WERNER: Greg Werner says "just take the truck".

This Kills me...and my sister is an O/O for Werner. And to think I was trying to apply to them.

At least SNI does it tactfully..they just release the senior driver outright. Call them into the office and say, "great job, way to keep it save and here's your pink slip!!"

 

The trucking industry has not been screwed over any worse than any other industry.
It is hard times everywhere.
I am willing to listen though.....for about another 2 hours then I will off-line for a couple weeks so if I don't respond don't assume I don't care.
But you stated, or perhaps it was someone else, that trucking rates are what they were in the late 90's at most a .01 less. Even taking the high end of 4000 miles a week = 208,000 miles a year X .01 = $2080. Lets got the low end of the pay scale and say $30K a year and that equal a pay cut of about 6%. And those cust do not apply to EVERY driver. Now lets look at almost every other industry out there. 10% pay cut seems to be the norm and I took 3X that cut.
I also recognize that pay is only one portion of what makes a job as well. But I know that far more is expected of me today than what was in the past. I have seen 3 people leave not get replaced and those duties fall on me to do....without recieving a dime more. I know my job used to be 9-5 and now it is 7:30-5:30= more hours and now less pay.
Look I am not saying that I or anybody else has it worse off than a truck driver. But my point is that everyone is suffering and I just don't see the trucking industry being more harsh on drivers than other markets.
At least when miles get cut from driving a driver has that free time to do whatever he/she wants and it is up to them if they take advantage of that time or not. So along with the smaller pay comes a smaller workload. I have a smaller paycheck but more workload.
Again I will listen to your side and I want to state again that I am not saying that you guys don't have it bad. I am just saying that EVERYONE is hurting right now.

 

The cost of transportation of the product that is ultimately sold to consumers constitutes maybe a dime in a products over all price.

There is absolutly no good reason for truckers to be paid less than minimum wage.

The only reason this can happen is because other people are swindling truckers out of fair compensation for their work.

This is abuse, and it is only continuing because the government does not care and truckers are not organized.

The swindlers are organized, very well organized.

 

You are forgetting a few key facts, though. We work 60 and 70 hour weeks. Sometimes more. We spend alot of time sitting, for which we make either little or no money, at shippers, receivers, terminals, truckstops waiting for loads, etc. While there is layover and detention pay, it pales in comparison to what we make while rolling. Oh ya, we also don't get overtime (except for the hourly guys, and a fair number of them don't either.) Then there is being away from your family for long periods of time, the irregular schedules, and HEAPS of regulations we are expected to follow.

Now, it used to be we were well compensated for all this, and trucking was worth it. Yet today, the pay is almost the same as it was 15+ years ago. And I'm talking without the pay cuts.

I'd bet you would be looking for another line of work if you made the same as you did 15 years ago. Sure, we can find new jobs, except now it has become harder and harder to find decent companies. And the more you job hop, the more damage you do to your work history, making it even harder to find a good company.

I'm willing to bet you wouldn't last one week as an OTR truck driver, yet you somehow think you can come on here and say that we don't have bigger problems then anyone else?

Sure, it's tough all over. But think on this. #### near every single thing you have ever purchased in a store at one time or another has ridden in a truck. When the economy goes south, it is the transportation industry that gets hit the hardest because we rely on ALL the manufacturers. If people stop buying cars, it affects the automotive industry and the parts manufacturers.... AND the truckers. If people stop buying clothes, it affects the clothing manufacturers, the textile companies, the cotton growers, AND the truckers. Starting to see the pattern here?

Simply put, we're the common point of #### near every industry in the world. Yet, most people look on the trucking industry as worthless, and truckers as dangerous outlaws just waiting to kill people. Or, like you, as people not worthy of some modicum of respect.

Bah, I'm gonna stop there before I crash the servers with too much data.

 

very well put

 

This is sad to say the least steele, I feel for highlander, and hopes he will find something better as it sounds like Werner is trying to push him out the door.. And to the wannabee who post in this thread.. You have no clue as to what companies do to their drivers as you haven't even worked for one yet.. I have talked to many driver at different companies who say the same thing. That each training company gets money from the government to train new students.. It works something like this.. A new student gets enrolled in one of the companies training programs.. The student usually pays either out right out of his/her pocket or through financing from the company.. When they complete at least one yrs, the company reimburses the student via weekly installments in his/her checks.. The government has already paid for the students training.. If this was not partially true, then why in the world would a company like Werner, Swift, CR England pay students back their money that they collected from them for training? This would make no sense,as they are trying to find ways to take money from drivers, via their pay check or charging them for things like fuel, cleaning of the truck after it has been turned in, fuel and the list goes, on and on and on..

Right now the economy stinks, and companies are trying to save a buck, but on the backs of the drivers plan and simple... If you can prove me wrong on the above, then pleas post away...

Another thing I have recently heard about Werner, and not sure how ture, but would not surprise me is this. After a student finishes school, he/she goes out with their trainer for up to 8 weeks.. When that is done, and they test out Werner sends them home and claims there are no trucks available.. Then then after 30 days Werner firers the new drivers, and the vicious cycle starts all over again. This is a way for Werner to move freight via cheap labor, and doesn't have to provide benefits...

 

I heard about the same...only a small differance. yes, werner will take you in and train you. No one says that is a guarentee a job even awaits you after schooling. Werner was not even hiring the drivers they train.
Just shove you out the door and start filling the desk with fresh meat.

Like i stated in another thread, write/ call your congressmen and ask why the government is spending money to companies fortraining drivers and there is no work, no jobs and damages a already slow/dead industry. How about giev companies tax breaks to hire unemployed experience drivers!!

 

I've heard rumor about this, too. Can't confirm it, but I can confirm that five weeks of training easily becomes six, seven, even eight because of Werner's lack of trucks. I had to train with them back in '07 because of my lack of recent experience, and my training got extended. Didn't bother me too much, since I got along great with my second trainer (How ya doin' Rick, ya ol' Gator Boy! Figure out how to drive in snow, yet?). But if they had done that with me on my first trainer's truck...Hooboy the war that would have started! Me and my first trainer did NOT get along for nuttin'!

 

Good point, DD. Not to mention the fact that they spread the payments for your school over a year or more to try to get you to stay.

 

Heck, there was an outfit I worked for early in my career where 60 or 70 hours/week was considered a light week! We worked an average of 90 to 120 hours. Needless to say, my logbook caught up to me about 3 weeks after I quit working for them. Glad as all get out I wised up before someone got hurt!