WERNER: Greg Werner says "just take the truck".

I have come back briefly to tell a tale of how senior drivers at Werner are being treated, at Highlander's request. And this will be my only post on this issue, or on this board.

Highlander has worked for Werner for nearly 18 years. He is 1.75 million miles accident free during that time. He has NEVER had an at-fault accident while working for Werner. He would have more miles however, in the past two years, he keeps getting pulled into the yard to drive Ottawas since no one else can seem to learn to drive on of those things. So in the past two years, he has been in the yard for approximately 10 months.

He has a nearly 100% on time record for the past 10 years. He has had one ticket in 10 years, with that ticket being for 5 mph over in California (need I say more on that one.) Highlander however, has been involved in one fatality accident that was not his fault, due to a drunk driver that t-boned his trailer and went underneath it.

Highlander also owns over 2,000 shares of Werner stock. Highlander's grandfather use to live next to CL in Iowa before Werner existed. Highlander's grandmother use to babysit Greg and Gary when they were little. Unfortunately "Curly" passed on in the mid 60s. In regards to this post, Highlander's grandmother has said that if Curly knew this was the company that Werner was going to turn into, Curly would have never helped CL.

Highlanders truck was a 50 series. Highlander has always taken pride in his truck, as he sees it as a reflection of the driver. He also sees it as a reflection of a driver's safety. The truck that Highlander was assigned to him had 306K miles. Although there was the usual rock dings in the paint, there were no dings or dents in the truck due to his use. He also had just recently had APU fixed, the A/C unit fixed, six new tires, five new shock absorbers, and the left side cab air bag replaced. Highlander got a message to turn in his truck at the Dallas terminal, as his truck had been sold out from underneath him.

Highlander went to Dallas, arriving on Tuesday morning around 10:30a local time. Meanwhile, three other "new" trucks were assigned to drivers. Two drivers had less than 2 years experience received relatively new trucks. One other driver, who was a million miler, working 17 years with Werner received an older, rougher looking truck.

Highlander was assigned a truck Wednesday morning and couldn't believe the truck he was being assigned to. The "newer" truck in the 52 series has 339,000 miles on it, more than his previous truck. It also has serious damage to it as will be shown in the pictures below. Highlander did the "chain of command" on this truck, going all the way up to Greg Werner. In a conversation regarding this truck, Greg Werner said "the truck was assigned to him [Highlander] and to just take the truck."

This morning, Thursday, Highlander turned in the inspection sheet for the truck. When the inspection sheet for the truck was turned into Angie, the individual assigned with Fleet assignment, her reply was "Holy ####."
The truck was filthy inside, and Highlander threw out an entire trash bag of junk and trash that was inside the truck. As the truck was filthy outside, Highlander tried to get the truck cleaned, and detailed. Of course this is "by appointment" only and was not done.

Although this is all surface damage, Highlander at this point does not know if there are any functionality issues with the truck, as he is waiting for a load.... lets see how long he now has to wait for a load. He has been told "freight out of Dallas is slow". Yea right...... What people are seeming to forget, is that if he doesn't get a load in seven days, he can file for unemployment. Its already been checked into.

While Highlander was at Dallas, he talked to several senior drivers. It seems that Werner may be trying to push out senior drivers, and only keeping the less experienced drivers, as they know of the high turnover of these drivers. Even if this is not true, it seems to be the opinion of senior drivers at the Dallas terminal.

Additionally, for at least the past 10 years with Werner, this week's paycheck is missing as it has not arrived/ Although he was suppose to get one, it has not shown up in the mail and the box is a locked box. The reason he does not have direct deposit is that the bank he used was one of the banks involved in the "bailout" and he changed banks and had not done the direct deposit paperwork. So please don't try that BS excuse.
Needless to say, Highlander is not angry, but hurt. His opinion is that if this is the way Greg treats his senior drivers, with POS trucks like this, this is a poor reflection on the Werner fleet of trucks. It is also a poor reflection of Greg's attitude towards senior drivers. Highlander threw his million miler ID badge in the trash, and is wearing his blue one, because in his opinion, being a million miler with Werner means nothing.

Highlander has decided he will not see 20 years with Werner, and will not see 2 million miles with Werner. He has also called payroll and stopped buying Werner stock every week, and is planning on dumping his 2,000+ shares of Werner as soon as he legally can.

This is also being posted for legal reasons, for the date and time stamp, if anything comes out of this.

Needless to say, the duct tape is coming out on this truck, specifically around the step panel since Highlander keeps catching his foot on it when he gets out of the truck. We wouldn't want him to trip on damage that was not done by him on the truck, fall, and break a leg since that would mean a Workers Comp for Werner on a crappy truck. He says if they don't like it and tell him to remove it, then he's not responsible for him tripping out of the truck due to this.

This is the truth about Werner. No jokes, no puns, no lies. This is the truck that a 18 year senior driver that is entirely accident free at Werner has been assigned.

The moral of the story? If you want a new truck, join Werner. If you want to be an experience driver with Werner and get a POS truck and get totally disrespected, stay with Werner. Because "Werner cares".

Remember kiddies, "WE CARE WERNER CARES. Werner Enterprises did not only established the best safety program in the industry, but we inspire our drivers to focus on making good decisions. We care, Werner cares is a campaign on focusing on our drivers." - Page 2, Werner Incab Manual.

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