Ah, finally leaving the big blue screw....

I'm going home permanently from werner this weekend. I have gotten the last 200 dollar check i will deal with (and yes, that's not counting advances...i actually got a $30 check cause i had a $200 advance out..blah..).

It's to the point that if im on the road next week, i cant afford to pay my bills.

Here's the funny thing though.....I'm sitting at the Lithia Springs, GA terminal (aka "atlanta") right now. Been sitting here all day waiting on the shop, 'cause my truck got redtagged..well, that's a pretty typical thing at werner. I have cracked brakes and a drive tire that apparently went flat literally on the way to the terminal this morning. Wasn't flat when i did my pre trip, and...its #### hard to look for cracks on your brakes at night. I also went down monteagle pass this morning. Who knows.

Well, i also had a cracked mirror. To be honest, it had been cracked for the last month, but I was to the point that i didnt give a #### anymore. It's not cracked in the middle. I wasn't going to wait days for a shop to get to it. I tried to get it fixed when it was at the dealer but they wanted me to call breakdown. I sure wasnt going to wait on hold all day for it. F that.

I got bumped in front of a bunch of people cause i had a load to pickup to go home. Funny, usually works the other way for me. Truck got pulled in immediately. Checked with the 2nd shift foreman right after shift change. He said they had to order the mirror and it wouldn't be in until monday at least. Now, if anyone has ever been to this terminal, there are thousands of trucks that have been taken off the fleet but not sold yet. Thoooouuusands. Seriously, what the hell? So you betcha I got pissed, so I called dispatch, who expected me to call a dealer myself, which i did. Not in stock. Called back, and finally got my moron of a dispatcher to get with the maintenance coordinator. Called him back and he said they cant release the truck but he asked them if they could pull it off another truck. Well, a little while ago i went and talked to the foreman, and acted like i nver called anyone, and asked why they couldnt do that. Welll..Clearly omaha had contacted him. He told me that the daytime mechanic was a "lazyass" as he put it, and that they have 150 of that mirror in stock, and a guy was getting it out of the storage trailer as i talked to him, to put it on. (Now, im looking at my truck and it still isnt done..so someone is full of #### still).

What kind of moron is going to cost someone $250 in wages to sit at a shop all weekend because they're too lazy to do a 10 minute repair?

Werner really must be hiring off the short bus.

Anyway I have pre-hires from 5 or 6 different companies, most of them are bottom feeders but atleast I'll have somewhere to go. The one I'm hoping to go to is QC, and they want me to come to the terminal in Gary when I go home, which is about an hour from my house. They tell me that if i park my car at the terminal, then any time i get a load going past gary, I can jump in it and go home for the night, and that i may be home up to 4 times a week, but the most i'll be out is 2 weeks at a time. The recruiter sounds very laid back, and makes the company sound extremely laid back. I have to have my X endorsement (already do), and have to get a twic card within 90 days of hire. Oh well.

Of course, i have to see this terminal before i trust parking my car there. Like, I sure as hell wouldn't park it for weeks at a time at the werner yard in channahon...lol.

I will not work for a company that is OK with employing people who do not respect drivers. At all.

Edit: Truck was just pulled out of the shop. Bout time. Thank god i called dispatch or they would have just let me sit here all weekend... and i just watched a mechanic spend 5 minutes putting it on.

 

Man, im gettin screwed out of miles big time, started a couple weeks after i got this new dispatcher. It's probably not him though. I'm not saying all my checks are 200 lately, but....hell, heres the actual figures. Don't forget it costs around $100 to eat on the road a week, minimum. I'm also thinking they're not paying me back for all the canadian tolls im paying out. I honestly dont get enough time to scan them into my computer. When i get home im going to go through all my payroll records, and i'll be able to find out pretty easily...but i just wont have any proof that i paid the tolls out, besides the fact that i delivered the load....

Yesterday's check, gross is $346. FYI, ytd is $13841, and honestly I deserve more than $27k a year for putting up with this ####..
Deductions: $1 for life insurance, $10 for driver bond, $10.40 for 401k, $23 for insurance, and $204 for an advance. For taxes, i paid $62. Werner will not set my w4 form up properly so i have 0 exemptions...f that! but it makes for a good refund check at the end of the year.....

I'm not going to complain about my insurance and 401k deductions, they are perfectly reasonable. Net pay is $34. YTD net pay is $7753. I definitely deserve more than that. So really i made $238, the advance was taken because ..well, ok, I bought a ladder, and honestly I assumed id make more than $200 driving a truck this week.... And then i went to canada so i had to pay for tolls off that advance as well as eat....blah.

That's for 1300 miles. Clearly a couple of trip packs havent clared the system.....

The week before that, check date 6/17/2010... gross, $300, deductions, $247, $51 taxes. 1150 miles. Was on hometime, however.

Check date 6/10/2010, gross $560, net pay $221..but i had $200 in advances, so cant complain that much...but this was for 2200 miles, but all the loads paid 27cpm, so it sucked. Blah. $40 in reimbursements. Denied a reimbursement for an advance fee of $4 because they claim i did not use 50% of the advance in reimbursements. Bullllshit. I had to take an additional $50 advance over the limit the week before, so it went on this check, and i spent $40 of that advance. Therefore i deserve the $4 back. So now i have $200 in advances and got charged $8, and denied even the $4 back. #######.

That's one of the biggest checks ive had in the last two months. Thats borderline, but i can make that much at a non-trucking job. I used to average $800 a week, $600 a week net (no advances cause i never needed them, $200 in taxes...).....



Turns out the last big check i got was $890 gross, its only 3000 miles (ive done more), and theres a $30 ex, not sure what its for anymore, and $40 long island pay (well deserved). $700 net, no advances. That was 5/04. Before and after that for the last two months is more of the $200, $300, maybe $400 *gross* checks...

lol, does he work at the gary terminal?

 

Hm. Must not be too bad of a company then. I always wondered who he worked for with the way he talks. I thought he was talking about a different Rick, rofl.

I might meet him then at some point...wonder what he looks like...

They told me that since im new i get to pull a tank that was already run into a low bridge and is missing the top. oh well.