Werner Enterprises, Inc. - Omaha, Ne.

I think the pay rates for Dollar General have been slashed in the last couple of years, then (no big surprise if so) -- because when I was training on that account, about 2.5 years ago, the pay per trailer was (IIRC) $75.

So you can imagine that if you unloaded, say, 4 trailers total in a given week, plus 15-20 stops at $15-20 per stop, and let's say 1500 miles -- it adds up (or used to add up) pretty well.

But it is back-breaking, bone-crunching work, and it does seem to injure a lot of people, because the trailers are so poorly loaded. If I had a nickel for every time a 50 lb case of bleach nearly landed on my head because some idjit put it on top of six stacks of paper towels, I'd be a rich man.

The spaces are absurdly tight, too, of course. I've seen worse even on the 48 states account, but for consistently tight spaces in a full sleeper truck with a 53' trailer, several times a day, it'd be hard to top ol' Dollar G.

The upshot is that you can get home every weekend, but in my experience it's more like 24 hours off, once all is said and done. I prefer (and ultimately opted for) longer periods out with more than a day or two to rub together when I do go home. I don't know how some drivers do it, honestly; when I only have two days off, it feels like by the time I've caught up on my sleep and done my laundry, I have to turn right back around again.

But now I'm rambling again.

 

I have often wondered how werner gets anyone to do that dollar general stuff.

 

Big Rigger, i talked to some guys that said they were asked to help out on it but were within the hiring area and were basically forced to transfer to it permanently. But that sounds kinda like BS.

But, really, the people are great. At my DC, it was like working for a smaller company. Every load comes back to the same dc, and you have access to your dispatcher any time you're there during normal hours. It's nice to be able to just walk in and not have to talk to them through a window. Thats probably a lot of it.

But ugh. If i wanted to work like that i'd be a lumper.

 

yeah I hear you.do it while you are young I guess.

 

Yeah , I had to laugh a while back when somebody said he'd like to do Dollar G's because he wouldn't have to back into docks . .
Home weekends ? I've seen a delivery to the store in Livermore , KY on Sundays .

 

When that Crete driver ran over that car down in FL. a couple a years ago killed all those kids from one family I think he was on a dollar general load.

 

This is why I ran the General Mills account, instead. Out two weeks, home for the weekend; better pay than the students (not great, but better); Much less hassle; And NO LUMPING!! Most of my freight was straight D&H. Plus, I never saw a Werner terminal. All service done on the road (after one unfortunate experience in Allentown, but who hasn't had one of those?), and refilled my paperwork needs by getting trip envelopes and the like from the poor road drivers who saw terminals all the time. Even had my dispatcher mail the new permits for my truck to the house once. Great job until all my freight went to the road drivers while I sat for days at a time.

 

Heh, you gotta love some of the strange ideas you hear from the wide-eyed guys who are just getting started. Don't get me wrong; I had some pretty silly ideas too -- probably still do -- but, man, the trucking industry sure slaps you upside the head real quick.

To be fair, some of the store lots are fairly spacious. Some of them are horrendous -- and oddly enough, some of the few stores that do have a dock are tighter than a lot of the stores that don't.

The big issues I think newer people might miss is that: A) You're typically driving in more populated areas at busier times than you might have to do on a more typical over-the-road account, and B) you have to back much more often, and often in very unorthodox ways, on a store account.

Then add that you're probably twice as tired because you're unloading trailers all the #### time. So it almost doesn't matter how tight the stores are (very tight, mostly); the account is inherently more dangerous. And Werner's the kind of company that will treat you like a used dishrag especially these days, so it's not a good thing to put yourself in high-risk situations.

Ahem. Sorry for the rant.

From what I gather, it's sorta the same way on most dedicated accounts. My Dollar General trainer was dispatched out of South Boston, VA, and they seemed to do most of their maintenance there.

The dedicated account I ended up spending almost two years working on was a bulk mail gig for a printing company -- and while we didn't have our own shop, per se, there was a shop in IL we were often sent to -- and we were actively discouraged from fueling at terminals. There were several account-wide Qualcomm messages sent out periodically to warn us that any driver who stopped at a terminal without permission from dispatch would be written up, in fact.

So that sorta tells you all you need to know about the dispatch/safety relationship. Werner (and I'm sure all the bigs) talk a good game, but once you've worked there for a little while, some of their claims become laughable.

Not that I blame dispatch, honestly -- and believe me, I had no desire to go to any terminal myself. It's just that some of the company's (companies') pious rhetoric is a little hard to take once you've been around for more than about a week.

 

Right after i said that, my very first delivery....was at a store with a dock. And then I had an overweight load and had to back it into a door at the DC. And the south boston DC was not built for 53' trailers...i mean, the docks are alright, but the yard's concrete landing gear pads seem to be set up for 45' trailers. Really screwed the yard up when people using the landing gear pads properly. Hehehehe.

And then I had to drop a dunnage trailer and hook an empty. had to drop the dunnage trailer in a door. In a prologis industrial park which had been plowed in a way that made certain doors impossible for a sleeper equipped tractor with a 53' to back into. Literally impossible, could not be done. I nearly had that door and one of the dock guys was guiding me in, and kept telling me i had room. My bumper was 2 inches from the snow. And uhm, that's a plastic bumper. And who knows whats under that snow. Most likely ice. Woulda had it if it had been plowed differently.

When I first got set up with my first dispatcher, he told me dont ever fuel at terminals. He told me that sometimes the routing tells me to, and that i need to find another fuel stop if it does that. Also, I point out the fact that the Pilot in Dallas, right next door to the werner terminal, is an authorized fuel stop. THAT ALONE should tell you a LOT! Also, I'm sure you've seen the automated message that is sent when you send a macro 3 in a state that has a terminal not to go there...even if you're in el paso and they're talking about dallas or laredo. LOL.

There's also a guy in logs that'll help you cheat your logs.

I helped out in south boston. I really liked the people in that office. I'd usually walk in there and give my dispatcher, Dan, crazy looks. And usually i'd go in there to talk to him and I'd end up talking to Paula, because he was doing some BS. It's cool how you just walk in there. I met my regional dispatcher a while back, and I had to talk to him through a window. And someone else opened it all the way and i couldve just climbed through it if i wanted to. LOL.

 

so you prefer the otr better the dollar general?