Werner & Me

So the new truck was nice except it didn’t have any way to turn off the speakers in the back like the previous truck did. Aside from this and the fact the other driver beat the crap out of the exterior (to the point they had to replace the door which I only know because the driver side door has a completely different key then the passenger side that works in everything else and turns on the truck…). The bed was disgusting though so we replaced it ourselves.

It took a little bit of pushing to get Pete they originally assigned us a Freightliner Classic which was not the truck we wanted but I nicely asked the lady to see about getting us a Pete and she said that they would have one the next day and gave the Freightliner to the guy behind us in line who wanted one.

It took a week to get through the ‘graduation’ process. I had to do some test, wait for clearance from my SDM, and then take a road test. Patience is the key when dealing with the truck assigning lady, remember, she is the one whom picks your ride. Getting rude or impatient may make her decide to give you the clunker.

Luck of the draw is really what determines your assignment though. You can pick 3 types of trucks, and everyone that did pick 3 got one of them but they have a shortage of short nosed trucks so that’s not always the case. While we were there some persons were assigned brand new trucks, some were assigned really old ones, and some like us got the middle of the line trucks.

I know for a fact the truck we got out of was repainted and sold. I found it in the shop lot for the old trucks about to be leased. It was a good ole truck though.

We left as full team December, and got assigned Don, the Team flee manager. For the first month I wanted him to spontaneously combust. Our previous fleet manager Seth was very easy going, Don was hell on wheels. The man ran us non stop and made it a pita to get time to take showers, eat, or even fuel. I think he was trying to kill us. We butted heads a lot, and tried desperately to get transferred OFF his board, even trying to talk to his boss whom turned out to be an EVEN BIGGER jerk then he was. And if that’s whose yelling at Don now I know why he is yelling at us whew.

First thing that boy said to us when I called was bringing up the fact back a few months past my hubby was on the performance watch board for being home too much. I really wanted to reach through the phone and choke the man. And if I ever have to talk to him again it will be too soon.

To be fair however, the problem lied in my inability to drive a full 10 hours, and he was expecting us to drive a full 10 hours each.

Eventually we got fed up to the point we went to the terminal and turned in the truck for every issue wrong with it (there were some minor electrical issues, a mirror issue, and a tire issue), and were trying to find another company to work for before it got fixed. I called at 1 am the following day and they said it wouldn’t be fixed until later that afternoon. So I went to bed. Then we get a call from Mr. John whom was spazing because we were not in the truck already. Apparently the truck was ready to go at 8 am or some bs. So we go over to the terminal, and the truck was not fixed, or ready and would not be until the morning. John demanded we go speak to safety and have a conference call where the man threatened to fire us, my husband was about to tell him he wouldn’t have to because we quit but we came to a general agreement.

We were pulled of Team Werner, which I was HOPING would switch us to another dispatcher but nope. So now we were running much easier freight, though slower then before. I finally started trying to get on Don’s good side, I told him straight up what the issues were, and we started getting along better.

Over the past several months we were working hard to get back to Team Werner, which we told them to put us on when they felt we were running okay. We got put back on it recently, and are running fine now. Don and I have reached a sorta of mutual understanding, though we butt heads from time to time. In the end I learned the most important thing is that I have the key to the truck and if I feel I need to stop I will turn the #### thing off and the qualcomm will go quit in 10 minutes

My experience here has been NO DIFFERENT then any other new job in a large corporation. Unless you are in administration you start at the bottom of the barrel no matter your experience. They are not however the horrible company that I've been hearing about. At least they were not to me. Now I run team and I can see how the log would annoy those whom are used to wiggle room with creative logging on paper. However, you can use the log thing to your advantage. Will it cut into your bottomline? It may indeed. You will not be able to run 18 hours driving. But you will at least get breaks right?



The number one mistake people make with the log is to not keep your dispatcher apprised of you log situation. Werner is more then happy to make arrangements for log situtaions, if you are running out of hours give dispatch some notice, hey man I'm down to like 3 hours and I am going to have to shutdown at the Petro in Amarillo if you want this load to be there setup a swap. They will work with you, they are just as constrained by the logs as you are. If a dispatcher tries to get you to go over hours a single call to safety will stop that issue for good.


The biggest things to remember at Werner are:

1)If you are solo and you are signing on you should expect to go out with a trainer, and if you don’t or when you are done you should be PREPARED to wait at least 7 days for a truck.
2)If you and your trainer do not mesh you can get off the truck and get another trainer you do not have to deal with a trainer you cannot stand.
3)John the operations supervisor is a ########. Do not call him and expect a single ounce of respect. This guy is NOT the norm, even Don is a nice guy really its John that makes him nuts. I don't like the guy at all. And no one I know does. So try to work stuff out with your fleet manager and leave John out of it. All we can hope is he has a heartattack or Hell asks him to come back home.

I am sure there is more I will think of later when I am less tired. Night for now!

 

I find far too often people expect to be catered too, what they really need to understand is that a FM like Don has 60 or more drivers on his board that he needs to also talk with.

The first issues I think we had were in terms of respect, Don is a Team Dispatcher, he expects a totally different level of driving then our Regional Solo dispatcher did obviously. He is expecting the truck to run pretty much 24/7. We were not prepared for that change at all. It took us a while to figure out how the hell to eat, shower, shave, and go to the bathroom and not screw up our ontime once we got switch. Honestly there needs to be a like 'pre team' ramp up to the level of full team from solo lol. Not to mention I just got off trainee status and was hardly ready to jump into full 24/7 running.

Don was not aware of any of that, he knew only that we were a husband and wife team transferring in from another division. Once he was made aware of these issues he was quick to assist us in ramping up by switching to 48 state team, off Team Werner, which is still teaming but slightly less hardcore. That gave me and my husband whom is a 7 year + expierenced SOLO driver, time to get USED to the idea of running so hard constantly. It also gave us time, where were were not wanting to kill Don to get to know Don.

Really you cannot go into any job and expect the manager to be your best friend from the start, nor can you expect them to treat you like some sort of 'special' person. You are an employee, and should be treated the same as any other employee, and that does include a measure of respect of course, but the expectations of some people are very high when they go to driving school, and of course when you set yourself high you are bound to be disappointed. Then they blame the company, when in reality they did not mesh with the trucking lifestyle, or perhaps the company hit a bad spot. It really isn't in Werner's best interest to sit you, if they are sitting you freight is low, or you and your dispatcher need to have a civil conversation. Sometimes however, its just the nature of the game, I don't think there is a driver out there that hasn't had their share of slow weeks/months. When they occur right after one has joined a new company of course though... they immediatly assume the company sucks.

Respect is a two way street to earn and to keep. There will always be bad days, but if you let them make you rude and obnoxious then you will make the WRONG impression.

Dispatchers aren't the brightest lot I've found, but they are not out to try and do you in without reason. Can they? Not really at Werner, Don doesn't assign my loads. The Planner does, and we never talk to the planner. The planner just looks at a list of trucks in the area and their status, hours avaliable, loads avalible and the trucks lateness record and assign loads accordingly. Don's job is to update the planner and the CSM for the contract we are delivering for of any issues and to keep us running. So to assume that Don is making you sit is just silly not reality based. At best all he can do to make that occur is set you at a long distance avaliability. But then John freaks out. Of course if you are on probation list for being agressive, unsafe, rude, or failing to make on time then you might have an issue. There IS that option for the dispatchers.