you sign a contract to stay for one year. You pay nothing in the meantime and after the year then you are even steven! (I like that, at IDC we were going to have to pay the school back every week then we would get half reimbursed at 12 months then the other half at 18 months.)

2. What is your policy on pets because we have a 4lb. maltese dog?
A: For pets under 35lbs. you pay $250 upfront then $25 per week until the entire pet deposit of $500 is reached.

3. What do you do for your drivers now that anti-idling laws are taking over?
A: We are installing APU's in all of our trucks. We have over 9,000 trucks and are getting them all installed as we speak. The accounts that are dedicated to no-idling areas are getting the APU first.

4. What about pay for team drivers?
A: After your training period you have a decision to make. There is regular team driving and then there is Team Werner. Regular team driving does not run as hard as Team Werner. With Team Werner you are required to maintain a miniumum of 17,000 miles per month. Most of the Team Werner drivers average 22,000 - 25,000 miles per month. The pay is .45cpm to all miles on the truck and you will average $100,000 - $150,000 per year for the team.
(He only told me about Team Werner pay because I told him that is what we want to do. He said that there are over 370 different pay packages depending on what division you sign up with.)

From there I told him that I believe that was all the questions we had at the moment. Oh, and we also went over when we will start orientation which should be March 3 in Omaha, NE. He then told us that he will be at the school in the 3rd week we are there to meet us.

Of course I am still anxious about going with Werner but so far their communication and customer support has been excellent. I have been treated way better than I was at IDC, who it was like pulling teeth to get a call back from. I will keep you all updated!

__________________
No Carb Diet! No Cheney. No Ashcroft. No Rumsfeld. No Bush.
January 20, 2009 End of an Error!!
I think...therefore I'm a...Libertarian!

I never had a lot of problems with them--they kept switchin up my dispatchers which was annoying. If you go with werner though--its best to do teams for they suck with solo drivers. Solo drivers tend to get low miles--but the company itself wasnt that bad. My pay was always right. Gotta watch the directions they give you. They are slow at getting your truck in the shop but overall--they aint too bad to work for just watch your log hours. Thats the main thing there but I had no real issues with them myself. Good luck to you/hubby -- I am sure y'all will do just fine!

My husband and I both work for Werner. We have been on Team Werner and pulled regular team. The real main difference between the two is this: Team Werner pays more per mile but you bust your butt a whole lot. Most of the freight is just in time (JIT) and can once in a while be stressful. There is more to it but I don't have the time to type it all out.

I went to the driving school in Hastings in 2000. If you want more info, call me and I will tell you my experience with it. Nothing bad.

I'll pm my phone number and if you want give me a call.

most of the roblems I hear with werner is low miles and pay and lots of getting jerked around and having to pass your trailer that you just loaded to a tem to run and then having to loadmore trailers and being made to pass them. The team thing seems to be where it is at over there

Sassy, I am sure Werner will work out fine for you. Congrats! Their customer service seems pretty good, that's awesome that they call you and check in before you head out. From what I hear teams don't deal with many of the same problems that solos do no matter what company you work for so you kind of have to take complaints with a grain of salt.

Congrats to you and Hubby!!!!

my buddy and i ran on team werner for a few months and we were not paid .45cpm we got .30 cpm with 6 months experience, we did run lots of miles but get used to sleeping with the truck moving because it hardly ever stops.

Ya this is true--if you run teams you can get the miles. When i worked with them i was solo. I stayed in the northeast running mostly around 300 mile runs and a lot of waiting time they wouldnt pay you for. The main reason i quit was the lack of miles--otherwise i had no issues with them.

I am sorry to hear about your problems with them. I hear that lack of miles when you are a solo driver is probably the #1 complaint.

That is one reason I have had tough decision trying to decide who to go with because I know alot of the problems out there are for solo drivers....not that teams don't have problems too!!!

My brother-in-law that drives for Werner never has a problem getting miles but I am sure that is because he is a trainer and drives very hard like a team. He doesn't ever stop! But he does make on average $1200 - $1800 week! He is going to train my husband and my hubby already told him that he better get some sleep and not be driving tired. He had told us last week that sometimes he doesn't get much sleep because he stays up while his trainee is driving and helps him. I am sure he trains very well but he has to get sleep too! I am sure he just doesn't want to give up that money but to me safety comes first! That is one reason why we decided that my hubby would train with him and I would not.

I just can't imagine all the crap that solo drivers have to go through. They are out there by themselves with their family at home and then they get the crappy loads and low miles! I think if something ever happened and we could not team then that would be the end of trucking for us, or local here we come! I could never ever make it as a trucker's wife. Now those gals deserve and award, them and the military wives!! For us it was either team driving or no driving.

__________________
No Carb Diet! No Cheney. No Ashcroft. No Rumsfeld. No Bush.
January 20, 2009 End of an Error!!
I think...therefore I'm a...Libertarian!

Hey Sassy,

That Team Werner sounds great to me! I know I'm speaking from no experience, and I may change my tune once I get out there, but I'm ready to run. The more the better. I'm ready to make some money!!

That's what team driving is... That truck should never stop. Couldn'pay me enough to do it these days. I was exhausted from the second day out untill I got home. You just don't sleep that well when the truck is moving