Watkins & Shepard - Yesterday and Today

Hmmm picture this, runnin 75 downhill with your feet up on the dash yanking on your johnson.|
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I drove OTR for Watkins and Shepard for 9 months in 2006. All in all, I thought the company was OK. Tim Connor, the safety / training manager in Hickory, NC is a GOOD guy! I learned alot from Tim, including downshifting with 34K of soda in the trailer, on Black Mountain (I-40 E past Asheville). I was glad to learn it.

I already had my CDL and had been with Colonial Freight (a good company BTW) out of Knoxville, TN for 4 weeks with two different trainers. I couldn't stand being in the truck with either of them.

Tim went out of his way to get me a good older Volvo and after 5 days I got a load to Helena, MT which was a great first trip. I got there on a Friday and scheduled my tractor for a fair size list of maintenance items which the shop started on Monday. Helena has a pretty decent drivers lounge with a computer, kitchen, showers and even a couple of bedrooms for drivers having their trucks worked on.

I ran all over the West coast for 4 weeks and finally told them I needed to go home for a break. Shirley in SFS was the coolest dispatcher.

There were a couple of dispatchers that were unnecissarily unpleasant, but the rest were good to great.

When I was on my way home, they would usually give me a load to Sayreville, NJ where I usually spent the weekend. They had hoses and brushes to wash their daycabs so I would wash my tractor there. The folks at Sayreville were all very cool. You could walk from the terminal down roads in an industrial park which was very quiet on the weekends.

I've kept my CDL but after 3 years I will probably have to take a refresher course. Fortunately, in NC there are community colleges where you can take the whole class for 600.00.

I didn't like the regional dispatch system. I understand that flatbed drivers are assigned one dispatcher.

 

flatbed dispacth works the same way as the van side. maybe not then, but they do now.

 

I just got laidoff from the coalmine and going to try and get back in trucking and ws is one of the co. iam thinking of going with thanks for all the Ifo

 

I'm more than likely going to be attending the Oct 12 30-day class. Talked to Roxy, one of the recruiters there and I feel really good about choosing W/S. She made me feel like I had made the right decision but gave me no reason to think she was feeding me B/S just to get me in the door. As long as I work hard I'm thinking I'll be successful with this company. I'll be posting my training experience day by day on this forum once I get started.

Best of luck to you getty

 

i happen to think the 2nd best is the east coast, cause we have a lot of freight out that way, however, most of that freight on the east coast is driver unload,( so most drivers would tell you the east coast is the worst coast,) BUT, you get decent pay for unloading the trls, its usually a LTL run out of conover with 10-30 stops all along the east coast from va to maine. however, no body is holding a gun to ur head, if u want to do OTR then thats what u do, if u want to make a few extra bucks, then head to the east coast. itll add up, and ull be happy.
as for the home time. we do go pick up beer out of fort worth, as for taking home time down there... that may be a sticky question, the company policy is that whenever you take home time, your truck has to be parked on w.s property, and being that we dont have property down in the tx area it may be hard to, just like anything els, the only thing you could do is just ask disp if you can take hometime, and so long as you have a SAFE SECURE area to park the truck, i really dont think it would be an issue. but i dont want to mis-lead you or anybody els on that matter, so the best answer i can give is to just ask dispacth, they are the ones to say yes or no.

 

Good deal, thanks for the info. I do have a place that I can use that is perfect to store the rig. It's a large RV/boat storage facility next to a small airfield, and it's close to where I need to be. I've already checked with the owner, who I know from having my dad keep his diesel RV parked there when he visits. I've worked out a deal with him that whatever company I end up with I can drop him a few bucks and keep the rig there for several days at a clip. It's locked, gated, and has security, so I bet it would be ok with just about any company. I can provide them with photos if they want.

Thanks again.

 

that sounds like a good place to park it, but, as i said in my last post, i dont want you to be filled with false hope based on my words, i would not recomend asking for that within the first few weeks of being hired, i could be wrong about all of this, but i think truly think it would be ok as long as they aware of where ur parking it, and the security, and with any driver who takes his/her truck home, you, the driver are held 100% responsable in the even of anything happening to the truck, trl, freight..