FYI: Werner Enterprises

I've been driving for almost 2 years now and I've been thinking about going back OTR.

I mean, I'm doing local flatbed work but I'm the jack of all trades where I work, meaning that I have to drive semi's, straight trucks with a conveyor, operate the forklift at the warehouse, use the moffett at some jobsites.

A whole bunch of stuff and at the end of the week I see my pay stub and I want to cry and I work at the corporate site of a huge roofing supply company. Anyway...my thing is, I was thinking about going with Werner, spoke to a recruiter and he told me regional out of FL is 2 weeks out and 2 days home and with my experience .33 and a half cents per mile I just wanted to see if that could be true in any way...then again when I joined the Army a recruiter told me I would travel all over Europe...and I did, on a C-130 full of freight! LOL

 

With your experience, why are you looking at the mega-BFI-companies? Visit trucking companies in your area and sell yourself and your experience. Assuming you come across as reasonably intelligent and somewhat presentable, I am certain you can earn more than with a bottom feeder like Werner

 

Did the Werner recruiter tell you about the bus ride back and forth from Atlanta to get your truck every time you go home? 2 days are really more like 4-6 days not driving.

 

Ive been driving for Werner for almost 3 years...I drive us/Canada dedicated ...Iam most of the time..I do pretty #### good...the miles..the freight...hometime..and pay has been great...but crossing borders and the nonsense @US/CANADA DETROIT BORDER...has been alot of delays...and with Eobrs it gets scary sometimes because you never know if its going to be 15 minutes or 3 hours to cross the borders ..its a gamble and requires major patience ...other then that iam very happy...

 

I did so before, the first one looked great, they gave me a route from Tampa to Ft.Myers and it was 60 hours a week, even if I finished the work on 40. Somewhat like a salary.

However shortly after I started they were bought out and the new company coming in I was very familiar with since I dealt with them several times when I made deliveries in a couple of their warehouses in PA, so I decided not to transition, to do so would have been a great mistake, they already warned of a pay cut and an increase in work and responsibilities.

Other companies here in FL are just not paying enough for what they put the driver through. There's also a chance I will be relocating around June, since my wife is an engineer and got a job at Praxair, so maybe once I'm out of FL things will look better for me trucking-wise! We all know FL sucks for freight.

 

Oh no! So are they using the tuberculosis expr...I mean greyhound for that too? I heard about something like that. I also heard someone saying that everyone going into Werner now has to do a certain amount of time with a trainer, regardless of experience. Is that also the case? I think that the trainer/trainee deal is like military basic training. You only have time for that once in a lifetime, once you proved yourself you just need to keep the wheels running the cash flowing.

 

Werner had their own bang bus now. Atlanta to Lakeland on Mondays and Thursdays, Lakeland to Atlanta Tuesdays and Fridays. They want regional and OTR guys to park in ATL and ride the bus. Some folks are still getting to take their trucks home, but I see that going away in the future.

 

I think it's 100 hrs with a trainer. Not bad, as long as your trainer isn't a tool.

 

I am actually thinking about going with werner/dollar general because I have a buddy that needs a job. So my question is, can I have him ride along with me (as a rider) then employ him as a lumper to unload the truck leaving me to just drive?

I actually will call and ask werner but hoping someone here can give me more insight.

 

I trained on Dollar General for six weeks, then they put me on the Family Dollar account. If you think you wouldn't want to push rolltainers off a truck and into a store, you ought to try setting up rollers from inside the trailer to the back door of a store and having to physically touch EVERY SINGLE ITEM. I survived Dollar General easily, but Family Dollar wore me out after only two days. Worse, I couldn't go back to Dollar General despite having been trained on it because of "where I live". There are Dollar Generals and Family Dollars where I live, but that was the BS Werner gave me...

That was two weeks ago. Now I'm OTR for Werner and have been sitting for the last four days with a broken down truck, with no one from Werner contacting me at any point since they sent another driver to get my trailer. My whole experience with Werner has been crap overall, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, though there are worse companies. Werner does NOT care.