wel companies

I don't know what company you are talking about, but it is not wel companies. I have been with them for 1 year now, and my average check before taxes is usually around 985.00. Also, they don't run loose leaf logs. They have E-logs in 98% of their trucks. I get home time when I want it, and they run the piss out of me.

 

Hey Freight pusher...like I said it depends on who your dispatcher is...but to only get 4000 miles in 3 weeks didn't cut it, and by the time they offered it was to late. Now they do have a good pay per mile and they do have some nice perks, but it just didn't work for us. He is at a different company that is small, no e-logs, no qualcomm or peoplenet, no governed trucks, one escrow for maintenance, and one escrow for his balloon payoff. He has small weekly payments, and it is a better fit for us. So sometimes it just comes down to what is the right fit for that persons needs. Glad to hear that you like it and things are going well for you there.

 

I also quit Wel Companies less then a month ago because I could not live on the miles I was getting there. I was regional out of Joliet and my best week after 4 weeks there was 1200 miles! My experience with Wel was they were very nice pleasant people to work for, but to be told by a recruiter I would be getting 2000-2500 miles a week and then told by my Dispatcher that "the recruiter lied I cant even give you 1500 a week" was a big disappointment. While I was with Wel I drove a 2006 Freight shaker that needed a new starter, it took them 2 weeks to get me to Depere to fix that starter and many other problems with the truck and that is when I left the company. It was a good time to go on account that they would charge me to get the truck to that terminal. I am not bad mouthing Wel they seem to be a good company just not one that was right for me and my situation. I need a company that will give a husband wife team good miles with good pay. they could not give a solo driver good miles with good pay what makes me think they could do any better with a team?

 

I hear you. But I have a decent DM who prefers that I done put his car on 4 brake drums again. . And my truck is governed at 77. One of the perks. But I have seen some ########## up companies like transam. Also, i am a company driver who knows better than to lease a truck. Seriously guys you should know better. Good luck with that.

 

Well, after a year with WEL Companies I feel pretty confident in telling people how things are with this company. Its not all bad, but then its not all that good either. If your lucky you can get a decent piece of equipment to drive, its kinda up to you to keep it that way though. Thier maint program is fairly crappy, either putting off fixing things on the truck or often doing a pretty half hearted fix. The miles you will run will most likely not satisfy you. OTR guys are told when hired that they arent willing to work if they arent getting 3,000 miles + a week, Regional guys are told between 2,200 and 2,500 per week. In the end there is little difference in miles between regional and OTR drivers miles. Usually averaging between 1,800 and 2,200 miles per week. Some, usually guys that have been there for a considerable amount of time, will get more but still OTR guys are luckly to see 3k miles one out of every 4 - 6 weeks.
Thier health insuance is horrible! $164.00 per week to insure a family. $75 bucks a week to just insure the driver. The company contributes absolutely nothing to your insurance premiums which makes it really pricey to carry for you or your family. They do have a Health Savings Account program which costs less, but that is not a good option until you have built up some money in the account. For anyone that actually uses thier insurance from the outset this option is not really an option.
Most of the people in the DePere office are personable enough, although they have absolutely no qualms about lying to you repeatedly if that is what they feel they need to do. Most of the dispatchers, but by no means all, are in way over thier heads. Each of them has thier own method of doing things. Again, they will lie to you and they WILL set you up to not get paid money that is owed to you. I am not saying you cant make an ok paycheck with them, just that you wont get paid everything you are supposed to. They like to wiggle out of detention pay, layover pay, ect. if it is at all withinn thier ability. Driver unload pay is an absolute joke, most drivers wont touch the freight at all for this reason. The company is willing to pay a lumper service $150.00 bucks to unload your trailer but will only pay the driver $15.00 to do the exact same load.
Reciepts are an issue with this company. If you fail to turn in a reciept, or they decide that they dont like the way a reciept looks for things like lumper service the driver gets that money removed from thier paycheck. It stings a little when its a $35.00 charge, its downright painfull when its a $300.00 lumper fee. The paperwork personell in the office are only allowed to notify the driver of one reciept issue, after that the money is simply removed from your check and you have no recourse to get it back. Its the same for toll reciepts and the like.
The company does offer access to EZ pass to pay for tolls but it only works in the upper midwest and northeast, any other areas of the country you have to pay for the tolls and get re-imbursed. The also offer access to the scale by pass gadget, but the driver has to pay for the service themselves if they want it. its only $16.50 a month but still....
Getting paid has some other issues as well. There are a couple of methods for getting your paperwork turned in with WEL. First, a driver can deliver his/her paperwork directly to a terminal and drop it off after each trip or whenever they make it through a terminal. Another method is in-cab scanning. This isnt as nice as it might sound however since you have to purchase your own scanner and laptop computer to do it. The company will sell you both at the rate of right around $700.00 bucks to be deducted from your paychecks over a period of weeks. You can also just buy the scanner itself for about $180.00. Remember, you will need tohave internet access to actually use this method when you go to scann in your trips. The third method they have for submitting your trips is by using FED EX overnight. They do supply prepaid fedex envelopes for the drivers so all you have to do is drop them in the envelope and into a fedex box to be picked up. Of course even though the envelopes are prepaid the shipping cost will still be deducted out of your paycheck if you choose this option. That ranges between $12 and $14 bucks per envelope. They absolutely refuse to use Transflo or Tripak at the truck stops.

Hometime is something that you can NEVER count on. Working with WEL for a little over a year now and having gone home a total of 15 times during that 14 months I actually got home on time only once. Sometimes it would be a week before I wanted to be home, other times it would be a week or two AFTER I was scheduled to be home. They do thier best to cut your home time short if you will allow it to happen, and in a way its even worse when you only want to be home for a short period because you end up sitting there twice as long as you had wanted. This often leads to missing a paycheck which is expensive because they make your weekly deductions no matter what. So what was a 164.00 deduction for health insurance for the week ends up being 328.00 deduction the next check you recieve. Its pretty rough when that happens.
They have very substandard driver facilities at all of thier terminals. None of the terminals driver facilities are clean or well taken care of, most drivers will leave a terminal and go stay at a truckstop if at all possible. Several of the terminals actually lock the drivers out of the driver facilities when the warehouse people go home, a couple of them place porta poties for drivers to use at the others your on your own. This is not a good thing for female drivers or for women that happen to be riding with thier husbands as my wife occasionally does with me.
On the upside there is no routing or fuel solutions so trip planning is completely up to the driver within reason. the trucks are all equiped with APU's and inverters are allowed up to 1500 watts. They do have a rider policy which costs the driver $16.00 per month, and they do allow pets in the trucks with a $750.00 deposit. i dont know how good they are about returning that deposit if the truck is brought back clean but I do no they do NOT clean up the trucks that pets have been in regardless of the cleaning deposit.

WEL runs approximatley 500 trucks and does a weekly orientation of about 18 people per week on average. This means that they are hiring about 850 drivers per year to seat 500 trucks, and they still have empty trucks. This one fact alone should go to show that they have a serious driver retention problem with turnover hovering around 150% a year.

A year ago I would have reccomended this company to anyone looking for a good driving job, today I would have to put this one on my "stay away" list.

Just the facts here. If you have any questions feel free to post or provate message me and I will answer to the best of my ability.

A little disclaimer here, I am no longer employed by WEL Companies having left of my own accord recently.

 

Thanks for the info! I am looking to get back behind the wheel, and have been scouting different companies. I was considering WEL, but no longer are they on the short list. Stay safe.

 

CHECK THIS OUT ALL YOU WEL DRIVERS----JUST BOUGHT A NEW REFURBISHED WITH WARRANTY THRU RAND MCNALLY TND720 FOR 231.00, YEP YOU GOT IT. GO TO RAND MCNALLY STORE AND LOOK UP REFURBISHED TND 720 GPS. WILL BE 289.99 IN CHECK OUT PROMO CODE PUT GREAT20 AND RECIEVE 20 PERCENT OFF. THIS IS A STEAL. YES I WORK FOR WEL OTR DRIVER. JUST CAME BACK AFTER TRYING THE LEASE THING WITH ANOTHER COMPANY. WEL IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT. YOU COULD NOT ASK FOR A BETTER GROUP OF PEOPLE NOW THAT DAN IS GONE. EQUIPMENT IS MY BIG COMPLAINT. HOPFULLY WE WILL HAVE ALL NEW BEFORE LONG. iVE WORKED FOR THREE OTHER COMPANIES. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST, NOT PERFECT BUT NO PLACE IS. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM THEY WILL CORRECT IT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE. LOVE MY DM TOO. DAVE S.

 

FOR ALL OF YOU LOOKING TO KNOW ABOUT WEL LET ME KNOW. ITS NOT PERFECT BUT IS A GOOD COMPANY, PAY IS BETTER THAN AVERAGE. OWNERS WILL STOP AND TALK WITH YOU. LOTS OF FREEDOM WHICH IS WHERE MOST OF U WIL GET IN TROUBLE. THIS IS A BIG BOY DRIVER JOB, NO BABY SITTING. YOU HAVE TO BE ON TIME AND KNOW YOUR STUFF OR YOU WILL NOT MAKE IT. SOMEONE THAT IS A NEWBE WILL HAVE TO GET A GOOD TRAINER. WE ARE FAST PACED. HUGE STORAGE FACILITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY. NOT GREAT TERMINALS BUT WHO WANTS TO HANG OUT THERE ANYWAY. LET ME KNOW AND i WILL TRY TO HELP OUT.

 

WEL almost ruined me as a driver and if I ever see that jerk Chris tielens, I'm gonna break his jaw

 

They are dishonest and will smile in your face while stabbing you from behind. I made really good money there, but the month I went without a job because of them messed all that up