Swift or Werner; a decision to make

Here is the order of start-up companies that I would rate from worst to least worse.

5. C.R England (Preying on newbies into a lease/poor pay)
4. CRST (You will run as a team with another newbie for 6 months/poor
pay)
3. Swift (Poor Pay/alot of down time)
2. Werner (Poor pay)
1. Stevens (Poor pay) Focus on Safety is why this pick is the least
worst of the bunch. I must add that you will be strong-armed into
signing a lease...They wont tell you that less than 10% of drivers who
sign there lease actually complete the lease though.

IF YOU ARE IN THIS BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY THAN SCRATCH ALL THE ABOVE AND GIVE CRETE A JINGLE. I started out in 08 with Stevens and having a CDL already like yourself. They sent me out with 2 trainers over 8 weeks than ran solo, I stayed with them for 7 months before moving to Crete, since I did not have a 1 year of solo under my belt they sent me out with a Crete trainer for 4 weeks. Best thing I ever did! Lets do the math...I was making 28 cpm with Stevens at 7 months when I left them...At Crete 500 bucks a week x4 with the trainer than 38 cpm solo back than....

 

Werner: Trainers have been known to crap themselves. Look for the thread about that. Be careful though. You might crap yourself laughing.

 

I didn't know there was difference between the two.

 

I am currently a Werner driver. I started at C. R. England. Both companies pay horribly to new drivers. Even some drivers with more experience. I'm going to have to agree with Tarzan's list up there, and definitely DO YOUR RESEARCH on any company you are thinking of, be it here or elsewhere. Recruiters are paid to paint you a pretty picture, and they are very, VERY, good at it.
I'm not going to sit here and trash talk any company out there, they are all out to make as much money as they can off whoever they can. Period. There are good and bad trainers, there are good and bad companies for your needs, and like all places of business, you will start at the bottom and work your own way up.
I've proven myself, in the short time I've been driving, I'm safe, I take pride in my work, my truck, and my own reputation, even if I do work at a place who's reputation is not the greatest. Yes the pay sucks, but I LOVE what I do. When its time for me to move on, I will know it, and I'll be all the wiser for it. Just remember, as a professional driver, YOU represent yourself, YOU are responsible for all the decisions you make in the course of your day, and you only have yourself to blame if you fail.
I chose this line of work, and it is my choice to represent myself as a professional no matter who's name is on the outside of my truck.

 

Well I'm with Werner and I got fd north east... Pay is 24.50 a stop and 85.50 per trainer.... Is it hard heck yeah but when you do 3 trailers a week with 3 stops plus 1000 miles a week... Do the math and as a rookie I take it any day

 

They offered me the FD account, I turned it down. Simply because my backing skills are not what they need to be for some of the stops. There are some pretty straightforward places and some stops are hell, even for veterans. I've seen it first hand, a veteran trainer hit a building in Rochester...with a student in the truck. Don't know what happened to either of them.

It's all in how you perceive what you do. I'm on a dedicated account, my fm is cool, the other drivers on the account are cool, and I get to go home to see my family every weekend. I'm cool with that for now. Like I said in my last post, you are responsible for you. You can listen to opinions, good or bad, but in the end its all up to you and what your goals are.