Werner - Not What I'd Heard (Thank God.)

They still HAVE them. and they still have some VERY nice looking ones, and they still have HUNDREDS that are brand new and have never been driven.

if you get one, it will beat to hell and a POS. But its a longnose! And you wont get one if you go to canada, werner's long noses have a wheelbase that is a few inches longer than what is legal in canada.

 

How long did you have to sign with Werner to fulfill your contract?

 

..that's why us older folks don't worry what might be & only worry about what is.. that way it keeps those gray hairs off my 60yo full head of hair..

 

ok, so what's the routine when you have an accident?

My bf (werner driver) was backing his truck into a dock in a garage in a Sears. Only the 2nd time he's been at this doc. The first time, months ago, they had him back up only so far into a garage type area and then the guys came outside to unload the truck.

This time when my bf arrived the guys said 'they were cold' (it's 40 degrees and sunny) and had him back up farther into the garage than he had the first time he was there.

The dock and garage are on a downward sloping hill outside going down inside the garage.

So at the guys request, my bf gets out, see's what space is there and backs up further down the hill into the garage. He said that from going outside to inside made was like backing into a tunnel and until he got inside, away from the sun, he couldn't see where he was backing. He was counting on the guys inside to direct him.

After he finished backing up and went to the trailer he saw that he backed into a propane gas grill box.

They guys were laughing at him, one guy cell cam taped it and said he was putting it on youtube. They said that they were telling him to stop. My bf says he didn't hear anything.

The truck and trailer are fine but the grill is done.

What a grill was doing there in the first place, I dunno, I wasn't there.

My bf called up safety and they were very nice about the whole thing. The said they would call him back so now the bf is waiting on them and continuing with his route.

Any advice on what happens next in a situation like this.

 

First off, I don't think your BF will get fired over this. Its a small claim. He will have this on his record. Werner will more then likely put him on a 45 day probation. No incidents in that time.

Leason learn, and Werner, and most drivers will tell you the same. Do not trust anyone helping you back up. He should have got out and looked. Iam sure he knows this now. This will be what Werner saftey will tell him too. Last thing you should ever do is trust someone that never drove a truck to help you back. I don't even trust other drivers that help me. I glad someone helps me, but bottomline, its my job to lose, not the helper.

Iam not trying to mean, but he should have walked to the back of the truck and seen this BBQ sitting there, there is no excuse, he made a misstake and iam sure he knows this too. Tell him not to stress over this, This will just make him nevous and not be the best driver he can be. It will be O.K. in the end.

 

Thanx Stump, do you know what happens if he's put on probation and has another accident? Is that cause for firing?

Also, is all this disciplinary stuff in that Werner handbook?

 

If you have another incident within the probation, this is can result in termination. I would have to check the handbook to see if discliplinary actions are in it, i have not looked in that book for a while.

 

is there anyway that I can get that book???
If all the answers are in that book I'd love to have a copy for myself!
What's the actual title and I'll see if I can ebay it or something...

 

The Drivers' Handbook? Werner should have given your boyfriend a copy.

He should read that thing cover to cover and then backwards. God knows you can't rely on dispatch (and particularly night/weekend dispatch) to know the rules.

But yeah, he should be okay with a minor property-damage accident on his record, as long as he doesn't have another problem during (or even slightly after) probation. The thing you have to keep in mind, though, is that in this economic climate companies like Werner have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to letting people go.

I personally know drivers who, several years back, got away with crazy-terrible things on their records, but now? Get a couple of tickets and/or scratch a trailer or two, and they might let you go. Anything on your record that gives them an excuse to deny unemployment benefits is probably enough.

I don't mean to scare you here. In fact, I imagine your boyfriend either already has or soon will receive a much more threatening speech from the local terminal's twelve-year-old safety guy. (Heh, I kid. Some terminals are better than others, though.)

It pays to be careful, is all. Werner is not the worst company out there, and the OP was right to point out that old CL's company gets some undue criticism on forums like this one -- but make no mistake, all of their drivers are replaceable, these days.

Werner gets huge incentives for hiring people. That's how replaceable drivers are, especially those with little experience. So whatever your feelings about Werner or truck driving in general, it's important to cover your tukus.

Document everything. Know the rules backwards and forwards. When you get accused of something and there's even the slightest doubt in your mind that you're responsible, contest it as best you can (particularly any traffic ticket).

There are a lot of good people working in Werner, both in their trucks and in their offices. There are also a lot of people who've heard it all before and couldn't give two squats about faceless driver number 68432. There's not much you can do there, except to hope that you get the right dispatcher, right account, right mechanic -- and as others have said, it's always best to be polite and pleasant as a first resort.

Just don't be afraid to ditch the first resort when you have to. Believe me, depending on who you're dealing with, it can be a struggle just to prove the world isn't flat -- and some of these people will insist on proof.

A lot has been made about how drivers here are whiners. Some are. Some aren't. Most drivers probably do embellish, on occasion ("The dock was THIS small!"), like fishermen. Also like fishermen, we have a solitary and unique lifestyle that most of the people judging us simply do not understand.

It's a lifestyle that lends itself to a kind of siege mentality, at times. Hell, when I drove for Werner I'd go days on end without hearing one word from dispatch other than the automated pre-assigned/trip-info/load/unload messages over the qualcomm. It can very well seem, at times, like the only time anyone bothers to talk to you is to blame you for something.

Whether you choose to believe the stuff you read here, positive or negative, is obviously your choice -- but anyone thinking that a good attitude solves everything is every bit as mistaken as the negative nancies who think the world owes them a living. As usual, the reality is somewhere in between.

Sorry for the tenuously relevant ramble. Only some of it was directly in response to crabby; a lot of it was a general response to the thread.

In any case, I wish crabby and her boyfriend good fortune.

 

Yes my bf does have the werner handbook but I'd like it for myself without stealing his that's why I was wondering if there was a way I could get it.

I post on this thread because Werner has not been bad to us so far. His dispatchers seems to be as boring as watching paint dry but his coordinator seems to be a really cool guy and has been working with us these recent months to accommadate my bf whenever possible.

Do you think is suspicious at all that his accident happened on Friday and it's been almost 5 days with no word from safety. I mean, I don't imagine they're just letting it slide by.... the silence is almost as bad as the reaming out we thought he was going to get!