Werner - Not What I'd Heard (Thank God.)

Hey Tara, Nice thread by the way! I had a question for ya.....If one were to drive for Werner do you HAVE to get a long nosed truck? I'd be happy in a Century, personally. Just wondering.

 

Some terminals will give you somewhat of a choice on a truck, it all depends on what they have....I enjoyed the Century i had, but now I have a Peterbilt 387, Ive had it since Mid January and I am overall happy with it, I only haul beer on Dedicated Anheuser Busch account, and it pulls alright...

 

If you drop off your load and have 0 on your 11 or 14 hr clock, and you do not have a preassign load, you can put in your empty message that you are not available for a load, go on personal drivetime, then drive to your truckstop/restarea to stop for your 10hr break, then after you park for the day put yourself available for a load. A good dispatcher will know how to work the system to help you. I have had to run my hours out to drop of loads before and have been under a preassign load, I call my dispatcher after i drop off and tell him to remove the preassign for 20 mins while i go somewhere to park.

If you are under a preassign load, you cannot put yourself unavailable for a load so you can use personal drivetime to find parking. It takes a very good dispatcher to know how to pul this move off. I work for a O/O and our dispatcher is a former driver for Werner, so he knows some tricks.As far as company driver dispatch, i know there are alot of new guys and gals that the new drivers get for dispatch. If its at night or weekends, this is alot harder to pull off if you have a preassign load. The noob dispatch has no idea what to do to pull a preassign off of you then give it back.

 

Thanks! Honestly, Werner scared me, but this thread is showing me, as always, there are two sides to every story.

As for the trucks, those darned long nose trucks scare me. A Century or newer Pete is fine with me....Those long nose Classic XL's and those long nose Pete's scare me for sure...How the HELL do you back those?!!?

 

That is what I worry my downfall on OTR would be; being able to manipulate the rules. I learned log book tricks, but am by no means a veteran at it, so I worry I would starve on the road.

I still am fuzzy on how to split a break, and how to get hours back, etc. I know how to use the book, but most everything I've done keeps me running straight, then parking. If my live load were too long, I would just fudge it showing my 3 hour live load was, in fact, only 30 minutes to an hour. Other than that, I need to learn the OTR tricks!

 

Ummm.. no. What you are saying is illegal. There is no such line for "personal drive time" on your logs. You are driving on Line 1 and if the dispatcher doesn't do it right, you will get nailed with a log violation with your word against the dispatchers, since the QComm picks up movement. And I bet the conversation doesn't take place across a QComm right? Its all over the phone, so in the long run, it would be your word against the dispatchers.

And said O/O, dispatcher and you could be fired if the DOT and Werner finds out. Because what would happen if you did personal drive time, when your hours are up, heading to a truck stop and get hit by a drunk driver. You could go to jail for violating your logs, lose your job, and lose your CDL. And with Werner, you would certainly lose your job. Breaking the law for any company, or any person is not what this job is about. Are breaking laws for a company worth losing everthing you have?

Again, the best way it do do pre-trip planning. And if need be, sleep at the dock where you were unloaded. That is why you keep food and such in the cab. I don't know HOW many times Highlander has had to do that because he didn't have the hours to move and would not break the law to get to a truck stop (even when dispatchers say they would do the above and get mad when he says no).

Telling a newbie driver to break the law is VERY bad advice to follow.

 

My other half says "very carefully".

He then says you back them like every other vehicle. It's all through sight, using the mirrors and feel, even if it means you have to get out of the cab and look. In this situation, ten inches longer doesn't mean that much, in other words, size matters not here.

And trust me, in 18 years with Werner, he's driven them all, from cabovers, to all of the road trucks Werner has had, several different makes of day cabs, and even the Ottawas. It does not matter whether it is a KW, FL, PB, Volvo no matter what model, they are all the same to him. He can literally jump out of a PB road truck, jump into an Ottawa, do what needs to be done, jump out of an Ottawa, and jump into a Sterling day cab and get up and go and then jump back into his PB. I have never figured out how he does it however, the man can't drive a car for crap......

However, he hasn't driven one of the new Internationals or one of the new KWs... and I don't think he wants to.

As for your choice, it depends upon what is available at the terminal when you are there. And don't take this the wrong way, but don't expect a new truck. If you get one, count your blessings. Highlander has had one truck that was new in eighteen years (which he got when he hit 1 million miles years ago), a shiny new black special edition Pete. Unfortunately three months later, he woke up in front of the dock, in the middle of a flood in So. Cal., with water in the cab.

In time, as you drive different trucks, you will catch on. Just takes time and watch your mirrors.

 

Im sure glad you drivers have shippers and recivers out there that will just let you sit in a dock overnight. I wish I could find those people

 

Thank you! I've not had much trouble backing, as I've backed almost everything EXCEPT a long nose truck. They just seem like a mile or so long!!! I always liked Century Class trucks or those sweet Volvo's. I've not driven the Cascadia yet...