Is Watsontown Trucking Good?

You nailed it!

I am extremely jaded. I'm very cynical. I keep hearing promises that are often lies. Last month, I went to Ascend after being promised a minimum of $1300/week, and when I got out there, it was .51/mile, for a regional position, which means a lot of Charlotte and Atlanta traffic jams. Those places are at least as bad as Chicago and NYC, if not worse, and a lot uglier. At least Chicago and NYC have interesting things to see. Charlotte and Atlanta are just a sprawling, endless suburban hellscape.

Back to the story: When I saw what I was actually going to get paid, 0.51/mile, with no mention of any minimum guarantee, I started asking questions. I was promised a minimum of $1300/week. They told me they don't have anything like that. I said I'm not working for mileage pay. I ended up driving back to SC, and not getting paid for attending orientation or the gas I burned. That sucks. Then, I saw adverts for Watsontown. It is, so far, if they will bloody pay me, the best deal I've seen so far. I just got back from orientation last night. I am pretty sure I was told I'd be paid Friday (yesterday) for attending orientation, and reimbursed for gas. I haven't seen a bit of that yet. My card got declined yesterday evening. I need to get money before I can hit the road, so I'll be able to eat.

 

Lemme give you the rundown on my impression so far. If I get paid, I'll like that part of it. Coming home with no money and not being able to buy food or gas, or pay bills coming due is a real downer!

The truck is an International LT, and while I prefer manual transmissions, I don't prefer them if I have to deal with traffic. You know. My knees are still hurting from stopping a hundred traffic lights! The inside of the truck was clean when I got it, so I'm pretty happy about that. I remember picking up a truck at Werner a decade ago with piss bottles and bugs in it, and I had to beg them, and when that didn't work, threaten to quit, to get them to clean the truck. So, the truck is clean, and it has a fridge. I wasn't expecting that, but I like it! I can throw drinks and sandwiches in there and it's better to eat a cold sub sandwich I bought earlier, than to eat a "cold" burger that used to be hot. I am really liking the fridge. I mentioned that it's a manual. I like that, except for when I'm in congested traffic, or stopping at 50 zillion traffic lights.

My complaints so far, are I haven't gotten paid yet, and I am pretty sure I was told I'd be paid for orientation and traveling costs by Friday (yesterday).

Probably my single biggest complaint is the CellControl/Truce thing. That really makes me angry. That software behaves like malware. It has more privileges than any social media app on my phone, and I don't believe anyone who tries to assure me that it's only working to make it impossible for me to do stupid stuff I'm already not going to do. It's really insulting, if nothing else From a technical perspective, I think the majority of the permissions it requires are unnecessary to prevent me from texting while driving. It blocked the Hammer app. It blocked me from streaming audio from a radio station. I specifically asked about those two things, and was assured it would not interfere with them, and it did. It acts like malware. I don't think it needs location data, if it communicates with a "beacon". I'm sure the stupid nanny cam has plenty of footage of me driving with both hands on the wheel, looking at the road, not screwing around.

So, yeah. There is also a nanny cam in there, looking at the driver. I'm not real excited about that, but it's not the first time I've seen it. They say they don't see me unless an event is triggered. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but I don't trust tech companies. The employer might only view clips that are saved when an event is triggered, but that doesn't mean Lytx or whatever isn't scraping any data they can from a live feed and monetizing it somehow. I really hate the data economy. Humans have been reduced to cattle that watch ads and pay bills 'till we die. At the end of the day, I'm very confident that the only real reason there's a camera in the truck or a CellControl device + app is to gather more data to be monetized. I'm sure these companies have a "safety" racket, where they wash their data theft as a safety device. I don't believe any claims to the contrary until I see an independent audit of both the hardware and the software, and we're probably not getting that any time soon.

The truck goes 67 on the pedal and 65 on cruise. That is tolerable. It beats the hell out of Schneider and their 63MPH! It feels pretty gutless if I'm pulling a load up a hill. 38MPH is unacceptable on the interstate. That should never happen under any circumstances! Going 38 up a hill does remind me of Schneider. LOL!

Lastly, there is this stupid CMS system that beeps angrily if I get to close to someone in front of me, or more often, people get in front of me and slow down, or cut me off. It is already stressful enough. I don't need something making it more stressful. I am confident that if I don't get away from trucking, it will kill me in a few years due to stress-induced health problems.

I'd go back to Smith right now if I could be on the account I was on before, or another one with a daily rate, and drive a 2017 Pete 389, without that stupid CMS in it.

If I got back into harvesting, which I'm really interested in doing, that would be OK.

 

I don't care for hauling water, but I'd enjoy hauling grain again! Good times!

 

You're right about the auditory torture inducing rage. I bet if someone took a survey of truck drivers, many of them would say the same thing. That crap does nothing but make me angry. If they used beeping like that to get a confession out of a suspect, or in a prison, it would be considered a form of torture and there would be calls for it to be abolished. The stress is going to put me in an early grave. Does PA have laws against disrupting forming a union? Asking for a friend.