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

My old man started out his driving career with the Big Blue Screw in 2007-2008 and his first truck was a KW T600.

He said they eventually pulled him out of it to stick him in a Crapcadia when they were upgrading the fleet.

Years later, he's still driving and wants to acquire one of those "perfect" T600s, but he doesn't know/remember what engine Werner spec'd back then.

You, or someone else here, wouldn't happen to know, would ya?

 

I ran one of them T600 when I was doing my time at Werner! Also had a Cascadia and a long nose Pete for a short time.

 

Detroit Series 60. Those old T600's were built back when trucks were pretty much modular in the drivetrain and you could mix and match motors, transmissions, and differentials as you chose across the different platforms.

I believe there are still a few old 379's and 359 Peterbilts running around with Detroit Series 60 engines.

 

Thanks for bumping this thread. I somehow missed it. I’ll read the whole thing now. My Dad drove for them from 1988-1998. They were a cut above the other Megas. Pay wasn’t great. Health benefits were. Equipment was good. I took my road test at a 3rd party tester in 1992 using a Werner cabover. Thanks Dad, and Werner. That day, I drove from Detroit to Buffalo and back to Cleveland. Dad slept. He cut my wings in Cleveland traffic. Said I was getting too confident. Lol. Great memories. They definitely bucked the trends, and had their own policies for as long as possible to avoid using the rail, and also fought against the Fmsca on some issues, before doing a 180 and cooperating on the paperless log issue. That decision was because no other Megas would stand with Werner. So they jumped the gun, and became the first instead. Pure Werner arrogance manner. Lol.

 

30 years ago this weekend my career started with Werner. I was too young, had a fiance', lots of good friends, I didn't last long being away from all that but it was a great experience. Come a long way since. They had some great rigs back in the day. I have the book mentioned. I always thought C.L. was an innovator. Look at the size of them now, and it all started with 1 truck.

My fav

 

That’s my road test Truck. They were nice. Had that area to stand up in behind the passenger seat. 12.7 10 speed. 7.2 avg. mpg. I couldn’t work there myself. Staying out for 3 weeks at a time is too much. Suited my Dad in his older years. He read a lot. Having heart problems, Training helped with any strenuous work. Made decent money. .30 cpm. Paid all miles. He’d usually take a week off, and be solo. Only be home 3 days per mo. though. We were all grown and gone anyways. They gave him a new Truck within every 100k miles. After years of Driving Junk at Union Jobs. He especially liked that. The Trainees made $375 flat rate per week. 3 Trainers, 3 weeks each. Then solo. Not bad.

 

Yep, they were phasing them out of the fleet when I got there and many were being used in training. I'm so glad I got to drive one during my time down in Lithia Springs, Ga, I was like a kid in a candy store!