I am fairly new to OTR 48 professional driver occupation, having only been driving for 6 months for Werner. I am also very, very unhappy with my experience so far. The major problem is lack of miles and down time. I have sat for hours, days and weekends because the dispatchers seem unable to give me any runs. Of course, no miles, no pay, and as a result I am about starving out here. I have been asked to drive for as little as 600 miles a week, not a day, and make only 26 cents a mile driving it. That comes to a whopping $156 gross per week. No driver in their right mind would agree to that. It seems like Werner doesn't have the business they claim they have, and the weekend and evening dispatchers are not at all helpful. I have looked into driving for another company, unfortunately, they want more OTR experience. I have no accidents but still am so new that I am probably stuck with Werner or will have to into a different line of work, and will still owe on my truck driving school loan. I have talked to other Werner drivers who have had a year or more and some of them are experiencing the same thing. I did not sign up to get rich, but I always thought that truck driving was a stable, respectable way to earning a decent living. Are other drivers out there having the same problem?

That has been going on for a long time. I had the same trouble with them when I drove for them 6 years ago. What they did to me was to get me to Ohio to pull sears loads to the south east. That ment very little miles and the turned miles and the paid miles was around 20%. It got to the point that I told them that I could not afford to drive for them because I had a choise of paying my bills or going on the road.

If this is a consistent situation, then there is a problem. Trucking is anything but stable, all the time that is. There are periods when freight is slow, and these can happen routinely, or they can be sporadic.

This time of year, for at least the next two weeks in the dry freight biz, should be booming. The first two weeks of July usually are slow, because many companies shut down for re-tooling, inventories, and maintenance.

If indeed you are starving, then you are faced with making a decision or two. Your options are limited, but it's not impossible that you could move to another company.

Six months is not ideal, but there are some companies that will take you on under some guarded conditions. You are accident free, so that's a plus. If you CAN make it six more months, that will certainly open up more doors in your favor.

Does Werner have a system of dispatch, where you deal with one person for your loads? What is this person telling you, when you inquire as to why you are being overlooked?

I have never found Werner to be a company worth consideration, but there are far worse out there, and you have made it this far. Have you tried to request a different driver manager?

When I drove for Werner all the otr 48 state drivers were dispached out of Omaha. But from talking with a few Werner drivers over the last few months they have been going with reginal or zone dispach with a single point of contact for the driver. This has it's good points and the draw back is if a truck is dedicated in a poor freight area then the driver suffers more then the company for the simple reason that there are not any miles being turned and the loss of production. A large company can and will absorb loss of production in a specific area for good will towards custermers in an area.

Thank you to those who replied regarding my 6 months experience with Werner. Because I am only getting about 1300 miles per week, I have begun searching out other companies. I hear bad remarks about Swift and JB Hunt. Yet, JB Hunt is willing to take me without more training.
Marten's is willing to take me but I have to go thru team driving as training for 2 weeks.

Does anyone recommend a company that offers some reasonable miles?

LJ

I drove for Werner for 3 years (2002 till 2 months ago) and NEVER had a problem getting miles

I started with Werner right out of school

I averaged about 2600 miles/week ... 1st year grossed $31,000 last year $51,000
(last year was on a dedicated run & Training new drivers)

The trick with Werner is mastering the ins & outs of the electronic log system. Because most of their loads are assigned by the computers looking at your available hours/status etc. Which it gets directly from your computer log

Most drivers who i talked to there that complained about miles, were doing something in their logs to make them ineligible for a lot of loads. (note: not ALL, but MOST)

That being said, I HATE WERNER, but for other reasons

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Live and Learn

www.Great-Savings-Site.com

Dont know what you think ,but I think Werner here in Arizona has some of the worst drivers around.First they are real road hogs and very unprofessional.Second,give them half the chance and after hitting your truck they will flee from the scene.No real men do that and certainly no real truck drivers.[/i]

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leggs ready to go that extra mile

I just got my first truck from Werner, my first company. My training required two trainers, which wasn't itself so bad- but the trainers were bad. I went a few times more than 24 hours without a meal, after unloading a truck, and once 4 days without a shower. Both instructors had bad attitudes and were hardly qualified. One made us late by gambling for 9 hours.
Then, they stuck me into a ######## of a truck that had been dropped-off that morning. And they told me they no longer clean trucks or even give new matresses! I had to pay the guy to get two matresses!
The ###### smoker pig who had that truck before me probably got a nice new truck to make filthy, while I got his filth to clean. "Best trucks out there" my ###, the recruiters can shove it!

As far as going four days without a shower I have gone a lot further without cleaning up. That part of the price to pay driving trucks. On the first part about going without a meal for 24 hours there is reason for it. Your trainer(s) should have made sure you have had decent meals if anything so you could do a good job and learn something.

In my opinion there is no reason for this....It was not your mess to clean up or is it your finacial responsibility to cover somebody elses mess.

Have you contacted Werners training department in Omaha? If anything to let them know about your mistreatment?? A bit of advice on the matter, when you call in stay calm and don't go ballistic and let them know you are not satisfied about the whole experience so far....

Wait a minute....4 days without a shower is NOT, in my opinion...."a price to pay to drive a truck."

I've skipped my share of showers, for many reasons, but it was at my own discretion, and it was never for more than three days, and even THEN, it would be because I was not in dire need of a shower, and therefore was presentable enough to conduct business without looking or smelling bad.

What this gentleman is offering, is that he was basically DENIED the opportunity to shower for 4 days, and THAT is another ballgame. Of course, this is not something that can be blamed on Werner directly, but it sure illustrates to me that their trainers leave a lot to be desired, Add to this, being denied decent meals, and being held up while a trainer gambled? I'm not too impressed to hear this kind of stuff.

Now...what disturbs me in regard to Werner DIRECTLY, is that he has stated that he had to PAY a "guy" to get clean mattresses for the filthy truck that was assigned to him by the company. What the heck is THIS all about?

Okay....I've certainly had to clean up my share of trucks, because I don't like working in someone else's filth, and I sure don't want to lay in it. Not every company is going to clean a truck between drivers, and this is left up to the new driver, if they happen to draw a dirty truck. Even in cases where I have been assigned a truck that was cleaned, I still clean it again.
I also search it from top to bottom, because you just never know what the previous driver did in it, or hid in it.

Another common complaint that I hear, and this is no exception, is that non-smokers really don't like getting assigned a truck where the previous driver did smoke. That unfortunately is the breaks....it's not like checking into a Super 8 Motel. I don't know of a company that assigns trucks by tobacco preferences.

It isn't right that someone is welcomed on a new job with being assigned a filthy truck, but there are also cases where there are some people that would never be happy with a truck assigned to them, unless it was new.

I tend to look at it like I would if I bought a used car. Sometimes you get lucky and you get one that is clean as can be....and sometimes, you will have to make it what you want.