The lesser of two evils: Swift vs. Werner

On this poll you should have put an option to choose both.

 

Bad is bad--no matter what name it goes by.........................

 

these are just a couple of bottom feeder companies that people should only go to as a last ditch effort. and even then i would have to think about changing careers before ever stepping foot in one of there trucks.

 

I picked Werner because of my personal experience with them. However, I have watched Swift drivers - it seems like ALL of them must be JUST out of driving school.

Anyhow, nobody asked but here's my experience with Werner:
Just got off the mission field driving all kinds of trucks all over the place, picking up loads of food and medical supplies to give to the needy.
I needed to make some money, back in those days, I didn't know one good company from another. I liked the big blue trucks, so I just opted for Werner for that reason and no other.

I sat in a cramped mobile home type of thing for 3 days with the orientation people who chain smoked so much, I smelled like an ashtray after I left each day. Just threw that in there cause' cigarette smoke makes my physically ill - I was getting pretty sick.

Got through that, was assigned a tractor, took off. Werner told me I would be home every 2 and a half to 3 weeks. Lol. Werner said they didn't encourage driving too many hours. Lol. Werner said a lot of things that - after working for them - they obviously didn't mean.

I got "hot loads" every load. Whatever the load was, it was a HOT load, it had to be somewhere yesterday, get it rolling and get it there as fast as possible. Again, my young and dumb days - I drove like a madman trying to keep up with this dispatcher's demands. After 3 weeks, I wanted to go home, as promised. "Well, we have this run here that's hot, they really need it right now and you're the closest truck, could you do that first?". Uhhhh, okay, but you are going to get me home after that, right?

Right. For 3 and a half months, they sent me everywhere BUT Arizona, my home. They always had an excuse. I might have been young and dumb, but I got to the point where I demanded they send me home or I was just going to quit, leave the truck wherever it was, #### the consequences.

That run was my final run with that company. It was a load from eastern Pennsylvania to - Phoenix. Finally, I thought, I'm going home. I was MARRIED for criminy's sakes, I hadn't been with my lady for a LONG time.

Anyway, on that run, the truck started running funny. I figured a fuel filter and replaced it. It ran okay for awhile after that, but by the time I hit Albuquerque, it was running very erratic. I had been out so long, I decided to stay at a hotel that night - in Albuquerque, get up the next morning and finish this run.

Next morning, the truck wouldn't start. I had already pretty much guessed the problem - bad fuel pump. I had had to work on the trucks I drove on the missionary field and had gotten pretty accustomed to figuring out problems. I called Werner's maintenance/repair department, told them the truck wouldn't start, told them what I figured the problem was.

They didn't want to hear what I thought the problem was. They sent out a truck to "fix" it. Their fix was to take out a freakin' can of ether, spray it into the air intake, and start the truck. I laughed at this "repair" guy and told him he might have got the truck started, but that didn't FIX the problem. He didn't care, he had done what the company had told him to do. So, I call again getting all those freakin' numbers you had to get to pay the guy, and informed them that this "fix" wasn't going to work. They didn't want to hear that, either. "Get the truck to Phoenix and we'll fix it there" "I don't think the truck is going to MAKE it to Phoenix".
"Well, you're going to have to TRY".

Whatever, it was their truck, let them pay through the nose in having to have the thing towed if it breaks down on the side of the highway somewhere. I pulled out of the hotel parking lot, onto a state route highway, pulled up to a stop light, and it died. I mean, we're talking less than 2 minutes from the time I pulled out of that parking lot.

Got out of the truck, put out the cones, called the maintenance/repair department again. They tell me to put in another fuel filter. "I've ALREADY done that, that isn't the problem - this truck has a BAD fuel pump, it needs fixed or replaced". It was like talking to a black hole - my words just disappeared into the void and were given no credence.

I said fine, I'll replace it, but what if that doesn't work? "Call us back and we'll arrange for a tow truck". "I don't WANT to call back, I KNOW this isn't going to work, give me the info now". "I can't GIVE you that info now". I insisted. "Well, this guy says, if you need a tow truck, this would be the number XXX-XXX-XXXX". Okay, WHERE do you want it taken? "If it comes to that, then we will want it taken to (the dealership in town)".

By then, police had pulled up, asking me what's wrong. Truck's broke, of course. Get it off the highway. Yeah, I'm working on that, my company wants me to replace the fuel filter. Police want me to call the towing company NOW, screw the filter, I'm blocking the lane.

I call the number, tow company comes out, hooks up the truck, I tell them where to take it - I get in the tow vehicle with them. They drop it off at the dealer - which is closed cause' it's the weekend, and he takes me to the Union 76 Truckstop.

This is where the situation gets dicey. I go up to a room full of payphones - nobody had cellphones back then, or if they did, not many had them. I get on the phone with repair and ask them for the pay numbers to pay the tow truck driver.

"Who authorized you to have the truck towed?" "" YOU did". "There is no authorization in the system for the truck to be towed" "The truck was sittting in the slow lane of a 4 lane highway, at a stop light, broken down, what did you expect me to do?" "Call here and get the authorization, you had the truck towed on your own, you didn't have the clearance to do that". "Yes, I DID, where do you think I got the PHONE NUMBER for the towing company?" "Not from us".

At this point, I"m getting REAL mad. This guy is basically calling me a liar. Further, I'm thinking, why the hell should I CARE what this guy says, it was an emergency situation, I had no "regrets" in getting that truck OFF the highway. And anyway, who IS this guy to talk to me like this?

This guy won't let up, and by the time it's all over, I was yelling at the phone at this person that was at this point, calling me a bald faced liar. I asked him his name - he gave it to me - and I told him I would be "visiting" him next time I was in Omaha, Nebraska. By this time, the tow truck driver had already left - he said he would be back later as he had a call to go on and didn't have time to wait for this company. I slammed the phone down in a rabid rage.

It suddenly dawned on me that the place was as quiet as a library, yet the room was full of people on the phone. I looked around, they were ALL looking at me. A BIG black man takes a stool that was in the room, stands up on it and starts preaching the point of carrying a pocket sized tape recorder with you and recording EVERY conversation you have with your company. I was too freakin' mad to listen to it, I just walked out of there.

The tow truck driver came back a couple of hours later. I had had time to calm down by then, get something to eat, have a couple cups of coffee. I called Werner back - this time I was going to get the numbers, or I was just going to walk from this truck. Whoever was on the other end of the phone took my driver ID number, and then told me to hold on a minute. Next thing I know, it's some sort of manager, asking me how I'm doing, is everything okay, blah blah blah. "There is a tow truck driver, standing here, waiting to get paid". He gets whatever numbers for that payment system they had back then, I get him out of my hair. He tells me they are going to pay for a hotel room for me until the truck is fixed. Asks where the truck is at - where your people told me to take it!

The truck gets fixed, I finish out the delivery, go to Werner's office, turn in my load locks and door locks, quit. Dispatcher calls me an hour later - what's WRONG? You already KNOW what's wrong, or you wouldn't be calling me. I just hung up on him, I wanted nothing further to do with that company.

Perhaps that story was a bit too long, but that was my experience with Werner. I hate that company, as much as I hate JB Hunt. Probably a little bit more - I think Werner is just a hair worse than JB Hunt.

 

Too long? This is a great story. Just why this forum is here. To expose these cheese eating rat companies for what they are. You may have saved many from similar nightmare.

 

Trooper...though sorry about your experience...I loved reading your story. ....shows the true color of werner.

 

Well, besides them not wanting to fix their own equipment ??? I didn't like the dispatcher wanting to me run when I was out of hours. I had driven for 5 years for that missionary organization, but when it came to running with big trucking companies, I was as green as a Christmas tree. I wanted to hook up with a big one like Werner because I thought they would, if nothing else, require me to run by the book. Funny, I would get these "flag" things in the mail - I had run out of hours and kept on running, at the same time, it was THEM telling me they wanted me to do it.
On this flip side of this are the Werner drivers that just love it there. Almost like a cult thing - all hanging out together at truck stops with all their Werner jackets and garb on - I avoided them like the plague. But, I think, for every driver that likes it there, there must be hundreds that hated their experience there. Readers take it for what it's worth, that was just my experience, how many thousands of other experiences could be written into a book's worth?
bb

 

this is a classic battle and it's hard to pick the wiener. Werner has cooler trucks = if you can handle the lower pay and breakdowns, I believe Werner is better. Werner has been updating with new Petes -> but good luck in kissing enough ### to get to drive one.

Swift has better trailers though, and an older Volvo 670 could possibly be worse than driving the Frankenwiener (Freightliner Classic)

 

Well just to put my two cents in, I have worked for Werner ent for 14 months. I run dedicated out of a walmart DC. I made 52k last year, I enjoy the people that I work with and they treat me pretty well. Every company has its own horror stories and werner has there fair share. I can only assume that you are new to the industry? And if so you have to start somewhere. No one on this forum jumped in a truck day one and drove. NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YA. I don't know much about swift other then their over the road guys coming into the DC can't back a trailor into a door to save their lives..

Skrog

 

Scottsville, KY -Dollar General main distribution center (actually is the home town of D-G!)and local Werner hideout:

Why don't they fix the urinal with the garbage can under it?

I like the guys at DG/Werner, but someone needs to fix that urinal.

{still envious of the FrankenWieners}