Newbie Pay working for werner

I will be outta school n about 2 weeks.. I have pre hires from werner swift may and schneider.. I think im going to go with werner.. Can anyone who has dealt with werner as a newbie like myself? Tell me what i should really expect to make straight out of school while in orientation ? Also what should i realistically expect to make while on road with mentor for the first 6 weks? You hear so much from different people.. I understand gotta start somewhere work your way up.. But im getting spooked hearing horror stories of guys making nothing... Any info greatly appreciated..

 

Stay away! Swift, May and Schneider are better choices. Remember, no idling in Werner trucks! Don't forget that!

 

Schneider is good in that the company has many different divisions. They have their own tanker school, van, reefer logistics such as with Walmart, flatbed, dry bulk, etc. You will make more money with tanker liquid or dry bulk than with reefer or dry van.

 

every person I've talked to werner says it sucks for rookies. Now, with that said, swift, cr england, crst are no different. I'm not being partial or biased but I went with Schneider. 3 weeks...then your in your OWN truck. Trial by hell fire if you ask me. But 1, they don't contact you to stay with them for a certain time unlike prime, cr england....and other companies. You could work for them for a month and quit and you don't pay a dime. They pay for your training and treat you well while you are here. I'm a rookie, and went to a crappy CDL school. Schneider and how well they treated me and still are treating me, I am very impressed. They will give you beat equipment when you first start but thats expected.....you are a new driver. Your mom and dad didn't give you keys to a brand new car when you first started driving. So far in rookie pay, I'm make an average $2000+ a month. I live at home, a college graduate, was unemployed a whole a year and was tired of staying home and wanted to work. I'm 2 weeks out, 2 days in but most likely, if you show your driver manger that your a hard worker and you don't bug them, they usually give me 3 days off. My friend that works at werner and does team hates it, I've talked to 4 drivers that came from werner and are now with Schneider and they all hated it and Schneider is already better in the way they treat drivers. Let us know how you like it if you decided to go with them.

 

BTW: Schneider has ambient sensors on their trucks which prevent them to idle between 20*F-80*F. Honestly, I havn't dealt with heat yet, but anything under 10 degrees, the truck will idle and you can idle it as long as you want and the same goes with the heat. you won't get is your quarterly bonus but most drivers could care less.

 

I worked for Werner for a month, I had some driving experience, but still had to go out with a trainer, I had to be with a trainer for 70 driving hours at 450.00 a week. A new driver I think has to go with a trainer for 120 hours...(Not 100% sure on that) but that is Driving hours, when my trainer went home or was behind the wheel...hours stopped, sitting in a truck stop for a weekend is not fun. All in all, they treated me ok, just that OK. The other Werner drivers at Terminals were not friendly at all, tried to talk to a few and they would not talk, let alone give any advice, and that started with the driver that picked me up in the Phoenix bus terminal for orientation, all the way through to the driver that dropped me off at the Bus terminal in San Bernardino. I have never worked for Schneider, but I would say out of all your choices, go with them. BTW Werner has basically the same idle policy that Schneider has.

 

Oh yeah, and a new driver cannot and will not drive between 12 midnight and 6 a.m.

 

Bring some money for sure.Back when I was with Werner I received $50.00 a day during orientation and $325.00 a week while with a trainer then after so many weeks my pay went up.After training you'll get paid mileage pay which is't much because you do not get the miles.Hopefully you have money saved.

 

Werner trucks have APUs.

 

That's actually a good thing. This prevents that forced team driving mentality so many new drivers get popped with right off the bat with many companies when their trainer tells them to drive the night shift while they sleep.