Watkins shepard

I live 2 blocks from the kmart u r talking about and ya there is always someone parkied there-- today there was a maroon pete 900 series.
Unfortuantely I dont think w/s will let me park there for resets,or ht, I am not to sure about their policies as far as if I am close to home or somenone I wnat to stop and say HI to if they allow that or not,to my knowledge I cant bobtail to there from the sfs terminal (20 miles form my house) the grocery store by my house 190th and Inglewood is also a favorite to see rigs parked at.

 

so if i undrstand u right - u r saying that I can drop off at sfs then swing by the house for a couple hours or anyplace else for that matter and then be back to hook and go?? do you still drive for them?? I thought that was a no-no.. guess i will find out at my 10 day in a few weeks but let me know. I know I have read posts about this in the past but???

 

Hey Warp, make sure u pick the right door when u get over there; cause my first time there I picked the wrong door and #### near failed my random test if u know what I mean.

 

LaMirada,very little room for personal veh parking.Or truck parking really.And shop,what a joke,really next time your in there take pics on your phone and write some trl#,s down.And next time you go back recall pics and trl #,s it never changes.As long as shop boss gets kickback from roach coach and drink machine who cares if equip gets fixed.

 

Boy you're right about the La Mirada shop.....VERY small looking from the street....Big Red trucks parked up and down the street in front of it. I suppose that I'll just have to let the wife come and pick me up and take me down there when necessary.

Merry Christmas to all. Hope all of you on the road make it back home on time.

 

Is the trl still sitting next to the shop on barrels with an OUT OF SERVICE tag on the front?No axles under it since Spring and late model trl.The tag,thats funny,no axles and sitting on barrels.lol

 

where the heck is everyone at!?!?!?!?

 

Waiting in Conover for a load, probably. Just barely got out of there myself. Dang holidays...

 

I stoped by the house for the weekend since my load does not have to be delivered until monday.

 

Happy New Years W.S

Ok, so im sitting here in Smithton Pa, delivered at 6 am this morning, fell asleep to a nice amount of snow falling, weather said maybe and inch or 2... haha, geez they were wrong, woke up to about 5 inches on the ground and still couting.. sitting here waiting for my next load enjoying the heat inside and snow outside... might go make a trucker snow man...
so as I sit here, i figured id take this time to write about my last year here at watkins shepard. unless my qc beeps, this may be a long post so prepare for some reading...

im only talking about 2009 and how things went for me.
first, many people no who i am, and what my story is, others dont no who i am, and others are still trying to figure me out..good luck with that. im only 23, ill be 24 in march, im not married, and i dont have any kids, and yes, i still live back home with the folks... me.. the ideal trucker many say.. my side of trucking is completly different then someone who is married, has kids, a house payment and car payments.... for me trucking is easy, its fun, i make the best of it, and i am able to enjoy this job a lot more then most drivers here at w.s and across in the industry cause of my situation.

when i first started at w.s i was a short line driver out of sayreville, making great money, freash out of cdl school i cleared 60k my 9 months of driving. I took a pay cut when I went from short line to OTR, it was a huge big massive paycut, im not sure why anyone would stay with a pay cut such as the one i took. I went from brining home 993.33 every friday to an unknown amount on my next check... it was a big shock, and hard to get used to. still getting used to it.
i didnt leave short line, just no work so they sent me otr. and when i got out here, and realized how much fun it was to cross the country not knowing where ill be going next, i just couldnt go back to short line when they called me and asked me to come back.. told them im good!!, shortly their after they got rid of shortline and the good pay, so no real loss to me it would have been short lived anyway. when i began at w.s as an otr driver i had a chance to meet a lot of drivers from here, and iv made some awesome friends here, friends that ill most likly still talk to even after they leave the road or i leave.. w.s is lucky enough to hire some really nice, willing to help out any driver. w.s or not, thoughtful drivers when compared to most other companies. we dont have many nasty dirty rude disgusting driveres here which is really nice, keeps out image good. tho we do have a few funny looking drivers... Redneck comes to mind..
anyway. i think that we are lucky to have the people we work with, it could always be worse.
I wouldnt say the grass is greener here at watkins shepard, other companies pay more for miles, layover, break down, and detention. but when i talk to driver who have been here for 10 years +/- and are accident free, and could go anywhere els and make more money, it says something about the company as a whole... when i call and they know who i am, thats nice!, i dont need to give them an employee id number, and i dont ever give a truck # unless i need something from the shop or a t-check... yeah w.s could have things in better order when it comes to paying for lumpers rather then calling macon or dwayne in the middle of the night.. but hey, they are used to it, so i guess its really not that bad...
I have never ever had any issue with my pay checks, never any missing money, never over paid. its always right on the money...
yeah they make it harder to get the bonuses by adding this, and adding that... but really, im just thankful to have a job and get paid for the miles i drive... the bonuses could add up if done properly, however, sometimes you really cant hit the fuel bonus cause of whatever reasons you may have. putting the trucks in the shop... ok, so i have delt with every one of our shops, and the guys in SLC, and i have to say, the best is helena, the worst is sayreville, all the others are ok with the exception of Santa Fe Springs... those guys down there.... where does one begin to talk about them... im not sure how, but i no when i write up only my APU my windshield ends up getting replaced.. good workers.. but they dont seem to work on what needs fixing.... odd if you ask me..
the saftey at the company seems to be #1.. and it should be... but they way they push saftey and then i hook to some of these trailers makes me wish and prey really hard that they dont get rid of those new trls from the broyhill companies.... i can only hope they keep them!!
We have seen many changes over the past year, and i think its for the best... A lot of drivers talk bad about Walt, but really, the drivers should not be talking bad about him..IMO... he has not done anything to us directly as drivers... ok, yes, he took a single .01cpm from us.. big deal, yeah i no it adds up over time... but really we should all be lucky that he didnt take .2 or even more away from us as like other companies did... again, im just thankful to still be driving a truck for this company, im not going to quit or be upset over a penny, i have unloaded the trl a bit more to make up for my missing penny, and i find myself doign more drop and hooks outside of w.s... im making more then i did with the penny...

as for dispatch.
well... as we all no they clearly have their fav drivers, so we all no that the first in, first out is nothing but hog wash.
i for one hardly sit unless im on a 10 or 34.. yup its true.. youll often hear other drivers call me ars kisser... i guess its true.. but as i said, i hardly sit.. today, im sitting waiting on a load for the 1st time in a really long time.. i think the last time i waited this long i was in levis area..( their, enough about him ).... the reason i dont sit, and im often in and out before some of our lazy teams and our o.os is because i have never, ever, in 2 years of driving for this company used the word NO to disp. to pull a load... if i could help it, i took it... if my truck was in the shop then of course iv had to say no... iv gone everywhere they send me... Long Island Ny.. 4 or 5 times... the Bronx..3 times.. brooklyn 2 times.. boston countless times... i like the challenge of putting the truck where it dont belong... so ill go to these places and do it!. i can understand why our drivers from the south and the west dont want to come over here to the east coast... it is hard. its tough and its expensive cause of the toll roads. the further north east you the more tolls your going to hit... w.s does not give the ez-pass to all the trucks for the tolls, and i always here driver say that... well. if your a west coasr driver, and only come east once ever few months, and u only go into the ne only once every 6 months, and if u had an ezpass in ur truck and only use it 3 times a year, and they are spending how ever much a month to keep the ezpass active you could understand why they dont have them for every truck...
even tho we all encounter problems out on the road with the equipment, all you have to do is call the shop. or call dwayne or macon in the middle of the night to have the problem fixed. and tho dwayne acts like the money is coming from his household, its still never an issue to have something fixed in the middle of the night.
most of the time when we pass eachother...w.s drivers.. most of the time we give a flash of the lights to say hello, or we'll holler out on the cb and say hi and ask where your heading... u never hear the other companies doing that when they pass eachother, the only other ones are the dump truck drivers and the grain haulers.. iv passed 2 of our trucks broke down, turned around and went back to make sure all is well, and both times the guys said i was 2nd one of us to stop.... the drivers here got your back..
a driver sees a newb sitting around... they waste no time and start teaching and telling them the do's and dont's not that we have many donts here other thent he obvious donts...
we get to use our trucks to go to the store, go eat, go see some family not to far away, and when is sfs iv pulled up the beach a few times and seen w.s trucks parked their on the pch... we dont have to ask to do any of this... we need to make sure all of our miles are accounted for yeah... but no sweat in doing that (oor: went to the beach ) dont get paid, but dont get told no..
new major accounts in conover... yeah they are big... we go as far south as miami now, and as far north as canada and as far west as you can go with that account... unorginized? you bet ur ars it is!,. but we are still doing it!! robbie just needs to " get wit it " and pick up the pace a bit... he is becoming the new levi...
sometimes we have to unload the trailer... big deal... have you looked around at truck drivers...and their rather large size... ill do the work anytime any place and ill def take one of the P1 loads any day of the week
aside from a few drivers, i have yet to meet 1 mean or rude person at this company and for that im happy...
the one thing i like aboit w.s is being a human, being a person with a name, not some stupid employee number. iv been treated good here, and tho im still sitting here with out a red light or a beep from the qc im still just as happy ( plus the roads dont look to nice either )...
well, time for some zzz's...
i think overall it was a pretty good year..considering the enconemy..and that w.s is around for yet another year...
just wanted to put my .02 out there...
have a good 2010 everyone!!