Werner, You can't afford it!

Your medical problems aside, you are full of it. It is impossible to drive 1090 miles a day with WERNER. I cannot stand liars, cheats and thieves!

 

Man i was just going to bust him on that.. It is posiable to drive 1000+ miles a dal(ilegal) I have done it a few times BUT THER IS NO WAY IN HE DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS i could do two or three days in a row letalone 55 days in a row. The guys that have been out here for awile could do it but there is no way a newbie could hadle it. And i repeat nobody could do it 55 days in a row... In fact the last time i did it was a round trip from lorain, oh to green bay, wi. when i got back to lorain i was so tired that i forgot to unhook the airlines. On the bright side i learned how to replace an airline.lol

 

Wow,some people just crack me up lol...In Iraq we did plenty of 16-20 hour convoys,they were never back to back though.We had 2 people in each tractor trailer so you could switch out,but it still took us a good 6 months to get used to drivin like that a few times a week with a bunch of 2-5 hour convoys on days in between the long ones.No way would I even attempt to drive like that here.Your families life and my life are not worth driving like a half asleep moron just to make an extra buck or satisfy a DM.......

 

I am glad this website, unlike another I know, brings honest drivers together and doesn't try to crucify anyone who complains about a company. I doubt if Werner is any worse than the other sausage factories. I've heard some things about Schneider I couldn't believe, but... Anyway,I went through orientation twice at two different Werner terminals, Springfield and Omaha. The lectures and films and computer training is great, and the morale in the classes is high.

But then you are in the meat market being looked over by the hungry trainers, hungry for money and for victims, I guess. I requested a woman trainer, non-smoker, and wow - I got one right away.

Nowadays, women who get their CDLs are really great gals. I'm one, by the way. They are hard-working, decent people, often with kids, looking to earn better money than they can make at Walmart, and many of them had solid work experience before falling on hard times, through lay-offs, divorce, family medical expenses, whatever.

I felt sorry for my first trainer, a woman in her mid-thirties, really struggling financially. Unfortunately, she was an unsafe driver (unbelievable stuff which I reported to Werner), never did a pre-trip, drove hundreds of miles with an engine warning light on, suffered from night blindness, which meant we couldn't make any miles since I was the newbie limited to driving before midnight, and she couldn't be bothered getting complete directions, so we wandered around a lot. When she told me the place to go to the bathroom in the morning was behind the tractor, I began to take seriously her complaint that maybe she didn't want to be a trainer, after all. I was her first student, you see. She had terrible bronchitis, which she passed on to me, and then she wanted to dump me at the Fontana terminal when I was sick as a dog.

I took a leave of absence to get better at home, then rejoined the company for another try, this time, I vowed, not with another woman.

Now picture this. The trainer-guys sit around the terminals smoking nonstop and flashing their tattoos and black leather. My mistake was agreeing to be trained by two different guys who were over 35 and looked clean-cut. You can't judge a book by its cover. They were the ones to watch out for. The first one insisted he was happily married, but kept wanting to come to my hotel room during orientation to talk things over, because "People will talk if they see us in the restaurant." Right. Still, he played it cool. It wasn't until we were actually working in the truck and he realized I honestly would never come across, since I am married also, that he found an excuse to dump me. This was even weirder, since he had made special arrangements with Werner already that after he trained me we would stay together as a professional team. But what a trainer! He told me never to downshift, as he never bothered. He also had no patience with the Qualcomm, and we were always getting threatening messages from the terminal because our paperless logs were all messed up. By the way, if a trainer lives on chips and sodas, don't expect him to ever stop so you can get a real meal.

The next fellow was Mr. Touchy-Feely/Porn Sirius Radio. I had to get a security guard to help me get off his truck late one night outside of Chicago, when he became violent after I complained about him to the company. This trainer threw my paperwork out the window at me, after starting to drive away with it and making as if he would run me down in the truckstop parking lot. Werner dispatch had refused to take me off the truck earlier when trouble really started, because we had a load to deliver.

I got another leave of absence from Werner, but will I go back? No. I met too many other mature women like myself who had their own nightmare stories -- being passed around from trainer to trainer for 4-5 months, instead of the 8-10 weeks they promise you. One gal returned to her trainer's truck after a shower at a truckstop to find him so drunk he didn't recognize her and thought she was a lot lizard. Another lady, with a disabled husband she was trying to support, had finished her training but was not given the final driving test; instead they put her through an exercise with new trainees one day at the terminal on a course at the local fairgrounds which wasn't set up properly - the turns were too tight to be made. Nobody passed it. She wasn't even scheduled for it, but just went along as something to do for practice, as the official tests weren't scheduled that day. Still, they fired her and sent her home. She had already bought her fridge and other stuff and had been so happy looking forward to finally getting her own truck. They wouldn't give her another chance. She had trained for almost 3 months, and her road reports were good.

I wonder if there is some agenda to just use some bodies out on the road, even if they think you're too old or have health issues or are undesirable for whatever reason. Then they dump you on some pretext.

Between that kind of company behavior, and the behavior of the trainers, ONLY KIDS WIN WITH WERNER. Forget the advertising.

As for me, I now need a CDL Refresher course, or I throw it all away.

 

Thats one heck of an expirience,and I dont doubt it one bit.I had a brother in law go with them.He was in training one night his trainer had him drive till he had about 10 minutes on his logs and the trainer had none.Well they werent sure of the exit to get off on,and then it popped up.My brother in law couldnt get off in time so the trainer told him to get the truck on the shoulder and stop.You guessed it,he wanted him to back up about 200 feet so they could take the exit.My brother in law wasnt goin for it,but the trainer said if he didnt do it,he would put him off the truck.He lives in ohio,and they were in nevada....So they werent seeing anyone and my brother in law started backing up on the shoulder.Right as they started backing up a local patrolman had seen them and stopped them.My brother in law was put off the truck that night,by the company.His trainer said he tried to tell him to go up the road,but he refused to do so and it was his fault they got into trouble..Needless to say,that was the end of trucking for my brother in law,he gave it up that night.So the moral is,I would die before I would go with werner.Does this happen at other companies?I am sure it does.Thats why i am glad I am a bigger guy.I would be dammed if i will get off a truck 2000 miles away from home,and I will be dammed if I will do somthing ilegal cause of some trainer.

 

"Nowadays, women who get their CDLs are really great gals. I'm one, by the way."


I'm not a woman, but am looking for good place to work. In fact, tomorrow I was going to meet with a Werner Recruiter. Your experience is enough to make me wonder. The fact is though, it is only because they are so big that these creeps can get away with this stuff. There is less accountability with large Corporations. Andrew Jackson even knew that 180 years ago. So the real question is, am I willing to take the risk? Probably not. I may go talk to him anyway, but I really like CRST's website, recruiter, and pay scale.

It's kinda funny, my wife said she would divorce me if she found out I was driving with a woman. I laughed, but what's sad is I would probably get along better with a woman. Though I just dont understand why a woman would ever, ever get into trucking. You know you are going to find the sickest of all men and in some of the most vulnerable situations. Not blaming you, as you shouldnt have to worry about things like what happened. Im not in CRST yet, but they do seem to have their act together. I'll let you know how it goes

 

I went with werner after truck school, they came several times and spit the sweetest game you ever heard. You'd have thought that man's second job was as a pimp. Well, it worked I ended up there and hated it. If it was for the serval days spent waiting on a trainer, it was being shipped from ATL to some small, no name town in Miss. to hook up with a trainer on the Dollar General account. Now I trained at school on a standard ten, I ended up with this guy in dang 13. He puts me at the wheel and goes to sleep, at night, on my first day in the darn truck. My second trainer was a nervous wreck and caused me to have preventable. My third didn't take a shower for 7 #$#$ days, I at least changed my drawers, and washed up. This sucka wore the same shoot 7 days straight. He had as stranded in Seattle, Wa for a day cause he crossed the red and blue lines and had to wait for the mechanic to come. After completing my 275 hours, having backed maybe 6 times through it all, and I was cleared for a truck, but told that I need to practice more. I went home
I ended up coming back 8 months later cause of the loan I took out for truck school, which is a rip off, by the way. After the 70 hours I was told I had to do, which took nearly 3 weeks, cause they didn't have any truck to assign me, then waiting another week cause they didn't have any truck to assing me, I was put in a truck, that they had to repair for me to use. That truck ended up in the shop many times over my time using the truck. So to end this, don't waste your time with them. A few of my checks were only $400 cause when you sit for 9 hours at Food Lion DC's waiting for idiot lumpers to unload your truck, they will not pay detention. I got more, but I've ranted long enough.

 

Hey, this sounds familiar! My husband just got his new truck and the battery was dead - he had to wait for three days for them to get him a new battery. He has been out for 4 weeks now and was supposed to be home by Friday. Well, it's Monday and they're still jerking him around. This is NOT a good start.

 

The funny thing about trainer #3 was that he had already been out for 3 weeks when he picked me up and didn't go home for another 3 1/2 weeks thereafter, when I was at my half point and wanted to take a break. I remember the week before he called his wife and was talking to her then said "Who's that? Is that Larry over there?" He laughs and gets on the phone with him, then pauses and tells me that's his best friend. I said, "Not anymore." He didn't get it.

 

LOL!!!!!!!!