Watkins shepard

Do you 2 wanna get a room? And borrow my ruler, for that measuring contest?

 

yesss i need the ruler, and only if the room is a honnymoon sweeeeet?? with a heart shaped hot tub... nawlins? sound good to u?

 

oooo i forgot to say that i needed the ruler for the log book....

 

wow lol.....
keep it professional now
Rudy quit last week and I have to leave.

 

ha, rudy has been quiting since i started haha, when are you leaving?
i want ur truck...
we are pro, i said i needed it for my log

 

I dont work for this company anymore as of last week but i cant help but read this thread and have to put in my 1 cent.
As of 1st of july W/S cut the pay of all drivers that get paid by the mile by 1 cent.
That means that if you are a new driver you will be earning 27 cents a mile.6 month drivers are earning 29 cents, i saw this letter at modesto terminal 2 weeks ago and i thought it was a joke there but I got my check stub emailed to me friday and sure enough .29 cents a mile.
They really should reflect this on there website for hiring new drivers as it could be a false advertising issue.
There, thats my 1 cent.

 

Ms Redneck, your story follows along mine very closely. I had a wife and a couple of kids when I started trucking. I had this fantasy about making more money than my current job so I went ahead and changed jobs.
Well the short story is my wife didn't think I was making enough, was upset that I had all these truck issues, which I did, but W/S always got my truck repaired. My wife felt that I had made a mistake. I was getting home from what I thought to be pretty often. I would get loads that either delivered to or passed through my home city so I got to stop in and see family. There were a few times that I was out over 6 six weeks before getting home. So there may be times when you won't see you husband for a while. I did start to make more money, after getting more educated and getting a working truck, but it was too late for my marriage. I ended up getting divorced; now it wasn't all due to the trucking, but it was a big reason. Best advice I can give is be patient with him, he will be on a learning curve, how much of a curve is really up to him. If he picks up on things quickly and gets a reliable truck then he should be making money in a few months, but it will take a few months before he will start making money. It took a few months for me to learn that you have to get out of your comfort zone and do what is needed to make it in this industry.
I quit this company to try and save my marriage, when I told the safety manager that I needed home and why, they got me home within days, so this company does care for the drivers. I am currently trying to get back with W/S because they are a good company to work for.
I don't mean to bring you down or worry you, but wanted to let you know what to except from someone in the same boat as you. Our bills were piling up and it was very stressful, but I did start to make the money needed to pay them. You just have to be patient with him and be supportive of him. He will be under stress and will need to vent to someone. If you can, don't keep reminding him of the bills that are not getting paid, it could only stress him more and he will want a pretty clear mind when first starting out.
Best of luck to you all.

 

I'm still chuckling at Redneck's wifes comment about his getting into trucking and it supporting what makes him a man.
If anything, company trucking today virtually emasculates a man down to a wage slave. It is nothing like it used to be, but what you don't know you won't miss, I guess.
He could do MUCH worse than WS, from all I've read.

 

No not that trucking would make him a man that having a job makes him feel like a man. And harley I am really sorry to hear about your marriage. I understand about the time being gone though it puts a huge strain on your marriage. I don't think this is a career any woman is excited about for her husband but in times like these you do what you gotta do right. I would much prefer that he be out 5 or 6 weeks at a time because then when he comes home he can actually enjoy being home and we can enjoy him... like a 3 day hometime just seems ridiculous to me because by the time you unpack and settle in your gone again.. as for our bills I can easily make it on 265 a week I know this because that's how much unemployment is in az lol. Anything more than that goes to the debt we have accumulated in the past 8 months.and where stress in concerned anything will be a walk in the park compared to what the last company did to him before the merge they firted both managers and just left it to him to run the store and tech a responsibilty he did not want so running a store going under plus a merge that was leaving everyone he knew jobless yeh that was stress. I know hell be ok he is a really quick learner and he is smart he picks up things from everyone he knows wthout even trying cuz he likes to be good at what he does so he takes advice and runs with it. I am no fool I know this is gonna be the hardest test of our lives but if we can come out of the last 8 months together we can do anythng. We had to move 5 times with two babies once being in a shelter and the people we lived with the other times not so great either so needless to say its been incredibly rough and our marriage was tested and we are still together maybe even stronger my concern was more is this gonna be worth it. But thank you harley appreciate your story it did give me a little bit to think about.

 

ms rednek, as i said before, nawlins is right, i do NOT no what its like to have a family to support, iv never had to do it, and i dont plan on doing it while im an OTR driver. simply for the fact that i fear what you fear right now,as everyone has already said about supporting him is key here, ort is tough, and though i may not know what you and thousands of others are going through, i do no what its like to be away from your family, ill speak on that behalf,
a bit about me really quick, as nawlins said not everyone gets a postion as i did when i started at w.s, i entered my 10 day in sayreville nj, and half way through they came to me with a short line postion, short line for those who dont know, its running out of a term for a week, stayin in the truck mon-friday, home every weekend, and sometimes once or twice during the week, depending on your run and where you live, this was a position that required 90 days with the company, while in the 10 day, the trainer in nj felt as though i could handle the position and made me an offer, the pay was amazing, for me anyway, 990.00 everyweek bring home, not bad for a newb right out of school, anyhow, i was home every weekend, a lot of times i had a 3 day weekend, its the type of job most otr drivers look for. i did it for 10 months with only 1 out servise issue, nother story. showed up for work and was told im OTR effective an hour ago. ..... im OTR now? like you didnt no that last week
i was heated,
then i had to call home and let them no there is no tellin the next time id be home, for 10 months i was home, and used to it, it was rutine, and about to change, is how i felt,
i come from a really family oriented family, and tho i have always wanted to be an otr truck driver in hopes of opening my very own trucking company, i was just so used to be home every weekend and was scared of the big road, bo family or or friends out here, just me my truck and my cell phone to help me by, the first week was very upsetting to me, cause i had let my 8 year old nephew down on plans that were in the works for a long time, kinda like a big brother lil brother type deal, so it was very hard to be home, and not to mention my brother had passed away not long before this, and it made being away from my family even harder.
by the end of my first 4 weeks out as an OTR driver i have made some great friends with-in w.s that i talk to on a regular basis, 2 of which i call my otr partents , one i call a mentor, and one that i just found out last night by the Titen Green guy calls me his lil otr brother. and scary to say him and i look-a-like------a nother guy is like a grand father to me.. haha good thing he dont read this or he would be .
we exhanged #'s and we call just to ask where we were at? and to vent, and to bi%^$ about this, that and the other thing. it made it a lot easier for me to be an OTR driver, and do better at what im doing,
you can ask about other companies on thes forum if their company has a family feel to it, prob not. this company does.

do i think your husband made a mistake by going to work at w.s? no i dont think, yet i havnt been over for dinner to see your actual life, do you think he made a mistake by going to work as an OTR driver? you may at first cause he is not there with you day and night to help out with daily events. your husband needs to get his " red roof in " in order with the tools he'll need to live in the truck. this may take a few days, it may take 2 -4 weeks to get all he needs, once he gets everything he needs in his truck to live out here, his income will increase by not having to by dinner at the flying j every night, cause he made dinner at home and took it with him, or he made dinner in his truck most night.
if u give mr rednek a year as an otr driver he may be able to locate a local job driving a truck and is home every night, and he may even find one sooner, this is something that most ort drivers look for, some just love it and wouldnt give it up for the world. other just cant do it.
i meet a lot of students and offer my # if they need help,
directions, sliding tandoms, fuel stops, routing, dot questions, log book questions., bol questions, hours questions, tho i cant always help, at least they have a number to someone who cares enough to give them a personel cell phone # to a complete stranger, just to talk and help stay awak, vent cause he/she dont wanna vent on the wife of husband or kids.

youll hear about many more things as time goes on and as he learns more and more from drivers out on the road.

sorry its so long.