My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

First off I want to say I have considerable respect for some of the W & S drivers here . My comment about the difficulty of in town deliveries was meant to be a compliment but you chose to go in another direction . It isn't necessary to work for a company to know something about them . I know W&S went to a private fleet that had experienced drivers with equipment spec'ed for the job and convinced them they could do the job cheaper with drivers working harder and cheaper with make do equipment . That also put employees at the Ryder branch servicing that fleet out of work .
Now internet information isn't all that accurate so you can correct me if I heard this wrong . W&S's system includes sending drivers on strict designated routing . They tell you where you must buy fuel . Often that means you can't fuel up because there may be cheaper fuel 100 or so miles down the road .
If you're happy working like that then good enough for you . Some of us like to work smarter , not harder .
I only make 2 deliveries a week and load pay averages $700 per load . I take the route I choose and fuel when and where I want to . 90% of the loads are either drop and hook or customer unload .
Nobody has their own little world out there . We all have to deal with newbies that starter companies rotate in and out of seats .

 

It's true, once again Rick is trying to wrap up W/S with every chitty OTR company out there. W/S is a great place to start out at where they'll treat you fairly, run you legal and not babysit you every mile of the way. I left after putting in my time and make around 1400 before taxes weekly, but I only work 4 days a week locally

I think it's also a safe bet, someone who's spent a year or two driving at W/S compared to Swift will come out looking like a better driver upon their next interview with the experience that's gained from this company.

 

I appreciate you clearing that up because I have seen a former W&S driver post that information on several complaint sites .

 

I run for Watkins, good luck with orientation, I just picked up a load from conover, heading to Texas right now, like everybody's been saying just be confident, and relaxed and pay attention, I'm sure ill see you around, my truck numbers 2008, if you see me introduce yourself, names Gabriel sure ill see you soon, my home terminals Santa Fe springs CA, but they always send me east to conover

 

why did u go to flat bed when its a hard job just saying i did it 2 yrs and got to see wht it was like i lesc my truck to the copmy i was wiht and it was great so mge me back on face book my name is jason scholbrock and my cb handel is yoda if u need help let me kno ill be glad i can help u out

 

This is waaay back p 68 and if BNR32 is still around, can he clarify. "if I unload" Do you mean empty the trailer completely so that you're ready for a load and switch the tractor off, then get into your sleeper so that this is not counted as driving time. Wasn't AT's situation quite different at that time in that he was only partially unloading and in fact had to do the physical unload.
Since the HOS regime is quite different here some of what you guys do is harder to understand.

You've talked AT about just making it into TS with just a minute to spare so is the Qualcom monitoring what the truck is actually doing. How does it filter out the engine time when the truck is just idling, not running on the hwy. How is the system so fiddle proof that you will be picked up for just a few mins over your 11. Paper logs here!!

 

I posted that query when on p 68 and like not cheating when you're reading a good book by going to the last page, didn't know what happened to AT's career in trucking. Now I realise that he's long gone.

 

He's long gone from W/S and this forum but he's still doing linehaul.

 

Loved working for WS. Would go back but got hurt and on disability. Ran me as a lease operator 3500mi/wk. I was well treated by everyone and got discounts for fuel parts tires and shop labor. Good freight too. I have no complaints about them.