Western Express, Just the Best

If you decide to bail, DO NOT accept any certified mail.......that's gonna be your bill from WE.
They'll try it a couple of times, and then they'll leave you alone.
I speak from experience.

 

would never go 3 deep in a truck, that's pretty fishy

 

I work for Western Express too (Bloomington terminal) and had a similar experience. Three deep in a truck, trainer wouldn't let us put bags under his bunk so we had all of our stuff on the top bunk. Extremely cramped. That being said my trainer was actually pretty good in terms of mentoring. He was tough on me and quickly fixed a lot of my bad driving habits (turning the turn signal off before fully switching lanes) however I will say that he was extremely unhygienic. Never saw him brush his teeth once. His diet consisted of roller dogs, cheese whiz + crackers, and mountain dew. He had a fridge, microwave and inverter too. No reason for him to eat so unhealthy. The other trainee ended up walking off of the truck when we were at a truck stop (literally 2 days before completion) he was sick of how we were "living like animals" (his words) but I don't disagree with him. I just grinded it out because I knew I only had another 1600 miles to go. My trainer was impressed by my safe driving skills and I didn't even do the required 150 hours, he approved me after like 60ish hours.

That being said... I really hate this company. Driver manager (dispatcher) is a moron. It's impossible to get a hold of him, I've been reprimanded for calling his cell phone. Instead I am supposed to send a message on the tablet. But that can take hours to get a response. This company is just incredibly dysfunctional. At least 50% of the time I have an issue with my loads. Either the preloaded trailer is gone from the shipper's yard, or I have the incorrect BOL, or the shipper asks for a pickup number and there's nothing in my WE app, etc. I deal with this nonsense ALL THE TIME. It's so frustrating. And like I said, it's so hard to get a hold of my DM so I'm just sitting for hours in my truck just waiting for a response. There's been so many times where I've been ready to quit but I am still here grinding it out. In January I'll have 6 months experience and I'm definitely leaving after that. I just can't handle a full year at Western Express. I want a company that pays better and gets me home more often, currently I'm out for 5-6 weeks and only getting two days of home time.

(Not trying to hijack your thread I just wanted to vent my frustrations with this company)

 

I have experience with marten transport and I give the thumbs up. I stayed with them 19 months and had a blast. They accepted me when I had a pending court case going on. If you want to run miles there, they'll run you into the ground. I have a thread on marten and you can talk to this lazy bum @mjd4277 . He doesn't do any work anymore because marten takes care of him so well.

 

Lazy bum my ***!!LOL
I’ve been with them 6 1/2 years and they’ve been running me every which way but loose! Hahaha

 

Yeah bro we both started around the same time I believe. I had a blast there and they pretty much did everything I asked. I ran hard over there. Apu in the truck makes life so much easier!

 

WE was known to be cheapskates.
They would complain if the truck was idling too much when we’re trying to stay warm during the winter or cool during the summer but the SOBs didn’t want to splurge on putting APUs on the trucks!

At least with Marten they recognize the drivers needs,plus they know these emissions trucks don’t like idling,not to mention the APUs reduce the operating hours (and wear and tear)on the engines.