My experience with Werner, The Big Blue Screw

truant thanks for the info, like i said just trying to get into the industries door

 

All those companies you mentioned are about the same. You CAN do it with Werner. You just have to go into it with your eyes open. It's trucking. We don't sleep 8 hours at night after a warm glass of milk. We go when we have to go. We sleep when and where we can. Tyson will only hire you from certain states... but that's an easy fix, too if you won't take "No" for an answer. I found a chick who would let me use her address so that I could switch my license to that State. Then Tyson hired me. I didn't go home for several months until I proved to Tyson that I was a runner. Once I established myself with my Tyson dispatcher... I asked him if I could park my truck closer to my home.

Anyway... another long story... Just say to yourself... "I'm going to figure it out and make this work." And you will figure it out and make it work.

 

I have my eyes wide open, I have a great attitude about it and I am not letting anything get in my way because there is another day....like one of my instructors said you can be loving the trucker life while on the road for five minutes, then the next 5 you hate it, and then love it again etc....I understand that very much it is just like every other job out there....most 8 hour jobs are crap with crappy bosses and crappy training as well, been through it, got through it, and succeeded at some and moved on from some...It's all how you look at it, there is always a new day right around the corner

 

I start orientation with Werner in Dallas on Monday.

I have been working for a living in blue collar jobs for over thirty years so the work part won't be a problem. My main goal is to get at least a year of OTR experience. I know the pay won't be that great, but I have started at the bottom several times in the past.

I listened to the recruiters talk and having heard it all before from other companies wasn't blinded, but there were a couple of items he mentioned that got me to check deeper and read more on here about them. Seems he was on the up and up there, so far so good. One question I had probably won't be answered until I get to Dallas so we will see if they are still batting a grand.

Will probably come back to this thread with updates as they transpire.

 

The problem with Werner is that their trainers don't have enough training themselves. I worked for them years ago, first driving job, and only after one month of solo driving, they wanted me to start training. They say you need 6 months before you can train, but not true. They will run your butt off, but for not much pay at all. Start you out at 26 cpm o t r, but if you take regional, it gets cut back to 23 cpm, and empty miles are only 15 cpm. They don't like to tell you that. You do get home more often though. But they will still send you all over even though you're regional. Also, it is very dangerous at the Dallas terminal. They will always want you to take someone with you if you walk up the street to any of the burger joints, because of all of the criminals, dopers, hookers, thieves, everywhere. They have razor wire all around the whole place including their own motel because of criminals. Also once, while I was walking to the sonic drive in by the pilot beside werner, two hookers got in a fight , when it was all over with, looked like dead cats laying around on the sidewalk from the weaves that came out of their hair.

 

Well I am looking heavily into KLLM, they train there trainers to be trainers, they also pair you up based on personalities kind of, so say if your a smoker like me they will pair me with a trainer that is a smoker as well. pretty cool, I just have to use my cousins address in pheonix since I live to far out of there hiring range. I was looking at may trucking and going to do the same but they do not allow pets to ride along and they say they pay practical miles but zip code to zip code, isn't that HGH miles? Werner pays practical, just waiting to talk to KLLM recruiter monday to see if they pay hgh, practical short, practical miles, or hub o meter

 

The Dallas terminal reminded me of a prison. You will be in a Werner Hotel, and right next to it is a Mc'Donalds, except you can't get to it without going all the way around... must have been 1 or 2 miles. lol. The street outside is OK provided you are not out at dark, I think the bad guys sleep during the daylight. When I was stuck there I would go out for lunch, and bring my dinner back with me, usually I think it was a Subway... I was told Werner put up the Fence to keep the hookers out of the hotel that all the drivers brought in. For the life of me I don't know why they didn't just put up a security gate with card key entry and tell the driver they would be fired if they brought a hooker in. Seems to be they did not trust their own drivers at all.