1 year with Western

I've been with Western Express for one year now. Started out as OTR and did that for 8 months. Was put into a new freight liner right at the start and given what I thought was a good DM. At first things were great and I was having fun but after a while I started realizing that they would never let me see my family. I live in New Hampshire and was promised I'd get 3-4 days off after a month of working yet when the time came they would make excuses as to why I couldn't go. Ended up waiting 3 months to finally see them after having to literally send a message on the qualcom every couple days. When I finally made it home they cut my break into two days instead of four.

They use the qualcom and in my opinion it's a terrible system that freezes up all the time and takes forever to do anything. The navigation is practically useless in NYC driving. The amount of macros they expect you to send a day is unbelievable and then sometimes you have to wait hours for responses from your DM.

I ended up putting my two weeks notice in to take a months break because they wouldn't just let me stay a employee and take a vacation. After a monthish I applied to them again and was instantly hired to Northeast Regional which was a terrible mistake on my part that I will be regretting lol. The truck they issued me is a 2012 International that is in bad condition. The AC doesn't work and lately it's been very hot out and I've been sweating it out in this truck while sitting in traffic. They keep sending me from terminal to terminal to get it fixed but my DM always has me leave because the mechanics are to busy and cannot fix it for a couple days. The fender on my truck just randomly came apart and fell off on the highway and western breakdown has me bungie it back up. They gave the truck to me with several pieces of it's body missing and it's paint is coated with oil stains along the sides. It looks like complete garbage, I haven't ever seen a truck on the road looking like this. My current DM messages me daily saying that I'm a terrible driver and micromanaging every single thing I do. I have been home twice now in two months but the promised 48 hours every two weeks is of course a lie. They cut both of them down to a normal 34 reset.

TLDR
Company does not see truckers as human beings.
They don't care about you or your family.
Poor equipment.
DM's are disrespectful and will treat you like a child.
They will set you up for failure, not success.
You will be sent to places that most companies will not go because of liability reasons.
They show off and put on a fake guise for new drivers, sending you out west with a trainer with a nice truck and yes you'll probably have fun like I did doing that (unless you get one of the horror story trainers I've heard about) but when you get into your own truck things start changing very quickly.
Breakdown will tell you to do things like drive with no trailer breaks with 45,000 lbs of water 600 miles to a consignee because they can't find anyone to fix them.


There is a bunch wrong with this company and the complete lack of respect and regard for truckers who keep them employed. I am not sure what to do. Currently I have no CSA violations not even a over weight ticket. I'm a safe driver and always run my clock out. My loads are rarely on time but that's because Western will give you loads that are destined to be late then blame you for it. They are the only company I have worked for and am wondering what some of you who have been in the industry for a while think. Is there companies out there who will actually let us have lifes outside of our trucks ie see family and friends. Have off time and be treated like a person? I've heard that all these large companies are the same.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. I definitely do need to get out of here and have started looking at a couple different companies. Googled LTL and that looks like a great idea. Good to know there are companies out there that are different.

Jerez, I didn't expect to be home every weekend at all and agreed with that from the start. I did expect to be home once a month though when I was OTR and every two weeks now that I'm regional, which is what they agreed upon.

 

I usually follow the qualcom nav when I can but in cities I am very cautious about where it tells me to go and usually revert to my rand too. It's never failed me and does everything I'd expect from a trucker gps. Big fan of rand mcnally. I won't tell them until I've actually been hired by someone else. When I quit before, I put my two weeks in but this time it's just going to be a drop the truck off and leave type of thing. Otherwise it will just be NYC load after NYC load as a punishment and they are probably hoping I hit someone so they can use that against me. Thanks for the reply Denali, hope flat-bedding with them is going good for you.