Werner Enterprises

I miss drop and hook. Hubby and I were suffering hard core earlier this month, loads sucked and we made like 10k miles for the entire month of March, which hurts when bills come in.

This month we were put back on Team Werner, I have enough expierence now to pull my shift which was the majority of the issue why we were pulled off of Team Werner. I also know now when to tell them we are delayed. So this is what my load book is for this month my estimated pays are generally 90% of the time right so I won't bother going back and looking up the actual pay:

April 1st - 4th - 1402 mls Estimated Pay: 604.72 (before split)

April 5th - 10th (put back on Team Werner) - 4709 Estimated Pay: 1695

April 11 - 20th - 6607 Pay: 2369

April 21st - 25th - 4252 Pay: 1551

This week we are at 2900 mls right now.


Factoring in that a majority of our loads are LIVE that take 1-2 hrs, we are doing pretty friggen good. Granted we are on Team Werner and don't even want to know what solo's have to do if we are getting loads a solo could run easily. I have a feeling they are shagging our loads that we run to destination too early for delivery.

Even then we have had high idle. I don't know how the hell someone solo could maintain a 25 % idle rate like our dispatcher has been on our behinds for. We ONLY idle when we are IN the truck and the weather is very hot or cold ( over 80 or under freezing). I keep telling Don that if we are idling its their darn fault.

Last week they screwed up my hours by having us sit to deliver a Conway load, which meant yesterday I ran out of hours on my 70, here I am with a JT load assigned, I have 3 hrs on my 70 gaining back 1.25 at midnight, and this genius had the balls to ask me how I screwed up my hours -_-

So we head out, get stuck in traffic, have to shut down before we even get to the shipper. I kindly explained to Don just why my hours were so messed up, didn't hear a PEEP from him for the rest of the load.

Werner is okay, if you aren't expecting miracles. Its a big company, no big company is going to bend over backwards to make their employees happy. Sorry. But the fact is they can replace you, sad but true. They have no end of zitfaced newbs, and oldtimers looking for a way to retire waiting to come onboard to try and please someone.

That said, if you run hard, have a slight ability to get along with genrally abrasive personalities, and know how to word things, Werner can work just fine. My hubby has 7-8 years of OTR expierence and he likes Werner despite his original spite toward them from what he had heard. He said there isn't a thing Werner has done that has made him really unhappy, and that he's fine sticking with them long term. He wished they paid higher, but, for what they are paying us for, its not bad. We are usually preassigned before we arrive at del, once or twice before we'd even PICKED UP the first load we already had the seocnd lined up.

Can they suck? Yeah. I've had a classmate fired because she refused to do Canada. Another fired for idling just last week. One solo quit due to no loads, eh... solo I wouldn't work for them, I just know that would be a mistake.

 

Fired for refusing Canada? They're not allowed to use that as a reason. Werner policy is clear, they won't try to force any driver out of the USA. I refused when teaming. We were assigned the load anyway, and we sat at the Detroiter for nearly 48hrs before getting a split. In the meantime, we were told more than once, if only we'd deliver that ld, we would stop having to sit. That's where I decided to quit Werner. We weren't allowed to enter Canada anyway, as neither had a passport with us. I guess that law may not be enforced yet, but why take a chance?

Seems you two are at about 20K for the month. As a team, we did that, but not much more. As a solo, I ran over 10 per month. So it paid better to be solo. With the mileage they're getting now... I don't see a good part.

You're also running into what we did with the live ld concerns. And DON is why! We had that problem and two other teams had or still have it with him. And half the time it seems our info didn't reflect lv ld, so we learned it upoin arrival. 50/50.... best wishes! That's all I can add to the ld thing. A 25% idle time isn't likely with so many lv lds. We never got into the 30's to my recollection. We were constantly stopped. It was, however, winter. You may make upper 20s, but I don't see anyone hitting 25% with such scattered freight.

The hours thing won't get better if you have any problems. You'll sit and they'll put you on 3(or worse, 4) saying you moved. You'll ask them to change it back and they'll refuse, saying "movement occurred" and you'll get madder by the minute. I had to tell them many times, LEAVE MY LOG ALONE!! It is the law, ya know. But they break that all the time, blaming the computer for whatever change is made. That, of course, doesn't change the law.

They'll probably soon tell you, since 2 of you are in the same truck, one of you must ALWAYS be on line 4, or 2, but neither can be on 1 unless the truck is stopped. This will mess with your hours as well, unless you break the line 2 rule anytime you want out of the sleeper. Sitting in the pass. seat requires line 4... I don't like that one.

 

I had several times where I hit a rest area, went from line 3 to line1 to save hrs.ran inside only to return to a note on the qual that i've been on line 4 for the past hour. While I was driving? Grrrrr. Reply to fix log, and get another note our records don't confirm your concern. That screws up my training hours. One thing they told me was every qual sent costs money Lol.After my hours I disputed the hour of line 4 in 15 min. increment, responding to each denial until it was handled. Something that is aggravating tho is on JIT's you rush to get there,hit your window on time, back to the dock and don't get unloaded for 3 hours? I shut down one eve after juggling night shift day shift with my trainer,just couldn't finish the last five hours. Sent my message to tired cant drive safely, they reply the load will be late and give me and my trainer all this negative mouth service. Hit our drop in Ca. "five hours late" Con. tells us we are 8 hours early from our original drop time. I soon found our JIT's delivery times were always delivered four to twenty four hours before they needed to be delivered. So being on time meant we sat a while? I don't understand?
P.S. RobW what part of North Florida are you from, and how are the loads? I lived in Jacksonville many years and have family there.

 

A passport is not required for entry by an American citizen via land into Canada - never has been.

There is a forthcoming requirement for entry/re-entry into the U.S. that will require a passport (from the U.S. Department of State website):

Again, any passport requirements are being initiated by the U.S., not Canada.

 

Getting into Canada may not be the concern.. Getting back to my homeland could become a problem. Werner doesn't require drivers to leave America. If you don't have a passport, it's a "ticket" to stay in America. I choose to remain inside America. I've been to at least 17 countries and simply prefer this one over any other.

 

You should be clear when you post then, lack of a passport was not an issue - for travel into either country.

 

It certainly was... Werner has a rule by policy. I wasn't debating or offering comment about the law regarding the matter, just Werner policy. It solely made the difference in the matter, that we didn't carry passports. Without them, Werner says you don't go into Canada or Mexico.

 

Ah, well then, lack of a passport being a policy issue is far different from a legal one - which your post inferred. I just hate for someone to get the wrong idea that they would be unable to cross the border without one. Many cross-border travellers are confused on the issue and think that it's a legal requirement to enter Canada, which it is not. Nor will it be even after June 1, 2009.

Cheers.

 

Werner, like many other companies, has decided to be prepared for the law to go into effect. It was to be in effect last yr, but too many people waited too long to get a passport, so the government got overwhelmed and pushed back the enforcement date to June 1, 2009... pending 3 other possible changes.

Most truckers... Most Americans know all that. I wasn't trying to address that aspect at all, just Werner... Their drivers have been told, so I didn't bother with details.

 

Most companies treat new drivers like pieces of firewood. If they get a little burned, toss em. If they get completely burned...tough sh##.

im curious to know how they treat their drivers? my b/f is waiting at the hotel for a trainer but hasnt been asigned to one yet...please reply letting know how bad the above statement can get for him? and at what point he may say i've had enough and quit!