Mike's Book Club: The Legend of Werner Enterprises 1956-2002

Alright everyone going to make a big push to get Werner wrapped up this week.

 

WERNER ENTERPRISES 1999-2001 Crossing New Borders.

In 1999 Werner Enterprises entered a new era. The man who is now the CEO of the company Derek Lether's was put in charge of Werner's international division. Because of NAFTA being passed in the mid 1990s it was now easier to do business in Mexico and Werner started partnering with Mexican Trucking Companies to haul loads in and out of Mexico.

Werner also to a smaller extent increased Canadian operations as well. In years before NAFTA shipping to Mexico and stuff was being done, but it wasn't as profitable and it was harder to do. At the time M.S. Carriers was still in business they hadn't been bought out by Swift yet and the CEO of M.S. Carriers said that, back in the old days you would send a trailer into Mexico and hope you got it back and if you got it back it came back in one piece.

So with International operations on the rise Werner expanded it's shipping reach and also it's logistical service offerings.

However the fun didn't last forever. In the year 2000 the economy started to slow down a bit and Werner was not immune to this, there trucking started to slow however Werner did pay off a lot of the companies debts by this time and the operation was pretty much debt free by this time, but they did not expand the fleet any. They said in the late 1990s Werner was growing at a rapid pace as 1999 company revenue surpassed a billion dollars. C.L. Werner said "My second billion should come easier then the first billion."

However the interesting thing about Werner was they said there driver turnover rate was 65% which was lower then the 100% turnover rate at other carriers, but they still had a hard time getting drivers and because of the fact that they couldn't find enough drivers they had a hard time expanding. It was funny because they said drivers had a chance to earn as much as $40K a year at Werner. Which I guess $40K a year in 1999 dollars would be what $50K a year in today's dollars.

Now I think a good driver at Werner could do better then $40K a year that sounds low to me. Anyhow by this time though the Werner's I think Werner's son was the CEO of the company at the time the late 1999s came around because C.L. him self would have already been in business 40 something years and he was already starting to slowdown him self. C.L. said in the mid 1990s that "Working full time used to mean 80 hours a week, now it means 35-40 hours a week."

I think by the late 1990s it was even less then that for C.L. I think he pretty much was just around and was starting to be more of a figure head at that point.

What's funny is the Werner's now aren't really involved in any faction of the business. C.L.'s 81 he's pretty much retired and I'm sure doesn't keep up with company operations as close as he used to or did. He might get an overview once a year, but I'm pretty sure he's just like a powerless figure head now and the kids have all gotten the shake down and shaken out of the company. It's like J.B. Hunt Johnny is dead and Jonhnelle comes around picks up her check for a billion dollars every month and then goes back to her mansion on the hill.

The people who were in operations at Werner at the office said Werner was not a micro manager they gave you a task to do and it was on you to do it they didn't tell you how, or any of that. They said back in the late 1990s and early 2000s Werner did not have a ton of bureaucracy. I'm sure that's changed some.


Anyhow early 2000s the freight market went kind of quiet and then September 11 2001 to economy really took a dive and while Werner stayed alive they said 2000 and 2001 were not the companies best years. However they did open an international terminal in Laredo, Texas around that time, but they said September 11 2001 was a pretty slow day for them as I think it was for the entire country there was other things to do that day. Someone in operations at Werner said "Yes, we didn't move very much freight that day."

I was in 7th grade at the time and we didn't do a ton of school learning that day. Pretty much watched the TV and listened to the radio all day.

Do any of you guys remember that day?
It was a sunny day here in Ohio same as it was in New York City and it was like any other day and then the bottom fell out and after that it was pretty eerie the rest of the day.

Anyhow after that the economy did slow down a bit and they said trucking company's started to close shop because there was a lot of contraction in the economy. People in those days weren't in the mood to buy stuff or go out to eat.

However Werner Enterprises because the company was so conservatively run well structured kind of just tightened there belt they didn't expand the truck fleet and just worked with they had during those years.

Anyhow that wraps up Werner Enterprises 1999-2001.

The next chapter is 2002-the future. Which will see because usually those last chapters are just a commercial for the company, but the thing is all the information is already 15 -16 years old and not even current any more I'm sure some of what they predicted came true and other stuff didn't. Seems to be how it goes.

Anyhow join me for the next and final update as we wrap up The Legend of Werner Enterprises the companies history to 2002. Anything after 2002 is for us to write ha-ha.

 

The Werner Fleet & Maintenance


One of the things we didn't talk about as much was Werner's maintenance and why Werner had such a flashy truck fleet much more then there competitors and certainly way flashy for a big corporate operation like there's.

Today the only major companies that have flashier fleets are Smith and Firillo those companies for bigger operations have kind of flashy fleets. The rest of the fleets Werner included all have just throw away fleet trucks, but back in 1999-2000 it was a different story.


One of the things about Werner in the 2000s was they really upped fleet maintenance according to the book. Now I know in the olden days as @bzinger has taught us, things were a different story and I'm sure it didn't always run like clock work like they say LOL!

Anyhow, @Mike_77 pointed out way way back on page 1 and in the forward that Werner wasn't you're typical starter outfit. If you were just a person who wanted a pay check then you worked at J.B. Hunt and Schneider. If you wanted a bit more then just that, you worked at Werner because Werner had a much higher grade of equipment and a way fancier fleet then J.B. Hunt and Schneider even though they all had the exact same trailers . Well J.B. and Schneider ran identical power and trailers for most of the past 20 years. Werner always was a little different.

Werner's fleet people said that they bought the fancier trucks because they were trucks drivers wanted to drive and Werner unlike J.B. Hunt always bought much higher end model trucks they didn't buy anything base model at Werner. The reason for that was because the drivers wanted bigger trucks with better creature comforts and Werner said alright fine they have to live in these things that's fine.

It's the same reason US Xpress adopted automatics earlier. A lot of there older drivers asked if the company could experiment with them and management at US Xpress said sure that's fine. I know US Xpress was like the first fleet to really go automatic and that's there kind of claim to fame.

Anyhow Werner and I don't know how they figured it, but instead of being like a Schneider or J.B. Hunt and buying 1000 International 9600s. Werner would buy (3) different kind of trucks. They would buy you know like a standard fleet truck like a Columbia or Century both of those trucks are no longer made by Freightliner.


They would buy a couple of these units and those trucks would go to the newer drivers, then probably as the newer drivers proved them selves and worked them selves up the ladder they would graduate up to the Freightliner Classics and Kenworth W900s

Now that didn't mean there wasn't some kid who didn't get a W900 or Chromed out Freightliner Classic right out of truck school, but generally that's how it worked.

Anyhow, Werner's shop used the Qualcom to talk to the trucks engine and were able to get data on truck performance through the Qualcom. Also Werner had safety lanes at there terminals and they said the way the routing was done the safety lanes did a 7 minute inspection of the trucks and it made it so they would see the entire fleet about 2 times a month.
At the time the late 1990s Werner had 20,000 trailers and like 7,000 tractors and revenue of $1.2 billion dollars.

Werner was on the cutting edge they figured better trucks= better service to customers and less driver turn over which also=better service to customers. Better more high tech efficient maintenance=better operations and more work out of each unit and that = more money and revenue and higher quality of service.

 

That's true and you know what they talked about the early 2000s Werner set up there truck dealer network where they sold there used units off and Werner having nicer fancier trucks made there trucks more marketable for sale. It's also why in the 2000s you saw so many Werner trucks with out the standard fleet paint scheme and Werner buying different colored trucks it was all about resale.