Wel companies

Yep. I lose maybe 50 miles per 1000mi trip with that system. All miles are paid the same though, empty or loaded. We did just receive a .03 cpm raise and a guarantee was recently implemented of $900/950/1000 depending on experience.

 

As a student driver/recent grad, I started at 0.38cpm. After 90 days solo, you get bumped to 0.43cpm. We all just got a raise so I believe the starting pay would be 0.41cpm and 0.46cpm after 90 days. It's pretty crazy I'm 3 months in making 0.46cpm when I see most companies paying students anywhere from 0.25-0.40cpm and usually for 6/12 months. As a new driver, I don't think I can make more anywhere else. Experienced drivers can make 0.10-0.15cpm more elsewhere.

 

Welcome aboard, you'll like it at WEL....

 

What about average length of haul and primary running lanes?

 

How does the training program at Wel work?

 

Out with a trainer for like 4 weeks and you get a guaranteed amount per week....i forget how much now but basically everyone got a raise including detention time amounts....

 

Average length of haul is hard to put a number on. Last couple weeks I ran a lot of 200-700 mile loads, only because of the winter storms we were trying to play catch-up. I don't worry about miles as long as my paychecks are right. There are a lot of extra payments for short haul or LTL, or whatever. This last week since I've been back I've had 5 1000mi loads so far. I generally average 2500mi a week. It's not for lack of work, just time wasted in the reefer business.

They are based out of Wisconsin, so you'll run a lot out of there. We have a dedicated client that runs about 25 loads a day out of home base. I would say maybe 70% of the loads are east of the Mississippi River. Their other terminals are Chicago, Atlanta, Central FL and East PA. You can definitely see those are based around their primary lanes. But we do have Cali runs, TX runs, really all 48 states.

 

If you're coming in with no experience, it is a max of 8 weeks at their training center, about 1mi from their main terminal in Green Bay. If you're at the training center, it's M-F with an occasional Saturday. You'll mostly be doing local runs, real work, that give you great practice docking, scaling, sliding tandems, learning the ELD, etc. You have usually a week or two of class time before you're out doing short haul work. They house you at a Sleep Inn, but food is on you. They have company vehicles for transportation. The instructors are friendly and all ex-truckers. It's a real top notch training center imo. Especially that you can run real, 45,000lb loads and not just a short, empty trailer all around.

Your time with a trainer will be anything from a week to a month. Just depends on how much help you need and the trainers schedule. I was out with mine for a week only and done. Others have been out 5-6 weeks. The trainer portion is usually halfway between your training center time. I was out with a trainer after 3 weeks. Once you finish, you come back to the training center and continue working until they graduate you. If you come in with some driving experience, but less than a year, you're there for 4 weeks, still out with a trainer too during some point.

 

This sounds like a school. Is that what it is? I didn't know WEL had one if so.

 

Yes, they have a training center. Started about a year ago. 8 weeks for recent grads, 4 weeks for less than 12 months experience, or a day for experienced drivers coming in.