Am I making a mistake leaving Werner?

I know. But I should be paying more attention to who wrote it. So many things to remember.

 

You're fine,i think it's funny

 

If she had a nickle for every time someone called her "he" or him....


She wouldn't be a truck driver....


(Oh wait..)

 

Smaller carriers are almost always better. Based on your description, it sounds like a better offer.

Anyone who tells you that what they are saying is "truth", is probably deceiving you. It's the same whenever some tells you "trust me". Most of the time, they are about to deceive or manipulate you. Trust is earned, not given, and truth is usually self-evident over time. You don't need to be told, when a statement is true, and after all, if the statement were false, why should the declaration of "truth" be any less false. A liar will happily lie twice, if that makes the lie more convincing.

That said, as training carriers go, Werner isn't too bad. They're all pretty awful, but you have get your start somewhere. The trick is to get out of the training carrier as early as possible, and find a place that you can be happy at, for at least a year or so. At Werner, you have to be the squeaky wheel.

It took me six months, when I was a shiny new trucker, to get put on an account that I was happy with - up until then, life was hard and pay was crappy. But I did eventually get on a decent account. They don't like to keep people, though, so around your one-year anniversary, you should have something better lined up, and jump.

They get federal grants for "training", and those grants start drying up after about a year. They don't have an explicit policy to get rid of people at that point, but it is when pressures start to bear.

Go with the gig that you are most comfortable with. Werner doesn't even want your loyalty, just the grant money associated with you.

Trainers everywhere are paid for the miles that you drive, and not so much the backing or Qualcomm training, so if you get a trainer who is willing to devote adequate time to those things, you lucked out. Usually, your trainer was coerced into training, one way or another, so he's unlikely to be highly motivated to do a good job - and since they are usually drivers with not much more than a year or two of experience, themselves, they frankly rarely have much of value to teach, anyway. "Training" as it relates to over-the-road driving, is usually an exercise in trial-by-fire. If you get through it without hitting anything, you're probably okay. Or at least, you probably will be. And if not, well, they can always just fire you.

It's less about teaching you to be a better driver, and more about weeding out the really bad ones. That they put so much time and talk into convincing you otherwise, is the dead giveaway that it's bull. All that effort would be better spent actually teaching you the job, rather than convincing you that they are going to teach it to you.

Also... recruiters are not drivers. They have never been through the training program. They have never ridden the bus 20 hours to get to orientation, they have never arrived with $20 in their pockets and luggage filled with canned goods. They go home to their families every night in the cars that the drove to work, and go wherever they want for meals, because they have their car. They don't know the reality of orientation or training; what they know is the plan, and what they were told - usually by a more senior recruiter who also never went through it to know the truth of it. They are not usually being intentionally deceptive; as a rule, they think that they know what they are talking about, and they're just wrong. It means that you still can't trust them, no matter how sincere they sound, because they may be sincere - and still be wrong. Try not to hold stupidity against the stupid; they don't actually know any better...

But be prepared. What the recruiter tells you about the process is generally only coincidentally accurate if it turns out to have any relationship to reality, at all...

See? I can write a book, too!

 

I almost thought you and OP compared notes because you both made long posts lol

 

You think that trainers actually like training people and to share their wealth of knowledge that they've gained in their six months OTR? They're only doing it to get your miles.

 

In fairness, money isn't everything. First question is, am making enough money?

I know, I know... you can never make enough money. Well, yes, you can. When your needs are met, when your kid's needs are met, when their financial needs start to take a back seat to their parenting needs... then you are probably making enough money. After you reach that point, it takes more and more financial incentive, to make you willing to pursue dollars over other priorities... meaning that your financial demands escalate geometrically, compared to things like home time and whatnot. I have found that having a supervisor who isn't hung up on his own job title is absolutely HUGE, for me, now that I have two houses and three cars paid for, and I live alone. I have too much crap, and the real reason I keep working isn't money so much, but rather group health insurance... but I digress...

Question number two is, are you happy where you are? If not, then you need to make a change. If you are happy where you are, then it should take one heck of an incentive, to entice you to risk that happiness. Life only gets so good. If you leave a job that you like, for two cents per mile, then you'd better really need that two cents...

More money isn't the whole story. It's important, sure. Less work may not make the difference, either. Some guys might prefer to work hard, but get home often. Whatever makes you happy.

The key to happiness isn't about getting what you want. (That's far too much of a moving target.) It's about wanting what you get.

I gather that our OP isn't any too happy with Werner, and he has enough of a relationship with people at the new carrier, to think that he has a better shot at happiness, there. That being the case, I'd call the move a win...

 

I don't know how Werner works, but at some companies the trainer gets a bonus if the student stays with the company for a certain amount of time. If Werner does that, it would explain why he's mad that you're thinking about quitting lol