Smith & Solomon?

The local paper in North Jersey has posted town DPW job openings CDL required, which my son has applied for ,union position State of NJ health benefits and pension starting high 20's ,50G in 7 years plus ot mostly snowplowing. Hard work sanitation or road crew but once your in you can transfer to parks or something easier. It might not pay as well as OVR (when it eventually improves) but at least you have job security and your home every night. These towns will never go out of business or move; and they have a steady source of revenue ,property taxes. My son is staying at his 20G job ,doing his volunteer firefighter gig helping me with our parttime landscaping biz. until he lands a DPW job. The pay at the DPW might not be the best but the benefits are great; if I told you what my benefits are you wouldn't believe me .A lot of these guys have a side business snow plowing, tree service or landscaping.GMO

 

I just wanted to note here that a week ago my bf said that a guy he knew he was already trucking with Werner said that Werner is a good company. Werner gets a really bad wrap and I didn't want my bf working there but it also seemed to be one of the few big companies hiring in our area so we thought he might get stuck there and then when he met a Werner driver who said Werner wasn't bad we felt a sigh of relief about Werner if my bf did end up going with them.
That was a week ago - now the guy working for Werner said they are giving him probs about giving him work after the 300 hour training session was over. He actually called my bf up and personally warned him not to go with Werner! So now we know we're def. not going there - don't know where my bf will end up.
I got the message about not waiting for companies to come to S&S (cuz none have yet) and so he has been searching for jobs on his own.
As for school - he's still going along like he has been. A truck broke down recently and they sent people home (think it was Monday) but that was the only bad news. The rest of the week has been normal.
I guess it's just a matter of time and practice before the teacher considers him ready for the test. I'll keep ya posted.

 

I kinda abandoned this thread.. for anyone still following, his test date is 8/15. He may take the job at Werner, they've been the only one found to be hiring with no experience and he needs the experience. He discovered that the school IS open on Friday's and the weekend for limited hours and so he has a chance to get extra practice when the school isn't so crowded and he's getting more confident in his driving ability every day.
Of course now the reality has hit me that he's soon going to be gone for weeks at a time but I'll keep the weeping in the ladies room...

 

Weekends is when my son did his training,he got plenty of wheel time.Good luck and keep us posted,WERNER keeps sending my son postcards every month;let us know if your BF ends up there and how he likes it.

 

Well tomorrow the bf goes for the test. Looks like he will be going with Werner because they are the only ones giving him a chance. Swift has a location very close to us but they told him to come back in 6 months when he's got experience.
If he passes his test we go to PA tuesday (I'm seeing him off) and he starts orientation Wednesday.
Werner says him and his trainer will be driving the 'Family Dollar' account. It's a dollar store.
They also offered him a large sign on bonus but he doesn't know the details. Accepting the money may put him in some kind of long term contract with Werner. Which he might do anyway because he's heard from 2 other people who are already with Werner that the 'Family Dollar' account is a good account. So if he likes it, then why not sign a long term contract?
They also offered him tuition reimbursement if he shows up in PA with his receipts for the school. That would be great but we will see if they keep their word. The bf paid close to $3000 for the school on his credit card and his first few paychecks were going to go towards paying that off but if the Werner takes care of it then he can use his paychecks for other important things.
Don't know much else yet - I'll update when I get more details.

 

I wrote a message yesterday but it looks like it didn't save.
Anyway bf passed the CDL test with flying colors. S&S must have done a good job because he didn't mess up a single think (I went to the DMV and watched with his fellow students and instructor.
And I learned some things:
Werner tuition reimbursement plan is to give the student $100 a month up to $6000. My bf paid for his school on credit so $100 a month to go towards his credit card bill is fine.
My bf is scheduled to work for the 'Family Dollar Store' account and the $1500 sign on bonus is only if he makes it 90 days on the account without getting removed from the account by Family Dollar.
Wednesday he starts his orientation and then he's paired up with a trainer for 300 hours of driving under a trainers supservision. I think they prefer the training to be uninterupted so he will be gone a month at least if he gets to drive 10 hours a day every day till the 300 hours is up.
How many hours the bf drives a day is up to the trainer. So how long the 300 hours can be dragged out is up to the trainer. Bf has heard rumors that a trainer will try to strech out the the training phase because the training gets extra $$ for trainer. We hope this is not the case and he finished up the training phase quickly and then gets his own truck.

 

Well I rode up to PA with the bf yesterday.
They set him up in the Rodeway Inn in Allentown. They book two men to a room.
I think Werner provides breakfast at 6am, orientation from 6:30am to 5, lunch somewhere in between and then you're on your own for dinner. The hotel has a reasturant for dinner so you go there or order in because no one is allowed to bring a car because you never know when you're going to pick up and leave and you can't leave your car at the hotel!
Werner provides a shuttle every evening to a nearby Target for the drivers to pick up stuff.
The hotel said orientation could be up to 4 days. I don't know why they said 'up to' like a driver could leave earlier.
My bf's roommate didn't show up last night but you never know when someone will end up rooming with him.
My bf made it to breakfast this morning and then a shuttle took him, and 6 other guys to the 'Werner Terminal'. I don't know what that looks like at all.
Last I heard from him at 8:30 this morning all they were doing was paperwork and awaiting their pizza lunch.

 

Hey crabby125sgirl, hows Werner working out for BF,let us know how it's working out for him.

 

wow it's been a long time!
Well they had him at the hotel for less than a week before he got his trainer. His trainer was horrible personality wise but knowledgeable.
The bf did learn well how to drive from this guy but the guy was also mean, bossy, demeaning and intimidating. I can't even go into all the struggles they had.
But he made it 2 mos with the guy and passed the test and all the paperwork.
He had 2 days hometime to get his stuff together and then he went solo for a few weeks. They gave him a beat up and FILTHY truck but said when he gets a partner he'll geta better truck. My bf had to scrub the inside of the truck, he said the whole thing was sticky with spilled drinks and God knows what else. Also the last driver sheets/pillows/etc that the bf had to dispose of.
The bf already had a friend he wanted to team with but the teammate was behind him hours wise so that is why they let the bf ride solo for a few weeks till his friend completed his hours and passed the test.
Halloween the bf and his teammate got together and they had the 48 state gig that puts them Everywhere!
I haven't seen him since them and I'm hoping he's home for thanksgiving but we haven't had confirmation from Werner yet.
So far Werner doesn't seem to be a bad company at all but their lack of communication is very frustrating. When my bf requests time off, etc. Werner has always come through but they never confirm that they are allowing his requests and so they weeks/days up to the moment is very stressful because we never know if he's gotten it but then miraculously he usually gets it.
So he did put in to get wed/thur/fri off this week but we still don't know if he's getting any holiday vacation at all. He never gets any definate answers.
He also got word that the first week in December he will get to trade his truck in for a new one. We will see.
So yes, all in all, Smith and Solomon did set him up well enough to pass the CDL.
It was a whole nother world when he was doing it for real the first time with his trainer but he had many oppurtunities to back up, etc. in that 2 month period.
Going solo in a new truck was another scary adventure but he learned the truck.
And now with his partner who is also his friend it seems to be a fun adventure for the 2 of them to travel the whole US together.
Yes those 2 do get on eachother's nerves, 2 grown men set in their ways on a tiny truck is bound to cause friction but they are still having a good time.
And yes even got to refuse some lot lizards already. LOL.
And they are using the Rand McNally Truck GPS and is works very well for them.

 

Thanks for the update;how's the pay and is he getting enough miles? My son still might join team Werner because no other co will hire him due to his lack of experience. He's still working fulltime at the camp but getting antsy doesn't want his cdl to go to waste.So that's great that he's doing well at Werners despite of all the negative posts here about them.Is he going to stick with them or go to a better paying co. when he gets 6 months experience? Enjoy your Thanksgiving, hopefully with bf.