Watkins shepard

Thanks for helping prove a point, mopar. If you simply were a "real trucker" and not a wimpy loser that turns down every load but the big miles with no multiple stops to them then you would obviously be making great money and loving your company. That's the attitude that you get from these idiots on here. But its true that sometimes no matter how hard you try to appease the powers that be you're going to get stranded in the middle of nowhere waiting for the delivery appointment that was set by a clueless dispatcher. It's true that sometimes no matter how nicely you ask the receiving dept they won't let you unload until your appointment 2 days away that was set by previously noted clueless dispatcher. It's true that when you ask said clueless dispatcher for a layover authorization code you would think the $50 is coming directly out of his own pocket. It's true that sometimes your safety bonus will get the shaft unjustly and theres nothing you can do about it.

Thanks for sharing, mopar. Get your time in and get out to a local job that pays the same and gets you home every night like I did. And before the great defenders of Watkins Shepard start in with the time worn argument that if drivers just worked harder and didn't whine and complain about less-than-perfect loads they would realize what a great company is.... I realize that these are problems that are widespread in the industry. My issue lies not so much with WS as it does with the abusive nature of the job of driving OTR.

 

and thats why OTR is not for everyone.... im not saying w.s is the golden company to work for, but for someone out of school its a great company.
yeah, there are clueless people here, not just disp.
Dance and I ran 2 gether one time, and had to swap trls before a scale cause i was 1,100 over gross, disp said to me " Im sure the over weight ticket cant be THAT much..."
yes, disp AND the shop act like the money comes directly out of their own pockets, you do have to keep on top of them about the money, but usualy you get it, may take a few weeks, but ull get it most of the time.
and yes it is getting harder to get the saftey bonus, but everyone is trying to keep every dollar they can, so thats expected from most companies for many different reasons.
i agree with dance, the money is on the east coast, krissy can and will run you hard 98% of the time,
i have never in my year with w.s turned down any loads, i have turned down some cause of an issue, but never cause it was to short of a run, or i didnt want to go into that area, the tighter the better, i learned how to drive in the north east, Mass, NH, NY, VT, Phila, RI, CT, NJ, Del, MD,
Boston, Bronx, Brooklyn, give it to me, ill take them any day of the week,
a Day Cab?? not for me, thats seat can filled by someone who does not care for OTR,
he said something about not clearing 47,000 a year....
i did, actually cleared over that, 22 years old, first year driving,
it is possiable,
but as i said above in the begining, OTR is not for everyone, and there is no way to no untill you sitting in the seat
sorry you feel the way you do about the company, you can bet your not the only one who feels that way either. but for the most part, its great for newbs to get training from a non-bottem-feeder as you call w.s
good luck locating a local job, hope it all works out for you

 

Hey...

I'm on the West Coast (Cali) and was wondering if their Western 10 is worth getting into? http://www.wksh.com/Owner_Operators.aspx

My Wife and I already have income so I was wondering if this would be good for supplementing it?

I gave Roxie a call on Friday so hopefully I'll hear something in a few days.

Thanks!

 

EDIT: #### double posting...

 

well, im not exactly sure how the western 10 works, but im from the east caost, and have not been back east in 48 days now, but thats by choice, i just have not been offered a load going that way, and dont plan on for another few weeks, i like to stay out, as said above, it all depends on how hard your willing to run.
confirmed word has it that our top teams, each cleared 81k last year. but they ran non stop throughout the year.
ill send u a pm be on the look out for it.
dont get turned away cause of neg things being said on here about watkins, if your lookin to stay on the east coast, and get stuck in a loop between calie colorado montana washington, id, or and az, you should do ok, i would recomend going east just to say " Been there Done That, dont wanna go back "

 

5 days without a load,thats funny.Layover auth. Whats that? 7000 miles a month.LOL When some are getting plenty of miles and some are not that leads me to believe dispatch has a clue.Who the screw ups are.LOL 10 yrs O/O with WS,plenty of miles and money,life is good.So before anyone else starts telling how bad ole WS is please wait till your fuel card has a worn look to it.

 

Dear mr allischalmers, I am a JOHN DEERE man. Don't cuss Watkins-Sheopard with your mouth full. I LOVE this company. I have never had a problem with them. It was obviously you. I even hired a driver (probably just like you) I wanted to fire for not calling in and not delivering ontime. They talked me out of it afor 3 months and everytime sat down with him and he promised to do better. WE just sold the ride out from under his lazy ###. He disappeared in Pueblo for 3 days on his way from Spokane to ABQ-DAL. When he got to Dallas we sent him to Dallas Pete and he thought we had traded trucks because we had negotiated one. Instead he got dumped there with $300 to get back home. He could've made 60-$70000 a year working for me.

 

MSMPILOT I agree. I took every load and one I complained about they added 5 cents/mi to get me to take it. I've had 3500 mi/wk, mostly BALT-SEA, SEA-SPO-CHI-SEA-SPO-BALT. I love 60 ft extrusions to Boeing 757s.

 

The reason they paint John Deere's green is so they can hide in the bushes when there's real work to be done.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience with hiring a driver. It's impressive that you were able to quickly judge my work ethic from only a couple of posts and tractor preference, I suggest that you use those same skills when hiring your next driver to avoid a repeat experience.

 

Maybe I should try again. I don't say you should have to work harder. I say communicate better and make life for the dispatchers easy and they'll make your life better.

And the drivers that are sitting at a terminal for 5 days that have turned down multiple loads and are complaining that they can't get a load? yeah, I'll pick on them 7 days a week and twice on Sundays.