Any questions from prospects or lookers from real Watkins and Shepard drivers?

sounds positive, we aren't a team though, I ride along full time. We looked into WS a few years ago when Crete took away their pet policy, but decided to stay since they grandfathered us in. What are about bringing trucks home, we live in LA/OC, or do you have to leave them at a terminal? Crete lets us drive ours home and even lets us use it while we are there since we don't have a car. Certainly don't mind losing a few cents if we can get more miles...

 

you'll have to park it at the terminal (Santa Fe Springs (terminal) or La mirada (sp?) which is up the street where the shop/drivers lounge is



American Trucker

 

Sayreville is also $20 stops. I did that for a few months before calling it quits with the company (possibly a little prematurely, but that's neither here nor there.)

I made pretty decent paychecks doing stops/miles on short line...more decent than when I was in general dispatch anyway. I agree though, it's harder work than typical truckload stuff since it's all touch freight and roughly half of the places I went didn't even have docks (Ballpark estimate). There were plenty of days where I was hot, sweaty and dirty at the end of the day. You're in the back of the trailer at every stop digging out the pieces for the customer, and re-securing the load with load straps or bars before leaving. Furthermore some of the places you'll be expected to wedge a long box/sleeper cab truck into are pretty insane and occasionally stupid and/or dangerous, so you have to be very careful about what situations you put yourself in. You won't make it in and out of some of those parking lots and need to be sharp enough to recognize that before you even try. On the positive end of things, I typically only worked during normal business hours since that was the only time retail locations were open to take their deliveries, and I appreciated not being micro managed as much. (Nobody told me what route to take or where to fuel up or sent me annoying qualcomm messages...) I'd fuel up at the end of the day just enough to get the free shower and rarely ever had to pay for one, which was not the case when I was in general dispatch.

 

when you run national with WS are there certain states you tend to see more than others, or certain areas you tend to run more??

 

you'll go every where



American Trucker

 

one other question ... is all the orientation done in Montana?? Or does each terminal do orientation? thanks for all your help, trying to make sure we know what we're doing before we make a change

 

its done in both Missoula, MT and in Conover, NC




American Trucker

 

Thanks for the discussion, I am currently a tanker driver and my company is pushing very hard for overweight and over hours. Even to the extent of skipping the scales. I refuse to do so and I have a feeling that they are looking for an excuse to fire me so they can get a driver who will break the rules. I have been searching for a new company, but did not want to work for any of the huge carriers out there. I've been researching Watkins now for a few weeks and they seem to be a stand up company. I got my application in today so hopefully it works out

 

their a pretty decent company, keep on there ##### and they will keep you rolling..

 

That's really what it's about...You have to be assertive and aggressive in this industry...If you just sit and stare at the QC waiting for it to ding, you'll do a lot of sitting and staring...Build rapport and a working relationship with your dispatchers, don't just be type on a screen, it'll pay off bigtime!