Only Drivers Happy With Werner

Not sure about anything with the apu's, but as for the miles you will be paid HHG or less if possible.

 

Werner pays you based on how they feel you should be paid. its not practical. They will give you the shortest route, even if you arent supposed to be running that route. i.e. AA Hwy in KY has a 62000 lb weigh limit, true, Family $ loads arent always over that, but if they were, we'd still be paid to travel that route.

 

Well, here I go. I start orientation in Dallas on Monday. Received pre-hire letters from JBS, KLLM, Roehl, among others but Werner will give me more flexibility to start with and I live 60 minutes from the Dallas terminal. I guess if I took to heart everything negative I've heard about all the companies out there, I would run to Wal Mart and be a greeter. I just take everything with a grain of salt and maintain a good attitude, no matter what. So in the end, if everything goes to hell in a hand basket, I only have myself to blame and my brother who has been pushing me to start with Werner, heh heh, :>)

 

Can anyone tell me what to expect during orientation?

 

Lots of paperwork, lots of boredom, lots of very different people. You will spend a lot of time filling out the same paperwork you have already filled out at least once. Listen to talk of how to do and how not to do things.

 

The APU issue has a lot to do with weight and CARB. I had two 48xxx trucks, and only the older of the two had an apu. Now I have a 55xxx truck, and it has a climacab, which they consider an APU. I picked this truck out before I went through the regeneration course in Lithia Springs, and the gra-gar manager told everyone to stay away from the clima-cabs. Never did find out where I was supposed to take it to get the A/C compressor drive offline fault fixed, but its cold out now, so it doesn't matter much. I'm on the anheuser-busch account, so I have to idle below 34 degrees anyway, and the F/M hasn't ever #####ed about me idling to keep my batteries charged.

 

Now Y'all quit highjacking threads . A thread for only people happy with Werner should not be over 1 page

 

Finished orientation on Tuesday, linked up with my trainer on Wed afternoon and been running ever since. Ran most of my hours today so my trainer took over in Marion, NC so he could get us lost looking for Lowes yard in Thomasville, NC. I'm glad I have a good sense of direction and excellent map reading skills. That ###### GPS he's got is two years out of date but the voice is cute.

Anyway, I am extremely happy with Werner up to this point and don't expect my attitude to change in that respect. I am having a blast. To be honest with you, this is more fun than flying as I don't have to worry about setting the ###### thing down. And besides, I'm getting paid to have fun...

Doug

 

Good to hear that Werner is treating you well. If you want to make money with them when you get your own truck there's 2 things that need to happen. Either one, you get a really good dispatcher as an OTR driver, or two you get on a dedicated account. that's where all the money with Werner really is. I run a pallet account out of Knoxville TN, home every night, only work m-f and it's mostly drop and hook. and I make about 800 a week.sometimes a little less if we're slow.

 

Dedicated accounts really are where the money is at with Werner. I remember a lot of sad $400 paychecks on regional, spending days and days just sitting at the indianapolis terminal.

A lot of daycab drivers complain about the anheuser busch account in Columbus, OH, because they might have to bump up to 5 docks a day, with up to a 2 hour wait on each. However, the anheuser longhaul isn't bad at all. Home every other weekend if you want to, and a lot of us get a chance to do a 34 hour reset at home under a load the weekend we're out. The only way I've done less than $600/week on this account is by being absent minded about getting my trip packs in on time.

The account I really loved being on was RR Donnelley, before they lost most of the contract. Mostly runs between colorado, illinois, georgia, and pennsylvania. Almost always managed between 3000 and 4000 miles a week, unless I couldn't manage to line up a 10 hour break with their 4-8 hour load times at the nightmare of a DC in bolingbrook, IL. It was bad enough getting 40 trucks loaded, and 40 trailers pre loaded simultaneously by a dozen forklifts running unstaged loads, but it also had a tendency of being snowed in and iced over. I still had way too much fun on that account, even though my dispatcher was a 20 something prick more interested in his iphone than his load board.