Werner Enterprises, Inc. - Omaha, Ne.

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by lj, Jun 17, 2005.

  1. Chasing Tomorrow

    Chasing Tomorrow Bobtail Member

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    May 10, 2009
    Newport News,Va.
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    275 hours is all it use to be,Werner does have some bad trainers but he can ask for a different trainer but could take him awhile,if he does not hate to work tell him to try and get a trainer thats on the Family Dollar account a few are good there and if he ever gets is own he can make better money there but its work,100 percent unloading,2500 boxes or more....
     
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  3. truckersupport

    truckersupport Bobtail Member

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    May 10, 2009
    Nashville TN
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    If I read that right, you're saying ask for a new trainer when he has already driven the hours required, which could take weeks with no pay...

    Which brings him back to what driver placement said about having two options: go home and hope they call him or stay on the truck from hell and be thankful he has a job.

    Not very good options, either way, huh?
     
  4. Chasing Tomorrow

    Chasing Tomorrow Bobtail Member

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    May 10, 2009
    Newport News,Va.
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    Whatever he does he needs to find a new truck line to work,you get a penny raise after two years of service and if he has a home he will have to fight to get home unless he gets on a dedicated account but that is a long list,there are a lot of truck lines that hire students he needs to start looking while he still is with werner for all that time should count but not sure.
     
  5. luvtheroad

    luvtheroad Road Train Member

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    Jan 1, 2009
    Central Ohio
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    Chasing...
    Do you work for Werner or have you ever?
     
  6. Chasing Tomorrow

    Chasing Tomorrow Bobtail Member

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    May 10, 2009
    Newport News,Va.
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    11-05 till 05-09 is how long I lasted and CL does not run it any more his kids do and they have less of a clue on how to treat drivers,its more like going to school,if you take a day off and go to doctor they want a note,I told them its my doctor and if they pay her I will get one for I dont use their BCBS insurance.Most of their bonus is gone,they have a fuel lottery now where only 20 drivers will get anything for the highest mpg for the month.All the drivers I talked to was not even trying and I feel sorry for all the drivers who dont have the APU,if your idle time is above 50 percent you get a warning next step is you are fired!
     
    truckersupport Thanks this.
  7. truckersupport

    truckersupport Bobtail Member

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    May 10, 2009
    Nashville TN
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    Well, not only is he being told that he has to spend more weeks on that truck with the trainer from hell, he can't request home time. As with everything else they've told him, they "don't do that anymore." He called today to do that. Everything he requests gets that answer: "don't do that anymore."

    Today actually marks the 10 weeks I mentioned earlier. Those 125 hours extra he's supposed to drive, even if he was driving, are not being logged like the required 300 hours were because of the paperless system. Besides, every day sitting means one more day that he's not driving to rack up those 125 hours and he's been sitting since Saturday. Today makes day 4 of sitting. At this rate, it will be another 10 weeks because even when they run it's a short run and then sit for days waiting on the next load. The trainer parked the truck in an empty lot where there were no bathrooms or anything to not have to park at a truck stop.

    The trainer himself treats hubby like crap. Hubby can't get any decent sleep because the trainer will do things, even while driving to prevent it happening, such as reckless driving that threw hubby against the built ins and causing a shoulder injury that kept hubby hurting for a week. Or the trainer gets lost and wakes hubby up to fix it. These are not isolated incidences but regular occurences.

    One time hubby had to go a week without a shower or clean clothes because the trainer's wife wouldn't let him have money to do laundry so because his wife is mean, hubby had to suffer, too. Although the week time happened only once so far, it's a regular occurence to go 4 or 5 days without a shower or doing laundry. Of if the trainer makes a Walmart run, hubby can't because the trainer gets his stuff and then says they have to go... where doesn't matter... it's just the overall treatment.

    It seems they've got him penned in a corner. If he quits, he can't even draw unemployment. There's also the possibility that they'll do something to prevent him working anywhere else even if he's willing to start over with the training.

    This morning, hubby asked me to start searching for lawyers so he can weigh his options. In the meantime, I suppose it's goodbye to the house because if he quits there's no job and no unemployment. Even if he has a case, it's not going to be won or lost within a time frame to salvage anything.
     
  8. Chasing Tomorrow

    Chasing Tomorrow Bobtail Member

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    May 10, 2009
    Newport News,Va.
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    I think Werner is trying to make drivers quit and they will treat you bad unless they like you and Wal-mart is what they call,JIT loads,you get it you go right to them only stop for fuel.Is his trainer telling them he needs more training? They did put something on my DAC so now I got to fix it,had 3 jobs till they contacted Werner and he might still be able to get unemployment insurance for you can quit with good reason but each state is different.When he drives does he send the mac 8 to let logs know he is driving and if so tell him to check with the mac 49 to see if they recorded him driving if not send the mac 50 and put in the time he did the driving,he has to do this or his trainer is charged the driving time.Sometimes with logs you got to word it just right or you dont get the change and if that happens call them and tell them what you are trying to do for they do help you.I got 5 or 6 awards from logs would have been more but I had to drive a few times when I should not have but did to make delivery on time:)....All them mac's must have his driver number in them.
     
  9. Steele

    Steele Light Load Member

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    Las Vegas, NV
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    I can honestly say that in 18 years of my other half working for Werner, he's never had to get a "note from the Doctors" if he needed time off.

    And don't knock the insurance, after 10 years, its free.

    As for the lottery.. yep.. sounds familiar to any Werner driver I or my other half has talked to. A complete joke.

    As for the idle time, well, there are exceptions, although they wouldn't apply right now. For example, a Budweiser load. Bud requires the trucks to fully idle if stopped and it is winter. The APU does not "vibrate" the trailer enough, and the beer freezes. That would be one example of when you would need to idle your truck.

    Just make sure that if you are stuck in traffic (like for an accident) you send a macro to say you are delayed. Then when they look back and see that an idle time is high, they will see a macro sent that you were stuck in traffic. But a 50% idle time is ridiculous...... that means out of a 24 hour day, 12 hours you are not moving, yet the truck is running. And the way runs are, yes you could ONE TIME get stuck doing an 10 hour break, then driving 11 hours, and then breaking again for 10 hours, which would put you at 14 hours not driving (idling) and 10 hours driving.. but that doesn't happen everyday. You would have to do that EVERYDAY to get a 50% idle rate.

    And there's no way you can get stuck at redlights for 12 hours a day for an entire month. I think Werner is actually being very lenient on that one. Try an account that wanted 1% idle time WITH APUs... and lemme know how ya feel.. especially if you get a lot of runs to So Cal and LA.
     
  10. Steele

    Steele Light Load Member

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    Jan 23, 2008
    Las Vegas, NV
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    QUOTE: First, they give him the trainer from hell. He's been on the truck since May 4th.

    Okay first, he just got on the truck May 4th, and needs 300 hours, and today is only May 13th. Sorry, but that doesn't happen in two weeks. Legally by DOT regulations, you can only drive 70 hours in a 7 day period, so don't expect him to be done for awhile. And additional 25 hours (275 to 300) is nothing. Its like 2.5 days at the most.

    QUOTE: For an example, one time hubby put the truck within 7 miles of the drop point with many hours to go before they could drop the load and the guy was 45 minutes late because he got lost.

    THis confuses me. When you say many hours, what do you mean? Do you mean your other half had hours left on his clock, or do you mean hours left before the appointment time. And if your hubby is within 7 miles with hours left on his clock, then how did the trainer get lost and 45 minutes late? That statement makes no sense. Why would your hubby stop 7 miles away? Many times, the receiver will take the load early. It doesn't hurt to call and find out. And why would anyone wait until the last minute to drive 7 miles? There's nothing wrong with being an hour early. Better than being an hour late.

    QUOTE: He finally got his 300 hours driving in and they tell him he has to stay on that truck for another 125 hours.

    Again, I am confused. You originally said your other half started driving on May 4th, and it is now May 13th, only 9 days later, and he has driven his 300 hours? Again, that makes no sense. Additionally, if they told him he needed to be on the truck another 125 hours why didn't your other half ask why? And additionally, if he did get extra hours, it was because his trainer suggested he needed additional training. My other half's best friend, who has worked for the big W for 22 years, is 2 million miles accident free, and has been a trainer for the big W for about 7 years said the only time he asks for additional time is if the student isn't ready. There is a chance however, that the trainer is using your other half to make extra money. Remember, the trainer gets all the student's miles.

    QUOTE: It took him 9 weeks to get the first 300.

    On average, drivers run about 8-11 hours a day. So, you are telling me that he was only driving 33 hours a week? Which is only 4.8 hours a day? And this went on for nine weeks? This also makes no sense.

    QUOTE: He was talking with one half of a team who was losing the other half of the team and the guy told him that he'd take him on, told him what to do to arrange it from hubby's end, but when hubby informed placement of that he was chewed out for it.

    The reason he got chewed out for it is that he is suppose to complete an additional 125 hours of training first before he takes an assignment. That is like telling your teacher in school you don't need to finish the quarter as you know it all, and just to give you your certificate, because you say you are ready.

    QUOTE: Hubby has been doing all the night driving and usually shuts down about 4A and he sets his alarm now to get up and make sure the trainer doesn't get lost and doing other things that help avoid a lot of the screw-ups the trainer causes.

    Your other half needs to get use to this. Being an over-the-road truck driver does not mean that you get to always drive from 9am to 5pm. Many appointments are 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am. And due to scheduling, it could be that you drive all night to get to your stop, back up close to the door, sleep for a few minutes, then get a knock on the door for unloading, get back in the seat, pull up, get out, open the doors, get back in the truck, back the truck into the door, and lay back down and get your break while the truck is being unloaded.. only to be woken up again in about an hour when they are done unloading your truck. Thats the life of a trucker.

    And the QComm isn't always right. Thats why everyone should invest in a trucker's atlas, instead of flashy lights, and fancy sunglasses or a spiffy new CB. Its called pre-trip time management. You get your load info, you should immediately be looking up where the location is and writing down the address and phone number. Then you compare the instructions on the QComm to what a truckers atlas says. If it does not make sense, you call the customer for clarification. Customers would rather you call asking for help with directions than the load being late.

    And are you quite sure the trainer is screwing up, or is it just that your other half isn't use to the way things are done with trucking? There is nothing that I can think of to compare to the job of a company driver.

    QUOTE: There's no guarantee that if he sticks out another long 125 hours with the crazy trainer that things will be any different at the end than they are now.

    Get use to it, that is the life of a truck driver.. it's always crazy and insane. There is nothing "normal" in the lifestyle of a trucker.. other than normal means insanity.

    And unfortunately Werner is right. Making $300 a week is better than making nothing. Its only 125 more hours, its not forever. And if he quits now, I guarantee that there will be a black mark on his DAC. A driver who starts training with one company, quits and then hops to another doesn't look good on his/her DAC, especially if things dont work out with the second company. And if you don't have a good DAC, then you aren't getting a job in trucking. And I wasn't aware that you could get unemployment benefits for voluntarily qutting a job after only working for it a few months.... so for the short term $300 a week is better than $0 a week..... because no matter who he goes to right now, they are gonna want him to go through training also, since Werner hasn't "freed" him yet from training......just thoughts to ponder.....



    The one thing that I constantly find simliar in many stories is that newbie drivers seem to think they are going to make $100K a year straight out of the gate, with a new CDL. I don't know ANYONE who has ever done that. You will be lucky to see $30K in the first year, no matter WHO you work for, unless you get a job at WalMart, Yellow, or UPS... all union ya know. And most of the time to get jobs there, you better have at least 10 years experience (or have family connections), have a clean DAC, and have doubles experience. The money is there for those who take the time to invest in their career, but it can only be done through experience.

    Sorry to seem mean and nasty, but Im not known to sugar coat the truth.
     
  11. Steele

    Steele Light Load Member

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    Jan 23, 2008
    Las Vegas, NV
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    I can tell you my other half works on one of those "high demand" and "sought after" dedicated accounts. I think the dedicated account hes on is the account has the highest percentage of accident free drivers. And the entire account, with 40 drivers, has a nearly 100% on time delivery. So of course they want the best of the best for the high paying accounts. I know that someone called the other day who only had 1 year and 7 months experience with one accident that wanted on the account. Needless to say, was told no, "there is no room at the inn", especially on nearly 100% high dollar loads.

    But no, you don't get raises on dedicated accounts. It's whatever the contract states. I know other half hasn't gotten a raise in five years.
     
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