Werner liers,cheats,scam artist

Some people find it unfair that Werner will pre-hire you, bring you to orientation, and then decide you're not good enough.

I can understand their frustration, honestly. One kid in my Orientation, for instance, was fired a week after Orientation started (well, ok, orientation is itself two days, but we were all stuck at the hotel for a good two weeks afterwards waiting on trainers), because Werner decided his driving record wasn't clean enough.

A pre-hire isn't iron-clad. Background checks are expensive, so Werner's theory is (I gather) that it's more cost-effective to wait until the drivers show up before investing in the background check.

So no, Werner's not intentionally bringing people in with the intention of "finding an excuse to fire them." But if you are one of those people unfortunate enough to accept a pre-hire, travel potentially hundreds of miles on a greyhound, and go through the orientation rigamarole just to get canned before you even start driving -- well let's just say you're not likely to be a happy camper.

I can't find fault with the company's rationale here. From their point of view, it makes perfect sense. The problem is that the government artificially incentivizes certain otherwise counter-intuitive behaviors -- in this case, hiring everyone with a pulse to drive a truck.

 

That is a problem with a lot of companies out there. Too bad that they use the term "pre-hire" when it's really misleading.

I gotta admit that is a little weird. Almost sounds like they had a shortage of trainers and didn't want to pay folks to sit around waiting so they found a reason to cull the flock a little more.

I wonder what percentage of drivers accept the offer for orientation and then don't show up?

true dat. But - then again those are the breaks. Recruiters do paint a pretty picture however the only contact that you have is over the phone and, I don't know anybody that has ever been hired based on a phone interview alone, in any industry. So perhaps a little common sense might go a long way here. In any case even if your bounced at orientation ummm..... they're only gonna do it for a reason, they didn't just decide to run a game on you. So don't blame the company.

Agreed

Yep. Do the math on a big company like Werner, there are potentially millions of dollars to be made in the trainee industry just form incentive money.

......... Jim

 

Yeah.

I'm afraid I don't remember the specifics. He was a young kid out of NYC -- said he used to drive a cab. He had some issue with his license from when he first started driving, and he swore up and down that Werner had told him it was fine beforehand.

But like you say, them's the breaks. Truth be told, I figure he was in the best position to take that sort of blow -- young and unattached. A lot of other people might have more reason to get upset.

Heh, I can only assume it's a lot. Even if it isn't actually a lot, the big trucking companies are overwhelmingly characterized by cynicism about truck drivers -- which itself is kind of amusing, in a morbid sort of way.

They seem to assume that about 90% of their hires are going to wash out within the first month or two, which is probably true, but you have to wonder how much of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I know my own orientation class was comprised of clean-cut, earnest-looking people who were just getting started. A lot of them probably had unrealistic expectations, which caused them to wash out -- but my class also wasn't the collection of toothless, dirty scumbags you might expect after reading, say, this forum.

Maybe if Werner, and the industry in general, weren't quite so blithely indifferent about whether or not they keep drivers, new and old alike, then Werner would also have more reason to trust their drivers. Prolly a pie-in-the-sky notion, but hey.

Then again, I don't believe for a second that Werner intends to keep any of those people, these days. It's clear that they're downsizing (or have, in the last year or so), and yet they keep hiring. It's hilarious that they can play that double game so easily; on the one hand receiving hire/training incentives from the government while on the other hand shedding established jobs right and left.

No one sees it, because I suppose they fire drivers instead of laying them off. Bonus: They don't have to pay unemployment benefits as a result.

Well, I blame the industry to the extent that it's turned into a grist mill for drivers, but that's a very broad subject for another thread.

Suffice to say that I think recruiting practices are sleazy, and that no company should be able to turn a mass-hiring apparatus into a self-contained profit earner.

With that said, no one forces you onto that greyhound bus, and while I certainly would have been peeved if my pre-hire had been revoked -- wide-eyed innocent that I was at the time -- there's really no one to blame but the driver, if he gets himself into that situation without knowing the score.

The problems are that:

A) In many cases, and especially if you're just starting out, there's really no alternative to taking the pre-hire option from one of the bigger companies. Yeah, it's true that you shouldn't expect anyone to hire you sight-unseen on the strength of a phone call, but common decency dictates that you might expect a worthwhile result after dropping everything to go to a job orientation god knows where.

B) CDL Schools will take your money (or perhaps worse, Uncle Sam's) even if you have an obvious disqualifier on your driving record. Hell, my school accepted people who literally don't speak English. And then these same schools will turn around and use your pre-hire as fuel for their own job-placement stats. They will, in other words, take credit for getting you a job that never really employed you. And so the cycle continues.

C) I have no personal experience with this, but from what I understand, the company can mark up your DAC based on a one-day stint in orientation, even if, by their logic, they're letting you go before they've officially hired you.

To be fair, in Werner's case, they do pay you for orientation -- even if it's just 2/6ths of a $300 week's pay. So I guess the DAC argument swings both ways.

Regardless, the whole pre-hire/orientation thing is perhaps the clearest indication to any incoming newbie that there are some serious warts on the trucking industry.

Frankly, I think the people who are fired before training starts are far luckier than the people who make it all the way through the training crucible only to be discarded. Again, I've no personal experience with that particular wrinkle, but I have it on pretty good authority that it happens -- especially in this economic climate.

Donating a week of your life for peanuts is one thing. Donating two or three months is quite another.

(Sorry for the length. As usual, I've turned what I originally planned to be a short response into a rambling novella.)

 

Would appreciate any information you might have on working as a company driver from the Nor Cal area.

Thank you in advance.

 

Stump your an O/O? We all know you have more freedom. Most of the people I see complaining are company drivers or students. Not really apples to Apples. Also one question. Are you really an O/O? or a L/O reason why I am asking is a true O/O can leave at anytime with their tractor and start working for another company but a L/O cannot? Hence some of the law suits we are hearing about. If they were O/O like you I would think they would have the same confidence or opinion as you.Knowing they could leave at anytime with their lively hood intact.

 

what the hell is a WHINNER? its WHINER. And the dot physical i got at werner was plenty thorough.

How the hell do you make money at 85 cents per mile? Care to explain?

 

How do you know the deal he negotiated?

 

The truck i drive current is owned by me, its very old and time to get a new one. I can leave when ever i want, but i chose to stay because it has worked out good for me here. Iam getting ready to buy a new truck from Werner, after looking around at other options, i plan to stay here for a while. The truck iam buying is the same price on all the lots ive been to, but this one comes with a better waranty, and a a.p.u. I can still leave when i want buying the truck from Werner. Its not for everybody. If you have a company driver state of mind, leaseing or owning a truck is not for you. If the thought of local jobs and being home every week is always on your mind, don't even do it

 

Don't mean to be harsh, but if you can't make the money on paper, then you won't understand. Not all loads pay 85 cpm, right now lowest cpm is 1.12 per mile thats with fsc. You have to be smart to make it work, if you have no money in the bank, don't even try. To me you need at least $5000 in the bank to start. Right now i have just over $10,000 in the bank, I'am also a trainer, but i have not always been. I stoped training for a while, but like teaching people and haveing someone with me.

I also have never listen to anybody on the C.B. or this forum, i take advise from my Dad and 3 of his friends who are O/O, 2 with there own authority, one is leased on to what most in this fourm would call a "small, or great company" The 2 friends that have there own authority made just about the same as me last year. The one leased on at the small company made less the all of us.

You have to have a plan and understand things go south out here real fast, so you better have money in the bank. You don't stop and eat at the Petro 3 times a day and buy stuff every fuel stop. You have to have a budget, I live off a $2100 a month,thats house payment and my bills, and most of the time i don't spend that. The rest goes in my business account.

Trust me, iam not getting rich, but iam happy with what i do. For me, Werner has been very good to me, I worked for a O/O before i got my own truck, so i learned the ropes a bit.

I have read alot of your post and you are kinda of all over the place, my advice, don't do it, your a young guy that has alot of changes ahead. When i was your age, there is no way i could have been out here on the road. Take your time and think if your going to be doing this 6-8 years from now, if you don't see that, buying a truck is not a good idea.

 

I can't tell you how its going to be for you as a company driver from Nor Cal, but i do know i always get great loads comeing off of hometime there. It will depend on what region or dedicated account you are on. Last time i left home i ran from Modesto to Virginia. So there are great runs from there.