Mike's Book Club: The Legend of Werner Enterprises 1956-2002

I think'll be back tomorrow, were rounding 3rd and heading home on Grandma's house. I scrubbed the last section of basement floor I needed to scrub. I'm going to start putting sealer and finish on, other then that, my family hired a painter to actually paint the house. I thought we were going to do that, but everyroom in the house needs painting and while we did the ceilings and cleaned up and did a lot of the patching, they decided to quote painting and the price ended up being $2,400.00 which is a lot cheaper then the $5,000 I thought it would cost so there going with painters get the house done in a week. So once I get the floor in the basement refinished which is what I'm working on this week my job will be done there for a while, which is good because I have some stuff to do around my house, not a lot but a little I need to make some ribs and roast beef and if it ever warms up to a decent temperature get my lawn back up to snuff, you know fun stuff like that! I have to put new wheels on my wheeler from work and I have another wheeler I need to put a new bolt on. Small jobs, but stuff I need to do.

That's about all.

 

Werner Chapter 2 The Early Years


Hi everybody here's an update on Werner.

So in 1956 C.L. Werner left the family farm and moved with his first wife her name is not relevant although the book does mention it, but it's not relevant however it is the woman he had his 4 children with.

Anyhow, he moved to Omaha,NE pretty much broke and got a job working in a steel factory and worked there for about a month.

Then he decided he was done working in the steel factory hated it even worse then the farm and didn't care to be told when to come, go and eat lunch.

So he went and put a down payment on a 1956 Ford semi tractor.


The red Ford Semi tractor was gasoline powered and got 2 miles to the gallon.


Anyhow Mr.Werner was quoted a lot as saying "The trucks, back in those days were always breaking down and awful, they weren't nearly as good as the trucks now a days." By now a days he meant these trucks:

From 2002 they could run circles around the trucks from the 1950s.

Anyhow, C.L. Werner used to work on his old Ford him self, of course that was before everything was controlled by computers and electronics that nobody understands you can't relive the past through today's eye's it not even the same thing. There's a huge difference between a 1956 Ford gasoline powered tractor and 2002 Freightliner tractor and forget the stuff now a days with the emissions control stuff not even the same planet.

Anyhow, the old trucks from the 1950s were slow and old Mr. Werner talked about going up a hill at 4 miles an hour in Colorado. However, Mr. Werner hauled a bunch of ICC exempt freight. He said that he "never made any money with the red ford truck, just made a living with it. It wasn't till I upgraded to the diesels."

I the late 1950s Mr. Werner upgraded to a GMC diesel semi truck and watched his miles per gallon go from 2 miles per gallon to 5 miles per gallon. Now, Mr. Werner's first major hauling contract was with his 3rd cousin. His, 3rd cousin owned a lumber company and back then lumber was ICC controlled so what Werner did to legally get around that was he would buy all the lumber from his cousin, transport it from the mill to the lumber yard and his cousin would then buy the lumber back from him.

This is around the time Werner added trucks I think he had like 3 trucks or something and started hiring drivers.

Back in the day to show you how different things were, they had no cell phones, credit cards, com-data cards or GPS. Werner would have to give his drivers cash money to cover there trip expenses and these screw balls would have to walk around with a big wad of cash. Of course that opened the door for theft and other debauchery.


But around the early 1960s Werner had some well established routes taking chicken feed and stuff a couple states away from Omaha and hauling lumber back.

Because he had well established routes he was able to tell the drivers what truck stops to go to and they would go there and after a while Werner was able to establish credit with the truck stops he told them, look were here all the time we always pay can we get a tab going. I'll pay you every 30 days or heck every 2 weeks if you want. To his surprise they all extended him 30 days credit so Werner was able to eliminate giving drivers cash. Could you imagine now a days a company like Swift having to give there drivers a big wad of money before they left out on trip? O.M.G. was a mess that would be.

Anyhow, eventually Werner's trucking business outgrew his house in Omaha and he bought 2.5 acres of land in Iowa and they had a shop and office built there. I guess Mr. Werner was fairly charismatic and well liked around Omaha, Nebraska area all of his long time vendors and people all talk about how great he is/was. I mean he's retired now and from what I've heard him and his children don't exactly see eye to eye on stuff anymore and all of the good times have come to pass and now the Werner's are pretty much living the same life as those stray kids from Party of 5, but that's how it goes.

In the early days Werner's kids all wanted to work in the business granted the business is bigger then the Werner's now and it's just there name only the company now a days has nothing to do with the real Werner's same with J.B. Hunt, although Johnelle Hunt is worth $3 billion bucks so I would say old J.B. did pretty good for her, but the two men Werner and J.B. Hunt very different people and ways of doing things.

Anyhow Werner would take his kids to the shop and his kids would cut the grass and clean up and then the sons gravitated into the shop working on the trucks doing oil changes and tires and stuff like that. Then the daughter Gail she worked in the office of the shop.

The daughter Gail said "I thought it was normal for families around the dinner table to talk about trucks and trucking, that's all my dad and brothers talked about at dinner time."

The one son, actually in the early days hand painted all the truck numbers and logo's on all the trucks and trailers and did some body work.

They said this was the mid 1960s now and Werner had maybe 12 trucks or so and everyday they lived in crisis mode. Gail Werner the daughter said everyone dread hearing the phone ring at 2am to tell them one of there trucks was in a wreck, but the trucks would get pulled back to the shop and the son and others would do the body work and fix them up if they could.

However I guess Werner him self people liked him and liked doing business with him and he knew a lot of people and Gail Werner said "Yeah we would go on vacation and my dad could find any shipping dock or loading dock within 20 minutes of where we were vacationing and if he didn't see a Werner truck at that dock he would be on the phone with the sales department back at the office, even on vacation."

As far as the trucks go Werner up graded to the diesels in the late 1950s and he ran the 3 year cycle or 1 for 2. He would pay a truck off and the minute it was paid off he would trade it in for 2 trucks. The company did have a line of credit at the time. So he ran this 1 for 2 trade in deal. So the minute a truck was paid for it was traded in for a new model.

I think like we talked about on here Werner and J.B. Hunt were the one's to start the 3 year pump and dump trade in cycle.

Anyhow, most of Werner's work was flatbed related in the early years, however come the 1970s which is what we have on tap next I think Werner gets into more whole sale transportation which is as you all know dry van.

They did quote Ackle in the book and I know I'm butchering the spelling, but you all know who Ackle is or the Ackle companies, that's Crete Carrier Corp and Schaffer Refrigerated.

Ackle was quoted as saying that Werner worked very had and trucking back in those days like these days was a profit of pennies business.

Anyhow, join us next time for Werner into the 1970s.

 

These companies and places all become to big and bureaucratic and ruthless, but bureaucratic. Anymore I'm really tired of big bureaucracy.

 

They had some classic units. The book has a picture of some of there FLD's I'll post them when we get there.

 

So to show you how society has certainly gone bland and boring.

Here's your 2017-2018 Werner Truck:

Look at that pile of plastic junk.

And Here's you're late 1990s early 2000s Werner Truck:


Is there really any true comparison? The bottom truck eats the top truck for breakfast, lunch and dinner.