Just finished training with Werner

yes it is too much. the people at werner told me nothing about what i should or shouldnt bring. so i planned for everything lol. recruiter never sent a list. no one in orientation told us what to bring. i planned to go otr and get a truck after training. not travel from ca to pa just to get a truck haha.

but actually my stuff wasnt everywhere. i strapped it all on the top rack of my bed to the bed frame so it wouldnt go flying off. he gave me a cubbyhole for my food and that was all the space i got!

 

I got a truck on Monday. Fuel gauge was broken so I had to wait for that to get fixed. I went through her with a fine tooth comb. I spent 2 1/2 hours doing an inspection every sq inch. I photographed her from every angle on the outside and took pics of the interior. I noted everything damaged, rip, torn, broken etc on her. Got her Tuesday afternoon and went and did my first pickup and delivery. Did my second one Wednesday.

My dispatcher seems like an easy going fellow. Don't need any home time, so I'm headed to Wisconsin! Trying to make some money.

it's a lot different by yourself. I was second guessing myself all day Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday I started getting into a rhythm.

well, we did. from day 1, I drove during the day, he drove at night. There was no stopping. we were doing 5700 miles a week, one week we hit 6300 miles.

so far so good though. haven't had any complications and I'm getting the hang of it all. my backing has even improved now that I am on my own.

 

let me clear it up. the first day he started off driving, and then about 4 pm, i drove till just before midnight and when I stopped, we did stop for the night and slept, and that happened on the first 3 nights. He sat up front with me and watched and observed to make sure I was doing ok on all 3 of those days. Once he was comfortable with me driving on the interstate after the 3rd day, he went back to the sleeper, but he would come up when I would exit the interstate to get fuel or pull into a rest stop. but after day 3 it was all team driving. he was always up front when I was doing any backing of any kind, be it at a truck stop, shipper or consignee.

9 weeks. Jan 20th - March 27th. So about 2 months. but that's not the status quo for everyone. My trainer took home time every 2 weeks for a day or two here and there. so, I would say about 6-7 weeks is the norm if your trainer doesn't take time off.

 

when I got assigned my truck, it didn't have an Oklahoma Pike Pass. Called Tolls and Permits, they are on back order. Apparently, I'm dealing with a very special kind of stupid in night dispatch, because it's on my driver screen NOT to route me into Oklahoma or through Oklahoma, but one of the dumb ### dispatchers in night dispatch did it anyway. My dispatcher is pissed at her, and when he saw her notes telling me to call Permits (at night nonetheless) to get the permits department to "fax me a temporary one", he said what kind of moron thinks you can get a temporary toll pass faxed to you?? I laughed.

Off to a lovely start this week.

 

after 3 weeks of continuous shop time for my truck, things have smoothed out nicely. Truck is running good, I've gotten a feel for my dispatcher and he's gotten a feel for how I run and how well I can pickup, drop, and adjust to circumstances.

had a pair of very nice weeks back to back. (partial screenshots of my pay stubs on werners e-portal posted below)

2500 miles + $200 in breakdown pay grossed me $865, netted $630



2751 miles last week grossed me $778, netted me $566.


On a 1300 mile run right now, that will put me at 2500 miles as of Sunday morning with 2 days to go till the pay period ends.

Would had 3151 miles last week, but Net-Ops took my load from me 2/3 of the way through it...was not happy, but not much I could do about it.


I wish the miles were 3000+ every week, but the bills are getting paid and I have surplus cash in the bank, so I'll be thankful I have a job for now. Lot's of unemployed people out there. At some point in the near future, a new job with a better wage will be on the horizon, until then, I'll keep doing what I do and that's kicking ### the best I know how, and getting my experience and continuing to learn new things.

I've made my truck efficient. Everything has a spot, I know where it's at and I have a system and I follow it pretty much to the tooth. makes things very easy and my day very stress free. I really like my dispatcher, he communicates quite well, we get along, he likes that I run hard, don't complain and don't care much about home time (been out a month and haven't even asked for home time). I wake up every day happy and ready to go make some money.

My backing got really sloppy last week...not sure what my deal was, but I couldn't hit an empty spot on a completely empty row to save my life. I started hitting truck stops and doing some practice there and shored things up. Not sure if I wasn't concentrating or overthinking it, but it was bad. After 2 days of practicing about 10-15 backings each day, I got my mechanics cleaned up and have had a good couple days of backing, even did a nice pair of night backings last night and the night before.

Just FYI...I'm not tooting the werner horn here...they aren't the greatest company, but they certainly aren't the worst either. The pay could be better, but for a first experience, I'm doing alright. more money than I've made in a long long time!

Attitude is positive, outlook is good, and confidence is high! Every day is a great day to go trucking!