An Honest Review of Werner

I'm posting this in the Werner section because my experience was neither great nor terrible. I just want to give an honest review of how my time at Werner went.

I started with Werner in May of 2014. Orientation was okay, nothing to talk about.

Training:
Training was terrible. My first trainer was suspended because of an error made by the folks in Omaha. They cleared it up about a week later, but it was still a bad first impression.

My second trainer ran Phoenix to Fontana and took weekends off. I spent a lot of time in a motel and learned very little. Overall training took about 3 months because of how much time he had off.

Since trainees only earn $400 a week, I was really anxious to get out and into my own truck.

Budweiser:
My first solo account was a Budweiser dedicated. This is the highest paying account other than the hand unload jobs. Unfortunately I had a very bad experience with the Budweiser account. I was assigned a lightweight freightliner columbia with 750,000 miles. This led to a lot of problems with getting legal weights and having to be reloaded at the breweries. Frequently I sat for 2-3 hours to get re loaded. Dispatch did not seem to care and the few times I was promised detention or layover pay I never saw a dime of it.

Dollar General:
I only did this account for a week, so I don't have a lot to say about it. I was supposed to go to the Wal Mart account, but they weren't ready for me. So I ran Dollar General for a week. That week I saw the largest paycheck I ever earned at Werner. You can gross over $1k a week doing DG, but you will work hard for it. Stay hydrated, plan your trips well, and plan your backing, lots of these stores were not meant for semi truck deliveries.

Wal Mart:
This was by far the best account I had at Werner. The miles were good (2700ish a week) but the pay was lower because of the longer distance runs. Walmart trailers are kept in much better condition than Werner trailers. Many loads are preloaded and all of them are dropped at WalMart DCs. No live unloads. I was required to get hazmat, but Werner reimbursed me in full for it.

Net OPs:
I was eventually offered a daily lane that got me about 2200 miles a week and home every night, weekends off. This was a good gig, but the money was just not there. I had my best dispatcher while working this lane. He was a real good guy and did everything he could to make me happy. I never had to ask him for breakdown or layover pay. I'd still be driving for him, but the money just isn't there.

Trucks and Equipment
The equipment at Werner was very hit or miss.

They're currently moving away from Freightliner and moving to an automatic Peterbilt fleet.

I've had everything from a 2006 Columbia that would overheat going up hills to a brand new 2016 Pete.

Trucks are governed at 65 and most are having mobile eye or other safety technology installed.

Overall drivers take poor care of their equipment, so you can expect to get a truck with some miles on it when you first show up.

Trailers are pretty bad in general. Most of them are old and beat up. At least once a week I had a trailer with a serious problem that another driver had decided he didn't want to fix.

Misc.
One of my biggest gripes about Werner are the guys in the truck shop and the folks who spend their days in offices.

Every 60 days I would write up my truck for scheduled preventive maintenance and every time I came back to the yard it would be moved to a new spot, keys in the ignition, and no work had been done to it.

They would do the same when I wrote the truck up for more serious issues. Like air leaks, alignment, gaskets, etc.

I finally decided my time at Werner was over when my car was vandalized in the employee parking lot. I spoke with the terminal manager who told me to file a claim with the risk department. After a month the risk department told me that they would not be held responsible. I repeatedly tried to get in contact with someone who would look at the security camera footage, but was given the run around until I gave up.

There's plenty more that I could write, but I think I covered the big stuff.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, it may take me some time to respond since I don't check this website often.

Good luck out there and stay safe.