My Experiences At Werner Enterprises (As a Student Driver)

Hi guys, I am a recent reader, and even more recent joiner.

This post is meant to give an accurate representation of my experience at Werner Enterprises to this very moment, and hopefully updated as things happen.

I went to trucking school at a technical college in southeast Georgia. This post is not really about them, but during my eight or so weeks of class there, I sent in a dozen applications to various companies, and received prehires to most of them, and eventually chose to go with Werner, as did two others from my class.

I chose Werner for a number of reasons, not all of them logical, some based on just simple personal preference, but needless to say, my information came from a combination of both recruiter schpiel and Werner website writings. I decided eventually to look up non-Werner online materials for info on driver experiences and such, and heard a TON of horror stories that started to make me worry, but then again, I figured that it had to be the new hires doing something wrong, having a bad attitude, or whatever the case may be. Besides, Werner wasn't the only company derided for one reason or another.

I graduated on a Thursday, got my temporary GA CDL printout, and was meant to begin orientation at the Atlanta terminal on Monday, May 2nd. The recruiter, whose name I cannot spell, though it sounded like Chantelle, assured me that I would have a Greyhound ticket awaiting me in Hinesville (about an hour to an hour and a half away from my home of record), to be there at such and such a time, there would be a shuttle at the last Greyhound terminal waiting for me and my two fellow tech students, and a hotel room with my name on it. I made a few inquiries regarding the situations I had read about online, and was assured that though it was possible for mistakes to be made, it was usually the bus carrier's fault, and besides, she'd never had any problems with her recruits. I requested a specific trainer, as he had learned from my own teacher, who hooked me up with him. He and the recruiter both assured me that I'd be rolling with him come Wednesday.

On Sunday, I was driven to Hinesville's Greyhound pickup point (a crap hole little conveniance store run by a lady who spoke no english). Before I left, I called ahead to the Greyhound people and tried to confirm my ticket, and confirmed my hotel reservation. The bus lady wouldn't give me any info over the phone, but as my hotel room was there, I figured the bus must be set too. I had been given a confirmation number by the recruiter, after all. Now, to be fair, I did NOT have the number when I called the bus lady to confirm, it was written on notepad, and my laptop did a forced restart before I saved it.

Sunday afternoon, I reached the bus pickup, as did one of my other fellow students (the other having left on an earlier run), and we spend a good hour trying to speak with the Greyhound rep. Turns out, I wasn't in the system, and the other student had a ticket on record, but it was expired. We tried to get it fixed, but Werner has NO new hire help on the weekends, and Greyhound runs a skeleton crew on Sundays. The bus arrived, and the driver was gracious enough to give us a lift to Savannah without a ticket, on the condition that we got our stuff fixed there, else he'd take us no further. Long story short, as there were NO valid tickets for us, as I was the only one with any money, I spent my food money on tickets for the both of us to get on the bus. That was $160 out of the $250 I brought with me to survive on till my first paycheck.

Fast forward to Atlanta. We arrive at the terminal (including one other new Werner recruit we picked up in Dublin) at close to midnight. No shuttle. We call every number we have for Werner and the hotel, to be told that a shift change was taking place, and no ride would be there for an hour or so. I don't know how well you know the Greyhound terminal in Atlanta, but it is hardly a place I want to be in daylight, let alone at midnight. After being affronted, propositioned, and marketted to by no less than five gang members, two ######, and half a dozen drug dealers, in the span of ten minutes, I'd had enough, and picked up a cab for the three of us, burning another $40, leaving me with $50 for the next week.

The room I got was crap, my forced roommate was masturbating when I walked in the room, the bed hurt my back, and the promised breakfast provided was non-existant. Orientation wasn't much fun, just a bunch of paperwork, videoes, and computer based training courses (most of which were useless rehashes of CDL training, and the rest supposed to teach you new things, but neglected to do so). They never actually bothered to take up the benefits enrollment papers, and even forgot to give it to some of us. When it came time to do my CBTs, I couldn't log on to their system. They had apparently screwed up my SSN when doing my paperwork, and I had to do ALL of them the next day as opposed to some today and the rest tomorrow. They eventually fixed my stuff, and I ended up getting up at 0300 in order to get them started, so I could finish before orientation ended and I could get on the road.

I was promised Orientation Pay of $150, to be paid upon completion of orientation. When I completed orientation, I was told that no, due to the day we began orientation, it would actually be on our first paycheck, which was 10 days from then. I was upset, but not too much so. They said they'd reimburse me for the bus tickets, sent all the info to payroll, and showed me how I could get an advance on my $350/wk salary (including the per diem program), so I would be set for food and such on the road. It ieased my mind that the little hiccups of before seemed to be anomalies and that things were going to smoothen out.

The biggest overall issue I had with Werner after the mishaps of the first couple of days, and the orientation ending the following day was not the company itself so much as the feeling like I was in the military again, and not as a veteran, but as a raw, PoS recruit. I could handle it, but I didn't care for it much. Each individual person you spoke to was holier-than-thou, and quite a number of them were just out and out ########, including the two people doing orientation. The medical staff was half good, half lazy as hell. My regular redoing of my DOT physical was professional, if lacking the completeness of the one I paid for at school, but the physical I took after that for my dedicated route was lazy. The CNA spent more time on her phone and listening to rap music than actually doing her job... and she did it so slooooooow... she actually skipped several tests and just wrote passing scores on my sheet. Also, the pizza joint they order from for 'lunch' every day was god-awful.

So, Wednesday morning comes, I am up at 0500 so I can try to get some of the 'breakfast' today, and I just happen to get the last stale fruit filled pastry - and I can't even eat it because it is sugar free and I am allergic to artificial sweetners. I can't blame them for that, they didn't know, but it irked me. I make it to the mandatory trainee meeting location, 25 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start at 0630. The person conducting the meeting got there at roughly 0730 to start it. Soon as she walked in the room, my phone rang - it was my trainer - though not the one I had requested. I sat through the morning rehash of the whole of the orientation, and then went off with my trainer.

My trainer is genuinely a nice guy, at least to me. He suffers from a bit of road rage, but everybody has their faults. I like him a lot, and when I have hours, and am within my curfewed driving time, he lets me do all the driving I want, instead of the training program recommended 5 hours a day. I accumulated their recommended weekly hours in three days. Buuuuuuut, he is a HEAVY smoker. When I first hopped on the truck, I began choking - he never airs out the truck, the smoke was so thick I couldn't see. I eventually remedied that myself with strategic window openings and such, and it became bearable. He does mildly irritate me sometimes because he never stops talking, but I don't get upset, because he's trying to teach me, though most of it I already know, or can gather through common sense and logic. He drives a 4 year old Pete, 8 speed manual with auto 9th. Although I learned on a 10 speed International, I fell in to the groove handily enough. We get my info set in the QC, informing dispatch I was on the truck, and were immediately on the road on our way to a load.

So we go, drop off, pick up, etc for a day and a half, when we realize that we have a busted fuel return line, and have been spraying most of New England with diesel for the past 200 or more miles. We get breakdown to route us somewhere to get fixed, it takes a couple hours, then we're on our way again. We get routed to Canada, but can't go because my passport is expired, so we do a swap in Michigan - but we had to get the trailer inspected and repaired for the guy picking it up first. Two hours of repairs, then another 5 hours for the picker-upper who was just flat out late. Then off we go back south. We have a couple loads they keep re-routing us on, and making us swap and drop empties, a real pain in the butt, although easy. We're hauling a combined weight of about 75k, me driving on the interstate, and trainer in the sleeper, when I start hearing a weird noise, a thumping and whining. My front end starts to shake, then I get a real nasty smell of exhaust or burnt rubber, then a quick heaving of the front end to one side, a bang, and then back to normal - but the voltimeter drops, the water and oil temps rise, and I call the trainer up. We end up doing an emergency stop to find that the alternator belt screwed up, which somehow caused the A/C belt to screw up, which somehoe caused the fan to blow into the radiator. Luckily, the radiator survived, but we had to pull in for repairs at a Petro or Pilot, don't recall which, though I'd bet it was a Pilot - down in Arkansas near Little Rock off of 40.

So, three days later, we finally get fixed after a run-around job by Werner Breakdown department, the Pete dealer, the Pilot mechanics, and such, and are finally on the road again - sans A/C... they couldn't find the right belt. Soooooo, no A/C, no APU, and we're not allowed to idle anyhow - smack in the heart of hot as hell country. We make our trailer swap, drop off at a Wal Mart DC, and await further loads. Nothing comes. After an hour I decide to walk to Walmart (a mile away from where we parked after the DC kicked us out of their yard) so I could buy enough to feed me for a month, where the same money would feed me for two or three days at truck stops.

Four hours (a movie and a nap) later, we finally get something else. A pre-assign for TWO DAYS FROM NOW.

And that's where we stand now. Abysmal working conditions, my trainer making no money, me not knocking out ANY of my training hours in more than half a week. I intend to keep trying to stick it out - the dedicated route I am assigned to will have me home weekly, and my daughter was just born - the day Osama bought it, my second day of Orientation.

We got paid technically on Thursday, while we were waiting for the repairs to happen in AK. My money never made it to me, until Friday, and it turns out I was NOT paid for orientation, NOT paid for the first week that I did not get a paycheck, and was only reimbursed on the cheaper of the bus tickets (mine, I had my military discount). I was pretty miffed, but Dave from Payroll department said he'd fix it himself, and gave me his direct line and fax number and all that so I can get in touch with him. It's an inconvenience, but hell, if they get it fixed, no harm, no foul.

By the way, my co-students from the Tech I went to have both already left. The first quit the second day of Orientation because he got a prehire to CT, the second (whom I bought the ticket for) quit after three days or so because he hated his trainer. Joined up with Roehl, quit after a day, then went to Schneider.

This is my experience with Werner Enterprises to this point. I cannot say they are horrible, evil people, but I can say that they have too many departments (IMHO) and they often do not communicate well, if at all. A lot of Werner drivers I have met are great guys, absolutely awesome people - some were effing neanderthals who have no business in society, let alone behind the wheel of a rig. Some (including a few in orientation) were literally inbred and stupid as hell, people I seriously wondered how they got their class A licenses with some of their deformities (crossed or lazy eyes and such). A lot just don't care to groom themselves frequently enough. I am fortunate in that my trainer showers frequently and allows me to do so more often than he if I so choose.

Despite the glaring negatives which have bothered and annoyed me a great deal, I have had MOSTLY a decent experience, primarily due to my trainer. His truck mostly sucks, but he mostly doesn't. I have met some cool cats and some idiots at truck stops, and echanged numbers with some of them. I hope to meet many more cool people out and about.

If I have forgotten anything, I will add it later, and as things progress, I will add to the story.

-JB

 

As an addendum, my trainer says that it's the night and weekend shift dispatch crew that is causing the delays. His fleet manager will have us back on track as soon as he comes back in on Monday. I don't necessarily disbelieve him. Till his truck started screwing up, we were rolling loud and proud.