I have spent around $16,000.00 on a career change to trucking from retail management. It was something I've always dreamed about doing. I love to travel the open road. I enjoy seeing the different parts of the country. I am in my forties and am fortunate enough to have a loving and supportive wife. We have moved from the extreme northeast to the extreme southeast so I could pursue this career change. After reading a ton of bad experiences about nearly all the companies who hire drivers right out of cdl school, I made probably the biggest mistake of my life. I made the decision based on the recommendation of one of the instructors at the highly rated school I attended in Scarborough, Maine. He stated that they had a great training program to finish up your skills.
I must have misunderstood him. What he must have meant was if you give them long enough you will be finished. Their 275 hour training program consisted of team driving. The first day i drove 553 miles while my trainer dozed in the bunk. I was done with the 275 hours in 5 and a half weeks but was kept on the truck another 3 at the same measly wages plus $100 total for the extra time. I was then issued my truck an 06 freightliner classic. When i failed it for inspection I was told to take it to the dealer 30 miles away. This is where it sat for 7 days to have legal brakes put on it. no wait they had me go get it and move it 8 miles to rush in Tampa because the dealers price was too high. So the first 9 days I could've been running miles and making .26 per mile I couldn't. It only took a few hours to realize that the training I'd received did not begin to prepare me for what I was embarking on. I trained on a regional dollar general account for Werner ent. I had always intended on otr 48 and Canada. I had never had the truck washed, had to pay for a hotel, paid lumpers etc... during the next five weeks I managed to run a little over 2000 miles a week. Someone in dodge City Kansas was kind enough to remove my right mirror while i was sleeping, the d2 gov failed and was down for another air related issue. I had a load shift on a load of Pabst blue ribbon out of Irwindale, Ca. to Portland Or. I received an award from the department of justice in Woodburn County Or. for that $82.00. I was placed out of service at the scales and it took Werner 26 hours to send lumpers to reload the truck the whole time on line 4 per the dot at the scales. Didn't make a dime that day. Did I mention there was no apu on my truck. I got screamed at daily by the individual that was "looking over me" for my idle time. It was over a hundred degrees outside the truck. I would've left the truck at the Portland or terminal but would've been responsible for getting home with no help from Werner. I stuck with it making calls trying to find a different gig. Due to the lack of income while otr my personal vehicle at home was repo'd. After 5 weeks out I finally got routed to the Lakeland terminal. I got to see my wife and take care of a few things. I hadn't been able to secure other employment while I was home but before I went back out with Werner I decided I'd speak to the terminal manager about the problems I was having. I was told three times while I was out to operate the truck illegally. I requested a new driver manager. I was told suck it up. GO get your load and quit complaining. I really didn't have much of a choice so away I went. I hoped it would get better. After complaining to dispatch about the mirror that i had duct-tapped back onto the truck after having it anonymously removed for me I was told to get in touch with road breakdown and get it replaced at a dealer. While there I put in for an alignment (the truck pulled to the right badly since day one) three days later the call comes in its ready. Hotel was paid out of pocket, no layover pay, hotel still not reimbursed 3 wks later. got another load get there pull to stop sign truck won't come out of gear clutch pedal won't come all the way off floor after a few minutes of pumping clutch finally come up. It is now slipping and stinking. the cons won't take me early am told to go to a safe haven and wait. Get there and clutch is now slipping badly and will barely move the truck send road breakdown request for tow. this is 7 pm at 5pm the next day tow truck arrives have split load at the flying j and am towed to the dealer. two days later trucks ready. Hotel paid for out of pocket again through efs check. have run a total of 600 miles for the week. get a load for 325 miles that can't be delivered for 2 days. no layover pay finally got hold of a human being at dispatch split load at a drop yard grab an mt read to go 10 hrs later get a 32 m load but again have to wait 29 hours to deliver. i have run at this point less than 1000 miles had to pay $120 for a hotel room plus efs fees 8.00 and check cashing fees at the truck stop. that means a paycheck of less than $150 after ins and advance to pay hotel comes out. I call dispatch. They say they'll work on it. Rent is due wife considers selling engagement ring. I traveled up to a t/a where i could get a meal and a shower had 7/8 tank of fuel. ran in to use the facilities and when I came back out my qc was out.
I was told I'd have to get routed to a repair facility. I went back in to the t/a took a shower and got a meal. Called dispatch and informed them I was dh to Lakeland terminal. Tried to get fuel the shut card off. I dropped the mt I had and cut my speed back to 55-60mph. Made the 1300 miles on what was in the tanks. i dropped their truck and everything else they had issued me at the terminal. This could be a line of new Fox Worthy jokes
You might drive for Werner if your personal vehicle has been repo'd while your out otr... If your wife has to hock her engagement ring to pay the rent ...you might drive for Werner... If you don't believe what I just wrote here ..you might drive for Werner
Please help me put these s.o.b.'s out of the trucking industry
Don't Drive for werner

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Keep the hammer down and the wheels on the pavement!

Good luck putting those guys out of the industry, but I agree with you completely about their miles, etc. My hubby started with them, stayed with them 3 months, and went elsewhere. He was assigned a fairly new truck, and didn't have the equipment problems, but he didn't get much in the way of miles either.

The kicker for him was when he ended up with a trailer brake fire (it was winter, and only the brakes on one wheel froze up), got it put out, and sent in for road side to check things out to make sure the truck could move. They sent back that road side was on the way, and would he still be able to make his delivery on time. Didn't bother to ask if he was OK or find out if he had been injured or anything, just worried about the load getting delivered on time. He did get the fire out in time and there was no damage to the brakes or anything else.

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I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was going to blame you.

Dynamite comes in small packages, Nitro comes in smaller ones, take your pick!

What an experience! What keeps the likes of Werner in business?

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Go, and beat your crazy head against the sky.....

The government kickbacks for training newbies, especially the one's who were laid off and needed to do a career change..

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There are only three women in this world that mean anything to me and they are Karen, Krystal, Amanda..

Do you have a link to support the government kickbacks?

How can I send you a link I found? By PM?

**Ignore Dated Material**

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Charlie

welcome to the truckin industry.the drivers they take advantage of are the ones that let them.the way i deal with dispatchers,i always leave the ball in there court,because they have to explain why that trk is not moving.so 2weeks of poor miles i go to his boss an say i done everything dispatch asked of me an i got poor miles.that always works for me,because now he looks bad.

Several things:

1) PLEASE, PLEASE use paragraphs. I got a headache reading that.

2) Why in the world did it take a Freightliner dealer a week to put on new brake shoes?

3) Why did you get shut down at the scales?

4) 26 hours to orangize a lumper crew was actually pretty good. Think of the logistics hassles involved. Plus they had to get fork lift out there, right?

I normally I sympathasize
with people who have had negtive experiances with these mega carriers, but it seems alot of what happend to you was brought upon yourself by YOU and only YOU.

* You relocated just to get into the industry, any seasoned driver would have told you not to do it. Unless you had always wanted to live in Florida then it's a different story.

* You agreed to run for .26 cents a mile, while at the same time having some kind dream of making a fortune in trucking. It isn't hard to figure out, .26 x 2500 = $650 a week. That is nothing.

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Truth will always be "hate" to those that hate the truth.

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Owner's Operator..

I'm not relocating for anyone.. Especially for some company.. Unless they are paying for it and it's some where I want to go. Oh, and I'm not moving into some shack.. Am I making this difficult? Anyways.

You are the one in control of that truck.. You have to understand how to scale your load and make sure your tandems are in the right place for bridge laws among all the other stuff you have to know.

That's ALL YOU! That's Trucking. It is what it is.

I know and understand how Werner says "deal with it or leave" I've seen it first hand ( I still wish I had listened to everyone here about Werner, Oh Well), but you are still the captain of that ship.

Sorry that all happened to you and I wish you luck.

why didn't you make them pay for a hotel? where do they expect you to sleep ... the dealership? then again ... if they had a really sweet new truck, maybe you COULD'VE crashed in the sleeper for a night or two ... yeah?

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And it's official: I Start school in Lewiston, ID - 15 Oct 08