Thinking of joining Werner from school?

Well first off i figured i would post a thread about the Werner experience since i relied on this forum when i was choosing a company to go to, so thanks to who runs this forum!


I will just state the facts here.

Yes if you get a pre approval Werner will hire you, they will put u in one of there many places for a 2 day crash course oreintation in which you also have to complete a series of CBT's (Computer based Training). After that you wait at a hotel supplied by Werner for a Trainer. The average wait time from what i can tell is around 3 days - 10 days depending on your pickiness, if u ask for a trainer that smokes if u can deal with it drops the wait down a bit to. Once training i have heard stories about different trainers, dorty ones, nasty ones etc.. Which im sure could be true mine was fine not the smartest apple in the tree but did what he was suppose to do and that was to train me. Training does last 275 hrs, however be prepared to stay out anywhere from an extra 50hrs - 150hrs due to lack of frieght, trucks etc.. They do pay u extra for staying out, however during training you will make only around $239 after taxes a week, which really is very hard to survive on so make sure you are aware of this and plan accordingly becuase this pay can last for about 6 weeks depending how quick you can knock out your 275 hours which is only driving hours.

Once your done with training you go back to a terminal take some more CBT's and then they try to assign you a truck. The average wait from asking people and from my own point of view is around 4 - 8 days. You will most likely not get a brand new truck, the truck you will get will most likely be about 3 years old with a average of 315,000 - 350,000 miles on it. Yes you will most likely have some complaints regarding your used truck but there is not much you can do just get in and get a driving. Also during the orientation they tell you about per diem and they say there is no advantage to Werner taking out per diem for you. However there is a slight one if you choose that option you will start out .25 a mile for vans and .23 a mile for flats. Plus the brochure they gave you that says .32 a mile is highly unlikely startung out as it considers bonuses in which are very hard to achieve like 6.5 mpg and have to stop at a terminal to fuel up in order to reiceve the bonus which is very unpractical out on the road.

However if you decide to choose Werner they are a good company from my opinion, they offer you job, you get the job, you get a truck and you drive. The pay is quite low not going to mention exactly how much u should expect to get paid becuase it differs for everyone however I have seen people mention 800 - 1100 a week. You will not get that starting out with Werner think more around 500 - 750. I hope this helps anyone who is deciding which trucking company to go to. Thanks ( the facts are not based on my personal experience alone, as i have had 3 friends start with Werner same time as i have and this has been the same for all 3 of us, plus we are also in different divisions)

 

Rocks: The choices where limited to a student just starting out, Werner, Schneider, Swift, U.S. Express. Where the options i could find. I tried smaller company like TMC becuase i am a OTR flats but they prefer experience in which i currently did not have so honestly it was a coin flip from reading stuff in this forum of course you cannot really rely on the recruiters becuase well we all know that the stuff that comes from them are a bit stretched out truths. Plus my Father and Grandfather drove truck for a living so i took there advice what company would be best to start your career with.

Brickman: I agree when i found out you really do not get the .32 i was a bit shocked one of the reasons i wrote this post, however once you pack your stuff make the commitment its kinda hard to well let me rethink this so i just went with it.

 

I will tell you right now not all trainers are good with Werner hopefully if you go with Werner you get a good trainer that knows what they are talking about. Me personally even though i did not 100% like my trainer and he was a bit odd i stuck it out i was not going back to the terminal to delay me getting a truck and wait for another trainer. Some people I have talked to went thru 4-5 trainers and there training then took about 9 - 11 weeks. You don't get paid enough during training to drag it out. I also opted to stay out in stead of going home, which one of my friends did go home and he got his truck about 9 days after i did so either way works. As for the QC well its a pain in the rear yes you do not have to do logs but u also have to follow a computer in which times are pretty much exact , there is no way to strecth ur 14 hr day, also there is no way to cut ur 10 hr break short which i will admit can be frustrating u pull into a rest area shut down for the night get ready 10 hrs later and ur the lats one in the rest area becuase the drivers next to u cut there break short a 1hr or so. I have had only 2 violations with running out of hours and i have had my truck for about 3 months now, so it will happen you will get warnings at 1st i heard if it happens to much they call u in a terminal and make u take a logs class. You can trick the QC on certain things to get where u need to get to you will see what i mean if u join Werner.


The good thing about Werner is that here i am now in my own truck so what they promised they would do happened even if the pay is a bit low figured hey im starting a new career cannot make top pay right away. Thats basically what i wanted i heard all the horror stories about companies giving u pre hires then sending u home for no reason or never giving u a truck, plus i also checked the stocks just to see which company is doing good in this stale economy and wern seems to be one of the better stocks for truck companies.

 

Your welcomed man good luck with ur decision. One point i should point out is Werner does give you the miles i run about 2,800 - 3,800 a week so thats a plus compared to some stories i hear out here on the road about drivers with other companies complaining about only getting 1,500 miles a week.