Werner Enterprises...should be Warning Enterprises

Just a quick note to all you newbie truck drivers straight out of Truck Driving Schools. Granted that everyone has to start somewhere to get experience I bow to that factor. NOW here is a small bit of advise newbies. Werner Enterprises is ONLY A GOVERMENT information company, for each new driver out of school Werner hires and puts through their eight wk training course...what a joke. But anyway Werner gets a $10-k kickback from the government. Which is good for the company, no wonder they can put so many trucks on the road, but; that is not exactly how they do it. So here is the REST OF THE STORY as someone famous once said. OTR driver's make .26 cents per mile Xs 1000 miles =s $260.00 BEFORE TAXES. No layover pay until 36hrs has passed then you get $25.00. IF you deadhead anywhere then your pay decreases to .15 cents per mile. Dedicated accounts DG for example, .21 cents per mile if your lucky you'll get 500 miles in a week, 18.00 stop pay and GET THIS YOU have to unload the 53 foot trlr front to rear by yourself at anywhere from 3 drops to 6 and get paid a whopping $36.00 IF YOUR LUCKY for unloading the ENTIRE trlr NOT per stop BUT for the entire trailer which could be as many as 3000 plus boxes. DO THE MATH NEWBIES, and get your experience ya need it. BUT if Werner is the place you choose to do it, be aware your going to starve trying to make a living. Ya better not have a family with a wife that's not working or bills you owe for you will not be able to make it with this company. Werner has one of the HIGHEST turn over rates in drivers of any company in the nation. This is not to say that you will be told to pull trlrs that are rolling DOT fines, and trucks that unless the company deems it needed WILL NOT be repaired and you as the driver will have to gamble YOUR new license as to being stopped by DOT for violations for Werner WILL NOT pay the fines. OH and one last thing do not get the idea that being home on wknds every wk or two is a great thing for it is nothing but what is called a 34 hr reset for your 70 hr clock, which boils down to basically 1.5 days off and then back to work; SO DON'T PLAN TO BE HOME often. As for their training program let me share this with you. I myself have over 17 yrs experience but had to get off the road for about 20 yrs due to the death of my wife. I was forced to go through truck driving school due to no experience within the past three yrs. which I did. Doing this was in my case NOT because I did not know how to drive for I had drivin for many yrs before my wife died. Matter of fact my driving school basically had me training students because they said it was obvious I knew how to drive. Either way just some back ground, I was assigned a trainer who had been driving for only 3 yrs. Went out with him for eight wks and he got paid extra money for the miles that I DROVE NOT HIM. I recieved a basic 350.00 a wk only. NOW GET THIS this trainer did not even know how to shift a truck by floating the gears. He did not know how to keep a paper log, he didn't even know how to properly set the SWR'S of a CB radio. Nor did he know how to shift his wagon weight in order to be legal without calliing dispatch in order to be told IF HE SHOULD slide his tandoms. This is to say nothing about when I first stepped into his truck it was a PIG PIN. That trainer will tell you he learned MORE from me his trainee then he could teach an ole dog like me. GIVING credit where it is due he DID teach me how to use these new Qualcoms and thats about it. So anyway NEWBIES if Werner is where your headed? USE THEM as a stepping stone and ONLY SLAVE for them 6 months and get the heck away from them in other words QUIT! USE THEM AS THEY ARE USING YOU six months is all that you need to get another company to hire you and pay you a better salary in order to make a better living AND GOOD LUCK! ONE LAST THING NEWBIES if you think you can go out one or two wks at a time and make a living driving a truck? You need to consider something else for truck driving is NOT for you. THE ONLY WAY you can make GOOD MONEY driving a truck is to stay out a MINIMUM of 6 wks at a time in order to make REAL money. And of course you need to be with a good company also! I would recommend such companies as Con-Way Truckload. Good Luck NEWBIES and remember your NOT driving a R.V. your driving a SEMI be a trucker of honor and watch out for your fellow drivers and be respectful take care....Snowman