Anybody run regional with W/S?

I just applied last night to W/S. I love the way their training is set up. The biggest thing for me right now is having to ride in the truck for x amount of days/weeks with a complete stranger and sleep while he's driving. I'd rather not do that or do that for as little as possible. This is why I am very excited about W/S.

Anyways, are there any regional drivers for them? Does anybody know anything about them? Or do you have to run OTR first when you are done with training?

 

thank you. Unfortunately I was turned down a job with W/S. I applied last night and I got an email back today stating the following:

"Thank you for your interest in working for Watkins/Shepard Trucking. I received your application and have reviewed it; however I will not be able to extend an offer of employment at this time. I have determined it will be necessary for you to gain verifiable, recent, safe experience with another long haul company."

I have no problem with this at all. In fact I am very happy that she took the time to e-mail me so I can cross them off my list. Makes my life a lot easier. However, I am a little confused because I know that they hire recent grads from their website and from people on here.

I am guessing the school I went to is just not on their list. Which I honestly think is ridiculous. It's all politics.

Because I went to school A vs school B yet we both have the same license doesn't make either of us a better or worse driver. We both have no experience and we both have our license. I think it's ridiculous however I am not upset at all. I truly am not. I am very happy that I was contacted by them.

 

thank you. What happened was she looked at my application too fast. She called and apologized. She thought I was driving a Class B vehicle currently and haven't been in a trailer in a while. The exact opposite is true.

I'm holding out right now I told her I would let her know by Monday she was cool with that. Real nice girl that was straight shooting me. She wasn't trying to reel me in. She was just telling me exactly how it is. She didn't sugarcoat anything. I had very good vibes talking to her.

My only problem and please don't get on me for this because I am new. I don't know if this is normal in OTR trucking. She just told me that I would have to commute to the Sayreville, NJ terminal for picking up and dropping off the truck. If I planned on going OTR for 3-4 weeks this wouldn't matter but coming home every 7-10 days for just 1 day would be kind of a pain in the butt especially seeing that NYC is right smack dab in the middle.

My training was only 40 hours but the thing is it was one on one the entire time. I got my B license last year at a different school and I saw the guys that were getting their A license the entire time and I can assure you that I got PLENTY of more time behind the wheel. I got about 15-20 hours of on the road driving time I would have to assume. It got to the point where I wasn't even thinking about shifting. I'm not saying I am a pro. I know this wasn't a loaded trailer and shifting down a hill. I have a LOT to learn. However, I feel that I am surely ready to start training.

Another thing she mentioned which I thought was really cool....she told me that if I got sick of running the eastern states and just wanted to go out west that there would definetley not be a problem with that and they would have a load for me most likely. I think that's really cool and most companies won't do this.

 

Yeah I would not be surprised if she overlooked your application as well. They must have a lot that they look at and they just review it too fast.

What did you look up on the FMCSA website? You can look up carriers on there?