Hi, I am that driver and to answer a question

No I did not have chains as the roads were opened with no restrictions.

Also there is NOT a designated Werner chain bank from Utah to Boise only from Utah to Wyoming if I recall correctly.

The effects of this accident continues as yesterday I received a letter from NE Unemployment

You were discharged from your job with the above employer for violation of company rules or policy. The rules were reasonable and you should have known of these rules. Failure to comply with company rules was contrary tot he best interest of the employer and constitutes misconduct in connection with the work, a 12 week disqualification has been assessed: Due to the misconduct the Employer is not chargeable and your benefits has been decreased by $3456.00.

I requested a termination letter stating the reason for my termination and have not received one; talking with safety I am told it’s due to the accident but nothing specific. So taking what they say that an accident constitutes as misconduct then why are there drivers with more than 5 accidents employed with Werner?


I have requested my DAC report and expect worse than NE Unemployment.

Nearly 7 months later June 29th I finally received word from the specialist I eventually saw that I require surgery for a tear in my shoulder. I am waiting approval from Werner Work Comp department. My restrictions are not able to drive truck for work. I look at 1 month immobilization and 4 months rehab bringing me to a year of medical issues and no work and not a dime of lost wages pay.

My original hospital bills, ambulance bills and doctor bills went to collections, as they were paid 5 months or yet to be paid after the accident. Thus negatively affecting my credit history.

Sad thing is I liked Werner as a driver, I enjoyed my job, I had a beautiful truck, good dedicated account and would of recruited to Werner. Because of their neglect and total disregard for their injured driver I don't think I can ever recommend Werner to my most hated enemy.

Reply to go get an LTL Job... JB Hunt wont hire me once I am cleared medically that should tell you something...

I had 2 trainers and I backed so many times I was begging them to stop, including one that required me to go across 4 lanes of traffic into an alley way during afternoon traffic.

I was free labor for dollar general loads and the trainer got all the pay.

They 6 months, though I was also being asked by my 3rd month to train.

Your trainer wasn't "allowing" you to back? That's a common complaint I've heard. All too common, really.

I've thought about this problem, and I've come up with two explanations for it:

1. The trainer just doesn't give a damn if you learn to back properly or not. He's running on fumes with the company and will peel out soon. Maybe the company has ripped him in the past and he's fed up. Unfortunately, YOU pay the price for his "hanging around".

2. Some trainers are "trolls", meaning they've found their little holes that will allow them to exist, and work, for the next decade or so. They have found their place, and no one will root them out. They know that by skimping on training you to back properly, you'll soon be taking off a Pete's fender at a tight dock. After you have your backing wreck, they will look relatively "good" in the eyes of the company, a company that may be thinking of rooting them out. You, along with your lack of ability, help save them from that fate. You will be the one the company thinks about "rooting out" from that day forth.

Why else would a trainer skimp on training one to back properly? It's his job to see you are trained to do that, after all.

But if the quality of the man's training is this inadequate, why would the company not suspect the trainer of not doing his job?

__________________
Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

A trainer who is a "troll" will simply lie. He'll claim his trainees can back just fine no matter if those trainees have actually proved themselves worthy of the troll-trainer's blessing or not. If a trainee doesn't quite have the skills, who cares? Considering most trainees are grads of trucking schools, some of which are expensive, and have passed DMV tests that demonstrate they can back "correctly" to get their CDLs, a company will fault its trainees in most backing-wreck cases.

It's also in the interest of some companies to fault the trainees instead of the trainers. This is because the companies use "trainers" that don't have much more experience than the trainees themselves. If these companies start faulting their trainers for the accidents their students have later, the companies will find only themselves to blame. What a can of worms this would be. Who knows....maybe those companies would even find themselves hauled into court if they (or someone else, such as the DOT) started blaming their wet-behind-the-ears trainers for their green-driver backing accidents. I don't think many companies would open this can of worms when they can simply pass the buck of blame from the trainer to the trainee.

Unfortunately, this means a newbie with little backing practice has no recourse if he has a backing accident either with his trainer or after he is cut loose and gets his own truck. After all, he has proven himself capable if he has a driving school diploma and a CDL. Newbies have to be extra careful when backing because of this reality. The best thing to do if you are a newbie is make damn sure you can back safely before you get your own ride. If your present trainer isn't giving you adequate practice, get a new trainer or ask the head of safety at your outfit to give you some extra lessons.

I can sit here and make a case for each side of this thread. I had to go out with a trainer who I thought was very good at his job. I knew how to back up a truck by the time I was finished training. I was also a trainer for two years before I took a local job. Yes there are bad trainers out there, but there are also really bad trainees, I had several that I spent alot of time with trying to teach them and they just never got it. When these students went to test out and failed there first reaction was the trainer didnt teach me. So I am a little cynical when it comes to trainees. Sometimes you have to take what they say with a grain of salt, because ya never know what really happened.

Little, I agree. Some trainees suck, absolutely. This is yet another reason I say one should always go to a cheap training school. If he is a "slow learner", he won't have lost much if he fails driving tests, tears up equipment, or loses his job later because he "didn't get it" in school and screws up. Ideally, this problem should be taken care of at the mills. But at my mill, I saw a student or two who was just like what you describe. These were guys who couldn't even recouple after unbuckling from a box after 20 practice tries. They couldn't back to save their lives, and their highway driving was "C" grade when they weren't grinding their shifts. Guess what? These guys PASSED their training and got their CDLs. And this was a mill whose tuition was 5,000 bones. My mill didn't care if their students could back properly. All they cared about was the 5K they got from them. After training, those students were left on their own to flounder. The school SHOULD have flunked these students, refunded their money, and sent them on their merry ways. But they didn't, and those dolts ended up with companies such as Swift later. I bet their trainers had fun with those guys.

Tip, thats probably one of the biggest problems with these schools and the training companies. I cant even remember how many times I was told I had to do whatever i could to make sure these trainees past. I was told it cost alot to train them and I had to make sure they made it. I made decent money doing it, but in the end the stress wasnt worth the money.

I bet that WOULD be hard to live with, LB. I can see myself now as a trainer at one of the expensive mills:

A guy comes in with five kids to feed but is a slow learner. He just can't grasp how to shift, back, turn, whatever. He's a flunkie, in other words. But do I flunk him? I'd be pressured not to. My school would be urging me to make sure he passes his tests. They'd want me to send him on down the road so I can get my next batch of latest tuition-paying fools. I'd be in a "no-win" situation. If I flunk him, he loses out on his training and even his tuition if he paid out of his own pocket. If I pass him, I'd know it would be just a matter of time before he has his first accident. Maybe that accident would see somebody sent to the local morgue.

Yeah, it'd be tough being one of those guys. I ASSUME those who need extra help at these expensive schools can easily get it. My old mill just passed 'em and sent 'em on to their first jobs.

The thinking at most of these schools is just pass them and let the trainers at the company they go to actually teach them. I had trainees that couldnt shift. I had several that could barely read. I felt bad for them, but I didnt pass them. The sad thing is most of the ones I failed im sure got on with other companies.