Am I making a mistake leaving Werner?

ad356 · Mar 13, 2017

homeskillet said: ↑

I drove for the fuel division of Wadhams, ARG Trucking,for about a year before I went to mechanic school. I had no complaints; I'd drive for them again but I don't live in NYS anymore.

It's a small, family owned outfit, and as such they're a bit tight with driver pay. But at least on the fuel side, they didn't micromanage, they fixed any equipment problems I reported, and as long as you did your job and not cause any problems, you'd be fine. I heard mostly the same about RIST, but YMMV.

I think you could do a lot worse. Good luck with it all, and don' t weep for Werner.....they probably already got someone else rotting away in that very same motel room.
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rotting, exactly how i felt. what a crap experience. time away from the family and just wasting it. i should have been a solo driver months ago.

street beater · Mar 13, 2017

pattyj said: ↑

I'm a she lol
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I was wondering when you were gonna say.....

street beater · Mar 13, 2017

Oh yeah, what SHE said....

pattyj · Mar 13, 2017

street beater said: ↑

I was wondering when you were gonna say.....
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I drove for Werner so im well aware how much sitting the drivers only my sitting wasn't waiting for a trainer.I am surpisex OP being on the family dollar account had to wait so long for a trainer.

flyby1971 · Mar 13, 2017

Do you really think Werner gives two S***S about you and you sitting? Screw them, Move on and don't look back.

Boattlebot · Mar 13, 2017

ad356 said: ↑

i got my CDL in november. i tried for a month to try to get a local job, nothing materialized...... same story everywhere. the insurance wont allow us to hire recent cdl grads you need experience. so i decided to go to werner because they had the highest training pay, they assigned me the family dollar because i expressed a desire to be home as frequently as possible. they brought me to the allentown terminal and i sat in a hotel for two weeks. this was before the Christmas holiday. The recruiters told me a fish tale on how i would go to allentown, go through orientation and then get a week of driving in before i went home for christmas. i went through orientation and sat in a hotel. the had probably 50 some people sitting there with no ability to train them, trainers had gone home on the holiday. the biggest issue i had here was the dishonesty. being told one thing and then sitting around doing nothing, seems like a total lack of communication between recruiters and the terminal.

i returned after the holiday and i sat again for another 1-1/2 weeks. they finally placed me with a trainer. i was with the trainer about a 1-1/2 weeks. he actually was a decent trainer, he was on the dollar tree account. after we were out he informed me that he was going home for a week and i would have to sit in a hotel. i had already been out for about a month without seeing my wife or child. i went on a leave of absence and went home to see my family. i stayed home for 4 days and once again returned to allentown.

i sat there again for well over a week, finally i got assigned a second trainer. i stayed with this guy the full term and got all of my hours in 250+. this trainer was so so. he only gave me 10-15 practice backings in the week i was with him, and he did not allow me to send qualcom messages or go through the macros. he ran the truck as a team with me sleeping while he was driving and visa versa. he started out by trying to run me overnights. i told him i was not going to be able to sleep and that i was concerned for my safety. i do not sleep well during the day, and its even worse when the truck is moving. i think the first night he had me run i got 3 hours of sleep. sure enough about 4-5 am i started to feel myself nodding off. i had to roll both windows down to stay awake. the next day i informed him of my difficulties sleeping and he attempted to get me kicked off the truck. i do give the company credit because the FM informed him that i was staying on the truck and that he would have to change shifts with me driving during the day. this did improve things somewhat, but then i had the vibe that he felt i was a burden. the entire time i was with him i felt he was using me just to run more miles.

after i completed training, i tested out in the company truck. i passed the program but did not feel that i had been trained very well and i am no where near ready to be on my own doing a dollar account none-the-less. i have heard that these are nightmares to back into sometimes. i could go back and pick up a truck if i wanted to but i decided to try something else. i found a company located in my region that does north east regional freight. the company is called rist and its a division of wadhams. i found my experience at werner to be frustrating and i dont hear much good about rookies starting on a dollar account.

rist/wadhams is a family run company and they have 3-400 trucks. rist is the dry van division. they have told me that i will go there wendsday for a physical and get a micro-tel for wendsday and thursday night. wendsday is the physical, thursday and friday are orientation and smith systems. at the conclusion of orientation, i will meet with a dispatcher and he will make the arrangements for a trainer. they have 4 trainers and they are all highly experienced and vettted, they dont allow just anyone to train. i will go home for the weekend. monday morning i will meet up with the trainer and drive all week. i will go home every weekend during training. besides the first 3 days i will not be in a hotel. i was told since i already drove quite a bit with a trainer, im only going to be required to get a week or two of training. normal training length with them is 20 driving days. once i have completed training and go solo i will be home on the weekends. they have told me that they do not run weekends, i will usually get home for 55 hours per week. this all sounds allot better for someone who has a family and is try to keep their family life intact.

i was formerly a raw milk receiver, i happen to know allot of truck drivers. i have kept in contact with them through facebook and phone. the all more or less say the same thing, try to go work for a smaller or medium sized company as soon as the opprotunity presents itself. are they giving me good advice. they say with the big guys you arent anything more then a number, the have too many dispatchers, load planners, managers, ect ect. wadhams has 4 dispatchers and they all work out of the same room. being a milk receiver, i actually unloaded quite a few wadhmans trailers at my former job. the have a dry van division, fuel division, and milk division. after one year i can transfer over to the fuel or raw milk division and be home every night.

am i making a mistake leaving werner in the opinion of everyone here? i know that dollar account is probably not a good fit for a new driver and i would like to avoid OTR. im not interested in the type of driving that will keep me away from my 5 year old son and my wife of 12 years for 2-3 weeks at a time. that would be more like hell.
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Run to rist and don't look back.

I was gunna hire on with them but I choose a different company for otr instead of home daily. (I was gunna pull a tanker for them)

aussiejosh · Mar 13, 2017

ad356 said: ↑

i got my CDL in november. i tried for a month to try to get a local job, nothing materialized...... same story everywhere.
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Just a tip dude keep it brief and to the point no more than 3-4 lines otherwize we'll fall zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz if the company you moved to is worse than yeah you've made a big mistake.

ad356 · Mar 13, 2017

well werner has the nick name of blue screw for a reason. none what i experienced their felt right. from sitting in the hotels, to the trainer i got that failed to do much backing with me or show me how to send macros to the FM, to the ease i was rushed through the testing out process. at one time they told me i would get a dedicated trainer for a couple weeks, that later turned into i will get a mentor for two days. im not properly prepared for that family dollar non-sense.

overall the xp i had with werner was poor so why continue with them? i actually know a guy that runs for wadhams milk division and he advised me to get away from the large carriers ASAP, he also likes running for wadhams

TROOPER to TRUCKER · Mar 13, 2017

@KillingTime didn't you recently quit ?

TROOPER to TRUCKER · Mar 13, 2017

Call up Abeline and Britton

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