Western Express, King of no answer and sit and wait for no pay

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by Saffe1128, Dec 31, 2014.

  1. Saffe1128

    Saffe1128 Bobtail Member

    5
    11
    Dec 29, 2014
    0
    My husband, who has 17 yrs of experience wanted to try a lease/purchase so he could be his own boss and set his own pace instead of working like a dog for 14 hrs a day for next to nothing like he was doing at his local job. He chose Western Express because their program sounded decent and of course the recruiters tell a pretty tale, although we know recruiters lie. First off, don't believe the recruiter when they tell you that you can have a room of your own at the hotel and the difference in price will come out of your first settlement. There is no program in place for that. Don't believe the recruiter if they tell you don't go to this hotel or that hotel. You get stuck where ever the shuttle takes you. The Magnusson in Nashville isn't great, but it's better than the Super 8 Motel. Then comes the training. It's 3 1/2 days, not 2. All unpaid unless you are going flatbed, and then I hear you are paid for securement training. My husband chose dry van, so idk for sure. The physical is a joke too. My husband has passed every physical he has ever taken including one in October of this year for 2 yrs and the dr in Nashville only gave him a 3 month card saying he needed a sleep study to get a longer one. My husband is a big guy, but he does his job and does it well and has been a vegetarian for almost 2 years. He is not in bad shape.
    Then comes the job. He did get to pick his truck from a choice of 7, but didn't get to test drive it. The Qualcomm didn't work from the get go. They say they fix everything for the first 30 days. Sure they do, if you can get there. He asked to be rooted back to Nashville less than a week after starting because of the Qualcomm, front end issues, weak batteries and a few other things. It wasn't until the following Monday 12/22 , a week later when logs and compliance starts screaming because his duty time is all messed up because of the Qualcomm that they finally get him in for repairs. He got to the shop at 2:30pm on that Monday with a load to be delivered in PA on Wed. At 2pm he STILL hadn't even had his truck taken in to the garage to be looked at. They say they do l/p drivers first. BS they do. Lots of company trucks came and went in that time. Hubby was taking heat from his DM about taking too long. Like it was his fault or something. He called to talk to her at 2 and got someone else because she was at lunch. He told him he was sick of waiting and ready to rent a car to go home, and within a few minutes they took his truck and drove it away. He found out later that they just drove it out back to shut him up. They never started working on it until 6pm. They close shop at 11pm. They fixed the Qualcomm, and replaced the batteries and brakes, but it still needed an alignment and kingpin work. Whenever he would check on it they would tell him to come back in an hour, he would wait 90 minutes, or come back in 2 hours, he would wait longer. All the while with DM's crabbing at him. Finally one mechanic told my husband that it need an alignment and that that had to wait until a certain mechanic came in in the morning. They were only open half a day on Christmas Eve. He told my husband he wasn't sure they could get all the work done. My husband asked him if that meant that he was going to be stuck there til Friday and not be able to deliver his load and go home for Christmas. The mechanic just looked ant him and said "yup" like it was no big deal. When my husband had asked earlier about leaving and coming back to get the rest of the work done, one mechanic had threatened to red tag the truck so he couldn't leave. No one ever offered him a bus ticket to go home for the holiday, but they had numerous other people there. Finally my husband got with someone in night dispatch who helped him sort things out. The truck was NOT red tagged and he left. He got home at 9am Christmas morning.
    The mechanics there do what they want, when they want and how they want. They don't care if you are losing money sitting there. David that is head of the l/p operation gives you his cell number and says call if you have a problem. Don't bother. He won't return your call. My husband wasn't a pain. He only called once and left one message, but that broke his trust for someone who said they wanted to be sure their program worked, and says he cares about the drivers.
    Something else that may seem kind of petty, but my husband had either been sitting in his truck all day freezing before they drove it out back, because he didn't want to run it and use fuel, or sitting in the break room area for the orientation people inside. Sometimes he sat under the awning outside just for a change of pace, which sucked for him because thats where all the smokers go, and he doesn't smoke. It was cold and raining like crazy that day. He couldn't leave to shower or get coffee except the nasty stuff the roach coach sells. Late that night just before he left, one of the mechanics finally told him that they have a nice comfy drivers lounge for drivers with trucks in the shop. It has showers, coffee, and laundry facilities. You would think that someone could have been decent enough to point that out to him earlier that day? Or the day before?
    No answer is what you get ALOT with that company. Night dispatch NEVER answers the phone and rarely answers the Qualcomm. You sit and wait and watch your on duty time tick away for nothing. Load planning is a joke too. Why do you need 3 days for a 600 mile trip? You end up sitting and waiting to deliver, losing more time and money.
    If those people had any brains and ran the program the way it was intended AND got better night dispatchers, then it might be a decent program, but right now, it's just a waste of the drivers time and money. You pay all the fuel for the company to collect on the loads. I'm glad my husband has made the choice to move on.
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. RoadCall

    RoadCall Road Train Member

    1,489
    930
    Mar 12, 2012
    0
    Sorry he is in this position but there is an awful lot of info about this company on this forum, and none of it is good!
     
  4. Mattnatti

    Mattnatti Light Load Member

    239
    176
    Jul 10, 2014
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    0
  5. RERM

    RERM Road Train Member

    1,683
    1,123
    Dec 13, 2012
    Chicago, IL
    0
    17 years experience and you all went with Western Express????

    Sorry, hope things turn around for him, but with that company.....well, good luck.
     
  6. 77smartin

    77smartin Road Train Member

    2,183
    3,020
    Apr 3, 2011
    I dunno.
    0
    What happens during 17 years of driving that leads someone to lease a truck at Western Express?
     
    Canned Spam, zoekatya, jeff18 and 5 others Thank this.
  7. Zigzag777

    Zigzag777 Medium Load Member

    460
    512
    Mar 25, 2013
    Down Yonder
    0
    I recently drove past a Western Express yard in Ct. Looked more like a salvage yard than a trucking company! Actually a pretty grim site, I wouldn't waste my time waiting for a change.
     
  8. Dreaman

    Dreaman Medium Load Member

    325
    103
    Sep 18, 2007
    Iowa
    0
    The math here doesnt add up. It sucks that you werent together for Christmas. I dont understand if the truck had alingment problems, and king pin issues, why wasn't it red tagged. Research more companies and move on. Good luck in the future.
     
  9. Jumbo

    Jumbo Road Train Member

    3,669
    7,388
    Sep 4, 2009
    Appleton, Wisconsin
    0
    I read as far as 17 years experience, L/P, be his own boss and Western Express. Scrolling onto the next thread.
     
  10. Skate-Board

    Skate-Board Road Train Member

    3,801
    3,994
    Aug 9, 2014
    Merrimack, NH
    0
    A paragraph (from the Greek paragraphos,
    "to write beside" or "written beside") is a group of sentences with one topic.
    it is also a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea.
    A paragraph consists of one or more sentences.
     
    Jumbo and Kindle Thank this.
  11. Dinomite

    Dinomite Road Train Member

    4,092
    4,307
    Sep 6, 2012
    Looking 4 Rocks
    0
    I couldn't make it to bottom. I stopped during the lease purchase guy not answering his phone tiraid.

    Was there anywhere toward the end. That she Admitted how it was all their fault for getting into the mess. Or how they would use common sense, and a little research to prevent the lollipop symbol appearing above their head.
     
    jeff18 and Skate-Board Thank this.
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.