wel companies

OK I suppose. I dont see having to work 14 hours a day to get 2200 miles a week. Running with my last company I would work about 8 to 9 hours a day and get just over 3k miles a week, assuming the freight was there to allow that many miles. Never had to reset unless there was no freight to keep me moving.
I am not sure exactly what deductions yu are talking about other than some equipment. For me WEL is paying me for orientation, not the other way around. Insurance is something you purchase that the company provides, so even though its a deduction from your check you cant hang that on the company.
Advances are another one of those things that you can either choose to take or not, personally I chose to never take one. I never have and never will.
I dont eat the crappy food the truck stops try to force down our throats. 95% of the eating I do is food I prepare in the truck. My wife rides with me often enough that its not a burden for me to be away from home, not to mention a 20 year stint in the Army where I was away all the time anyway.
I think it is important to remember that my needs and desires and habits could be comletely different than yours. What is a net negative to you may in fact be a net positive to others. I havent been doing trucking all that long and I am sure I still have a great deal to learn but I have already learned that for me most things that are peoples pet peeves I can find a work around for that allows me to be quite comfortable.

 

thank you for your service in the Military and keeping us safe! Your service is greatly appreciated by all Americans.

As for WEL, they are not paying for your orientation you are. You will be charged for the airline ticket or bus ticket, the hotel room, physical, t-shirts, etc. They will also take $50 out of your paycheck each week until you have given them a $1,000 "security deposit" that you will get back after 1 year of employment. They do not tell you any of this until about the 2nd day of orientation. I understand that insurance is not a "WEL" deduction, but like most things in trucking, their insurance is poor and the cost is high, but it is necessary so when you add up all of the little deductions, in the end, I could not constitute staying with WEL. I left WEL, got another job with another trucking out fit and make 3/4 more and home every night. Realized then that WEL is student mill and not really interested in keeping you as a valued employee. I believe their average driver only last about a year with EVERYONE in my orientation class leaving within 6 months.

And you will have to work 14hrs a day to average 2200 miles at WEL. You will sit a lot at customers either because the customer takes 4-6 hours to unload you or it will be opposite where you only work 6 hrs a day as WEL gives you 4 days to go 900 miles (which you can do in 2 days easy, which means sitting for 2 days).

But I wish you and your wife the best and hope it works out for you.

 

got my cdl A with wel companies and drive with them never have any aggravating experience though you really need to understand that all of this are business so first year of driving is really considered as low income year but after you will prove yourself that you are worthy of their trust then they definitely treat you right. my friend is taking 1,000 a week for the past 5 years and never got lower than that. so bottom line they are better than the big companies that treat you as just driver period , if you know what i mean.

this is a good company im still working with them

 

I had pre-hires from Stevens Transport and from WEL before graduating from my school and was leaning toward WEL, but I ended up going with Stevens. I flew into Dallas and long story short I was taking a "disqualifying" medication and was sent home to take care of it. (Why don't they email you the list before you go so that you aren't wasting each others time and money??) I just got back home yesterday, went to the doctor first thing this morning and my doctor took me off the medication. Simple right? Nope! Called Stevens to let them know and they say I have to wait 30 days, be "reevaluated" before I can come back. F that I need an income and I need to start work / OR 1 now!

Waiting to hear back from the recruiter at WEL that I talked to a few weeks ago, I can't help but wonder about them. This thread is a roller coaster ride of Highs and Lows and frankly, I'm a little uneasy. However, if reading this forum over the last several months has taught me one thing, that is truckers whine and complain.. A lot! There are good companies and there are bad companies. And a large percentage of companies are just the way trucking companies are. I'd have to agree with many of the veteran truckers who have leaned that it's better to learn how to work with people/companies instead of whining and complaining about them. (not always easy to do) Having a positive attitude (of course without getting run over) is the best way to handle life in general and at your job would be no different. Of course I don't want to walk into a known BAD company which is why I do my research. In the case of WEL, however information is more limited which is why I'm a little uneasy.

 

I'm telling ya'll one thing i will never run illegal, i'm not having my csa score go to crap, i'm starting with WEL Monday and in June i'm moving back to FL and i hope everything goes good with this company and i'll be OTR then run Team with the wife

 

Ok, so I started orientation with WEL this last monday and thought I would clear up a few things that occur.
First of all, the payroll deduction thing. There are some payroll deductions when you first start with WEL. They will deduct about $250 total out of your checks when you first start if you don't already have a twic card. The other deductions are for things like load locks, pad lock, 5th wheel puller, pulp thermometer and such. Come's out to about 75 bucks without the twic card. They do NOT charge you for your air fare, hotel room, transportation or any sort of forced savings.
If you are new to trucking they won't make any of these deductions until you have finished your training period.
You DO get paid for orientation. Your orientation pay is 187.50 and you receive it the week following orientation on Friday in check form. This can either be mailed to your house or held at the depere terminal for you to pick up if you think you will be there rather than at the house. After that first check you can either continue to receive paper checks or you can set up direct deposit at orientation where all the rest of your checks will go.
Insurance is expensive and not all that great, but I know of very few companies that its any better at, so there you have it.
Orientation days are long, fairly boring but a lot of good info is given out so if you go with WEL pay attention. The drive test is very basic and if you can't pass it you shouldn't have your cdl anyway. You drive about a mile, make 4 turns and have to hit a wide open doc after doing a very short pre trip. We lost 2 drivers over this this week, one couldn't point to the air compressor, another couldn't hit the doc to save their life.
We lost another one that thought it was ok to argue with the instructor and so was sent home.
If you are sent home from orientation you are responsible for getting yourself home, so keep that in mind if you have any doubts about your skills or like to argue with folks.
If you come to WEL be prepared to eat a lot of frozen pizza because that is what you will get for lunch every single day. Just a heads up.
Most of the trucks appear to be in good shape, all have tripaks, and they are pretty thoroughly cleaned before they are issued out. They have a lot of bs safety devices on them but I am sure that gives them a better insurance rate so can't blame them.
Literally everyone you meet at WEL orientation seems like decent people and you just never get that feeling like you are a nuisance or they don't want you there.
Everyone that was issued their trucks (happens on Thursday's) was given loads getting them straight home or really close to it if they wanted or let out to run if they preferred.
So far my impression of WEL is that this is a pretty good company to work for, and I KNOW its a better one than my last so I am happy.
One last thing, there are no route suggestions or fuel solutions. You plan your own routes and the have a very large number of fuel stops to choose from. Basically you fuel where you want and when you want. Big boy trucking, no hand holding.
Any questions just let me know and I will answer them if I can.

 

Thanks for the clarity on the deductions or "charges" ...makes sense now. I'm starting at WEL this Monday the 24th and was curious on what you know about going out with a trainer. Let us know how that goes. I have very basic skills about trip planning and I'm hoping that our trainers will teach you the ropes including when it is best to stop for fuel. I like the "Big Boy" trucking spirit, but I may need my hand held on a few things in the beginning, but only for a minute.

You had me at frozen pizza! :smt078

 

Hey interstate,
If you will be going out with a trainer they will cover all of the skills needed to operate a truck that are needed. Training is broken down into two parts. There is a one week in house portion where they will work on your basic driving and backing skills. They basically put you in a truck with a trainer and you drive around green bay and hit docks at the terminal.
The second portion is going out in a trainers truck and running live loads otr. This is where you will get the training on trip planning and people net, how to deal with customers and such as well as some good driving experience. This part is 2 to 4 weeks long depending on your ability and the trainers impression of you.

 

Hey Cremater.. Thanks for all your helpful advice and it was nice meeting you today in OR 1. I must say that I am very impressed with WEL so far! All the other guys I've befriended have been impressed too with some of them having a few years experience with other companies. The staff is professional and friendly and I am looking forward in seeing how the rest of this week of orientation goes.

 

Yeah... the pizza that they feed you all week long was recovered off the side of the road from when a truck of theirs rolled over hauling a dedicated pizza load for Neslee that they have now lost the contract to.

I have been driving for wel over a year now and can tell you..... while not all things stink, they are not all that great egither. Turning in paperwork in order to get paid comes to mind... you can go weeks before seeing a terminal in which to turn it in, so you then have to fed-X it to them costing YOU money to get your money. You now have the option to run paper logs after they found out the hard way that the elog wont make them enough money. If you use paper logs, you will still have the peoplenet for load info and to track your every move. Dont be surprized if safety calls you complaining about a hard braking you had to do in order to prevent a fatality in the middle of DC. Plan your own routes... maybe to an extent, but they will gladly quiz and complain if they track you going a way they not prefer you to go, not taking in account time of day two lane co roads with lights and traffic. They claim to have lots of freight, but almost everytime I get sent to the FL terminal I get stuck there doing nothing or if im lucky ill get a nice 110mi multi stop in Miami. Also you will go to their Allentown PA yard ALOT. This is the worst because they hardly have squat for otr loads to get you out moving again so you guessed it....... stuck doing all kinds of milti stop loads info NY, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia etc. Keep in mind that all these manifest (multi stop) loads.... you are doing a REGIONAL route still only get 38 cents a mile if thats what your pay is while regional drivers out of the PA yard get 44 cents. They get 44 because of the time and miles lost in the north east but you do not as otr.... this is one way they bank by having otr guys do tons of manifest loads. I estimate you having three crappy weeks to each one good week. Also remembering that if and when you quit..... you signed a contract in orientation stating that you will return the truck to their WI yard and pay your own way home or else receive a $700 "abandonment of vehicle" fee and a "abandonment of vehicle" hit on your dak along with whatever else they feel like stickin it to you with. So might as well plan on working for free your last week in order to pay for your plane ticket... either that or lose $700 out of your last two check and or vacation pay they owe you for. One way or another your ars is in a lose lose situation when separating from wel. This is a co that does absolutely NOTHING unless it benefits THEM..... they re-sell the same old beat up load locks to new drivers for pete sakes! Wonder how much moola they made selling the same load locks over and over and over.... you get the idea. Probably how they bought an island in the Caribbean to wine and dine the brass over at Craft. (Eyes roll)

Any questions?

Oh..... dont get screwed in their lease crap. I know for a fact that each truck they are now putting up as lease trucks are fubared. You WILL lose your ars. For example... one of them a driver I know had this pete that had a blown head gasket, the dealer said it wont last another 30,000 wothout a full rebuild. Wel had them do the gasket only and the block was not surfaced and it still runs hot AKA leaking gasket.