AN Webber

I already posted all this as a reply to another thread on this website asking about AN Webber but decided I liked what I wrote and it fit better here anyways.

I'm a driver with Webber now. Before I got the job the only info I found online was that title on here "anwebber no no". I decided to go for it anyways. Happy I did.

Two out of every three drivers who come over to AN Webber spend their whole careers here. The day I got the job the owner personally shook my hand and said he hopes I retire from here. While I was doing my orientation for 3 days they gave me 6 vouchers for a steak restaurant up the road and told me to buy whatever I wanted. I was spoiled for 3 days straight. Terminal has a company car, Buick, that they let you sign out for an hour to run around and do errands. They have their own drivers motel upstairs and just completely redid it with leather furniture, new carpeting, new paint, the works.

Most important thing to this company is the drivers. If you are laid over anywhere you can switch to hourly for 16 an hour. I made $190 waiting around for a shipper that closed early. I've had dispatchers stick up for me when I call and say there's no way to get a truck in some places. The customer will argue that tractor trailers come in all the time and ive been like yeah maybe cabovers with 40 foot trailers and the dispatchers always take my side. The case in particular was a nightmare in Yonkers and I got paid $32 for sitting 2 hours then was given a new address for my load in Poughkeepsie up in the woods.

Every week you're on the road you get 2 days off up to 8 days in a row. The only people I've heard complain with a serious argument are drivers who lose miles because they have to keep getting routed home once every two weeks. But that's to be expected. If you're taking 8 days off a month you're only getting 3 weeks pay for 3 weeks miles.

My 3 days at orientation I got paid $100 a day and then hit the road and that week I made $1200 company driving. I haven't made less than $900 a week since and that's a bad week. One week they had me do a bunch of little loads around illinois. I got 8 loads that week and made 1100 still because they pay 3 cents extra a mile if you don't get the miles you're used to. They know we plan around our checks so I can see plain as day where they bend over backwards to keep my checks around $1000 a week. They'll switch some loads to the 3 cents extra regional and some days to hourly and do what they gotta do to get me to where I want to be.

I'm a new driver with this company this year and on entry level 38 cents a mile solo driving I'm getting to my 4 digit mark every week. There's at least a penny raise a year. Most of the drivers I'm meeting here have been here over 15 years. The local guys are telling me they're bringing home like 50k-60k a year and they're home every night and got weekends off. Only thing with that is you gotta live near exit 308 on i-57 in Illinois because that's where the terminal is off of.

The only people who aren't going to like this company are people who like drama because this company will make a liar out of them. But let me play devils advocate here and think of some things that are reasonable to complain about. The Pete's they got coming in are back ordered so new drivers are getting trucks with 200k+ miles. But they get the once over by the shop every week so they've been well cared for. By the way, shop here is amazing. Senior mechanics, they do body work, rebuild engines, everything. In the winter my battery died because I left the dome light on for 2 days while doing a 34 and I was up in the company motel upstairs. So I go to start it up and it was dead. Mechanic drives the f-150 out into the parking lot and hooks it up to a jumper pack then tells me to get in and get warm (it was about -10 outside) and he walked back to the shop. The ford wasn't hooked to the Pete because he had the jumper back, he could've left me out there freezing waiting for the Pete to get enough juice to turn over. But he left the truck there for me. Blew me away. That's this company in a nutshell. It's not just people angry and tense all the time. We're happy and getting taken care of and it shows because people are nicer when they're happy.

What else? So you get old trucks to start with sometimes. But that's any company. Okay at night there's only one dispatcher on so you might be on hold sometimes for 5 minutes tops. I've never been on hold over 5 minutes, never usually over 30 seconds. They run teletrac instead of Qualcomm. I like it better but that's because I'm a young kid so the computer stuff is easy for me. Works exactly the same but guys who are used to Qualcomm complain until they get used to it.

Scales and stuff here, you swipe the company credit card. Tolls are all covered by the company with ipass and ezpass and turnpike sticker and whatever. Sometimes I have to go into cities like Memphis which makes me nervous and they know I love the southwest so if I have to dick around too much with things I don't like they'll reward me the next week with a 2k mile load out to the southwest. I'm a real easy customer so that 2k out means 2k back which depending on weather means I might get a 1500 paycheck. You don't get those 4000 mile weeks a lot but when it works out it works out. I get long loads a lot. Pay period is Friday to Friday so sometimes those long hauls get split in half.

Here's another good thing though. They pay you based on where you are Friday night, not on when you transflo in the load. So if I'm halfway across a two thousand mile load I'll still get paid for 1000 miles onto the paycheck for the week I actually drove them.

They try to keep idling down as well. So if its between 50 and 70 degrees and the truck is idling that's not good. They're not going to bug you over something little like that but it counts towards idle time. If its less than 50 or over 70 you can idle the truck. That's just normal stuff.

You get a kickback for having low idle, you get a kickback at the end of the year for safe driving. Holiday pay for the 7 holidays plus $100 on your birthday and a personal call. Not that it sounds like much but that call is nice.

This company is such a good company. As far as company driving goes this is the best company you will find. I mean, 2 out of 3 people spend their whole careers here after trying it out. I have no complaints. I'm so happy here. Every problem I've ever had here has been dealt with the same day. This company handles business. I got a load late, not my fault, took it over to the consignee and the guy on the forklift was like you're late you're sitting all day now and he was just sitting there doing nothing anyways. I said im sorry i got the load late i did my best to get it here. And he says not my problem and i try to say something and he starts yelling cutting me off. Power tripping like crazy. Whatever. So in my head I'm like alright I'll get 16 an hour anyways for sitting here all day, probably more than youll get running that forklift all day. So I call the company and say this guy was so disrespectful and said I got to sit all day. The boss the dispatchers answer to was like I'll call you right back. 20 minutes later the guy on the forklift is walking out like dock at door 2 and the boss gave me a call back and told me to let him know if I get anymore lip. I was laughing. They'll stick up for you. Its like family here.

I got nothing bad to say about the company. I'm actually going to start recruiting people here soon. I get a penny a mile for every mile a person drives who I recruit. Which is smart. Say I get you on and you drive two weeks and leave because I'm full of bologna. I won't even get ten dollars. I can only make recruiting people worth my time as a driver if they stay on. I already brought over my old codriver and he loves it and now I'm trying to get as many people as I can. They'll pay me a penny a mile for every mile they drive for 3 years. The trick to not having to lie about the company and the trick to getting people to stay is to have no tricks. Most other companies treat drivers so bad, so to be able to spread the word about a company that treats you like a human being is the easiest sell out there. This company sells itself, there's no gimmick.

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I sat down here and wrote all this cause I feel like its time we as drivers start supporting these good companies that treat us like human beings. There's more to trucking than getting scammed and blamed all the time. There's families out there with little companies who will take care of you. I have been as honest and straight forward as I can be. I let you know the complaints I hear and I let you know that the penny a mile is why I took the time to sit down and write this. Straight up. But like I said, I only get paid real money from recommending people over for the people who are going to know what this company is worth and stick it out for the long haul. If this company doesn't work for you and you turn around and leave in two weeks I won't even get $10 out of it. Can't even get a salad bar at country pride for that. Haha

This company saved my life.