My time at Werner so far (update)

Well, so far so "ok".

I completed my 275 hrs south of Toledo, OH. I called my SDM (Student Development Mgr) to let him know. As usual, he isnt there and I have to deal with the evening crew (worthless) I have to call back in the morning. So I continue to drive. the next morning, I get ahold of captian do nothing and inform him that I am ready to get off this truck and into a terminal to test out. He tells me that I need to stay on the truck for 30 more hrs to get me to a terminal that has trucks.

My first thought was...Hmm, Omaha is not very far from Joplin, MO why would I have to have 30 more hours? Oh well, they offered me 100.00 for the 30 bucks. I asked what my option was. the SDM old me I could stay on the truck, get the 100, go home on a greyhound and they would call me when they had a truck, or I could get to the nearest terminal and let me sit in the hotel till they were ready. I opted to stay on the truck and get a couple more days driving and backing.

We drive from Joplin, mo to Phoenix,AZ then back to Santa Fe, NM. I finish my 30 hrs from there and call captian dips#&t to get me to a terminal. He tells me he is already working on this and will get back with me by 5 pm central time. We then get a qualcom message from dispatch to go to pickup in El Paso, Tx. I'm thinking great! I might get to go to the Dallas Terminal. 5 pm rolls around as we get to El Paso.

Needless to say SDM doesnt return my call. And with the time change, I forget and call back to late. since I only have 10 hrs on my 70, I need to get to a terminal before I have to reset. I get ahold of a little bundle of sunshine at the SDM office and she informs me she can do nothing for me. I ask to speak to a supervisor. She informs me that there are no sups there. I asked he if she was running the ohmaha terminal by herself. she didnt lilke that comment. Anyway, this pissed my trainer off since she wasnt willing to help out. So he called dispatch and they had to authorize me off the truck so he could get a new student. Situation overted for now.

we leave El paso and my trainer has me run the last leg to Dallas, Tx. this kind of botherd me since I knew once I got there, I wouldnt get much sleep. and with all the phone calling and dropping and loading the previous day, I only got 4 hrs sleep anyway before my shift. I rolled into the Dallas terminal at 9 am on 4.11. we take the rig through the saftey lane get it redtagged, unhook and get me booked into a hotel. I finally got up with my SDM. I let im know how much grief he caused me and that I not only needed to be paid for the extra day of drive time but also needed to get a single hotel room. (they bunk you up till you test out) He agreed and got me squared away. I finally got to sleep around 1 pm.

I gotta to take my tests and get situated to get my truck. With any luck I should be rolling by the weekend. cross my fingers!

TO NEW STUDENTS: Things to expect (or to look out for)

Back to my trainer. My experience with the trainer overall wasnt horrible. I've had worse things to deal with. It started off pretty good. He was patient, helpful and always answerd my questions. he was a game nerd and anytime he wasnt driving he wanted to mess with his laptop. this didnt bother me, but as time went on, when I would ask him a question while he was playing he seemed to get short with me. simple one word answers, or not listening when I spoke. he also did this when he was alseep. Last week before my hrs were up I asked him what his deal was. Why are you all the sudden short with me when I need help? Am I asking stupid questions? I told him YOU are the trainer and need to be there when the STUDENT needs help no matter what time it is. If you cant do that, maybe you shouldnt be a trainer. he agreed and appolgized.

One other thing about my trainer. See, I'm a pretty big guy. 6'2" 340. My trainer is 2 of me put together. As time went on I realized how not only lazy my trainer was but DIRTY as well. We ran JT "just in time" loads 90% of the time we were out. this meant showers every 5 days and eating was almost always while rolling. This guy kept his truck filthy. you couldnt move without steping on some kind of dropped food or used snot rag (this I HATE) or some other type of garbage. And the smell. reallly bad.

Once in awhile I would get an overwhelming smell of poop. I couldnt place it. I thought maybe I or my trainer stepped in dog crap at a rest area and tracked it in on our shoes. I asked my trainer about it and he said he couldnt smell it. till one day I was climing into the truck and dropped a dollar on the floorboard. I had to lean over the seat to get it it. come to find out the S@#T smell was coming from the seat! I figured it out. My trainer, being a big guy either couldnt or wouldnt wash his ##### therefore with the smell and farting it made the seat stink. I should have figured this out sooner since he never wore socks or trimmed his toenails the entire time on the trip. He was to fat and lazy to bend over.

I took all of this in stride thinking it could be worse. My eye was on the prize of getting out and on my own truck. Its been a long haul so far. would I do it again? No way. but I have passed the point of no return. I gotta keep going now or I have wasted not only my time and money but Werner's as well.

for those of you thinking of getting into this profession, know this is what you may be up against. I just keep telling myself. this is just a stepping stone company and you arent going to make the big $$$ your first or even second year. Keep your head up and roll with the punches. It will get better. Try not to complain to much or you will get a rep. and you DONT want that. Go in with an open mind and realize you are a student. THEY DONT OWE YOU ANYTHING. try your best to keep a positive attitude and good luck.

J.

 

No, the reason I wanted out of the truck is I want my own. I fulfilled my obligation of the 275 hrs I had to do for training. the rotten poop smell was just a kicker.

 

Thats not cool blaming me for not getting showers. When you are in training you run team with that trainer. sure I drive 11 hrs but dont forget, he drives 11 hrs as well. thats 22 hrs in a day. the 2 hrs left never worked out due to sitting at a shipper or a con. Your not always at a truckstop. Teaming isnt like solo. Plus it didnt help that we ran JT loads. time was ALWAYS an issue.

As far as his ### smell. I dont thing it was not taking the time to wipe, it was him not being able to due to his weight. I just think he was to fat. that and not showerd.

The garbage in the truck was really bad. junk and old food everywhere. he had to buy something everytime we stopped to fuel. a game, movie, a stuffed animal for his wife. always something. old food wrappers and bags were strewn across the floor. sure he would pick it up eventually, but it took 3 days. I found myself cleaning his truck more than he did.

you would think he would get the point.