Watkins shepard

I was supposed to start W/S school on May 1, it did not happen they helped me find a local school. it was great and now I start W/S 10 day next Tuesday. Good luck to your son.

 

TD it is in the questions for new drivers, then a link to schools

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/trucking-schools/

I am off to get a little shut eye. I am driving tonight from 9-3 with my church buddy.

 

make sure your logging it

 

You asked for it here is my post on my schooling...

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ollege-truck-driver-training.html#post1351030

 

I wonder if W/S is going to give him a 6 figure job to keep him quiet.

 

Hmmm, No I think not, I wonder if he even comes to these parts anymore, I think he may be in other areas of the forum agreeing with Werner drivers about their experiences that are so bad, But all I can say is, The writing is all over the place, read it and be very very asceard... Take Care. TD.

 

well if thats the case, then im gonna call the fmcsa myself!!!!!!

 

ok... so i know its been a while since i have been active on here.... but every so often it happens where im not able to get on here much...
iv been running non-stop. and half way throuhg a 34 now....
for those of you that are new to the forum, and by new i mean with in the past month or so, i only run up n down the east coast. youll see me in dalton more then youll see me at my house in philly.
i run, on the average, 3,000 miles a week out here, yeah, some weeks ill only be able to get 1,500 miles, and other weeks 2,800, but for the most part its 3,000 every week.
i wanna remind all you new/potenial drivers to the company about a few things, and even a thing or 2 for KABAR,
i have bee reading along, just not posting...
our shops do the very best they can to keep all the trucks and trls in the best shape possiable. yeah, we have got some old ### nasty rust buckets they call trailers, but, so long as you, as a driver do your part, as a driver, by properly pre-triping an even doing a post trip you would help yourself and the next guy out.... when you know your gonna be dropping off a trl that has any type of problem, contact the dispacther, AND the shop, let them know where it is, and whats wrong with it... consider the next guy!.
get red tags from the shop so you can redtag it... you dont wanna get stuck with a bat trailer...
w.s is a mid-size company compared to the most the other ones that take new guys out of school. you may end up in a truck that has 600.000 miles on it.. but it will work, and it will get the job done..
the training you will get cant be beat by anyone els. we have great trainers here at the company out in missoula, in sayreville, n in conover... none of them will allow someone who they think cant handle the truck on their own.
as you have all seen already the amount of information on here.. roxy/sandy recomend this site to most that call, where you can learn about the company more in detail and from the drivers themselves, dare you to call swift/prime/sni/werner/marten etc and see if they tell you to check this site out... they all know about it!. infact, according to a friend of mine that is employed at sni, you cant even type their company name in on any website other then their own.
i have said this before, and ill say it again. watkins is not the BEST company to work for, but hell, what company is the BEST? when i find, ill keep it a secret...
i said this too before and ill say it again.
if you want to run, and you want miles, delte the word NO from your vocabulary when asked to do something...
ALL of our terminals have local work to be done, many times your help as an otr drivers is not needed, but ALWAYS offer to do the local work, n if u do, youll get to choose your loads... not always, but refuse to do local work all the time at any terminal, n request a load goint to nj from la, youll be going to everywhere buy nj... you write your onw paycheck here... you decide what you make a week... ok, yeah sometimes weather/repairs/n hours dont always allow it work every week, but as time goes on your learn more n more and youll learn what to do to make more money... saying no to your dispacther all the time is not the way to do things!! helping one another here is pretty big here... knowing the other drivers and becoming friends will happen... feeling like your at " home " is kinda how it is around here... being called by ur name is how things go around here...
youll get a list of phone numbers to call from everyone you would ever need to talk to, prob over 50 numbers. from work numbers, to personel cell phone numbers, all on one list... your never " alone " here... your not...

to kabar...
still wanting to know if you called in to the company or not and got to the bottom of this?? i really wanna know what they said to you, plz come back...
also... did you know that Ray Kuntz was the American Trucking Associations Chairman, he is also Chairman/CEO of Watkins and Shepard Trucking, you think he would have been able to hold that spot at the ata if he was running a B/S training program??

i think, kabar, you have a misunderstanding bout watkins training program, and this may have been brough to your attention already, but, a person wanting their cdl does not go to watkins and do a 10 day oriantation and then haded the keys and set off into the real world as rookie driver... you must already have your cdl before coming to watkins.... the 30day is different, they are a cdl school..anyone can go to the 30 day school to get their cdl, upon graduating their school you have a job with watkins, no contracts, no strings attached,
we get weekly accident information from both guys in our saftey department, and everysingle truck in our company, local, shorthaul, longhaul, an o.o get that message, it tells us how many accident we had the week(s) before,an a estimated amount in $ on the loss for the company, everytime i read the message bout a wreck, im quick to point the finger a new driver, and as i continue reading the message i find out that way more often then not it was a driver that had 5 to 20+/- years driving exp... you would be rather shocked at the lack of accidents caused by the new guys at our company...
in the past month we lost 2 trucks, well, 1 really, both rolled over.. yeah. one was a new guy, 2months old with the company, takin a ramp to quickly, and the other was an o.o who lost control curve,rain,speed,roll.. he has years of driver exp...
you should not be so quick to judge a company and their practice with-out know the actual facts behind the company and how they do their training...
you have sparked up trouble on the thread a year ago, maybe less bout something els, and didnt show yourself round here again, you can do as you please, but you should have the basic information before your steer clear of a watkins shepard truck.

 

Ok I'm back. I did call recruiting and talk with them for over an hour and as I figured you rookies haven't a clue what you are talking about. Here is what will really happen. Orientation is 2 days then you get 10+ days of training WITH a trainer. They do it different then what most of the training companies do. Instead of sending you out on the road for 2-6 weeks they keep you there and train you. The training is 10 days however if the trainer says after 3 that your an idiot you're out of there. On the other hand if he fills that you will do just find but could use another 2-3 days to get things down then they will work with that. The days vary from 8-12hrs some times 14. Depends on the student. I was impressed, Unlike most of the training companies they do not let rookies do the training and they will not keep a knot head just to fill a truck. They will watch you like a hawk the 1st 6 mos. I don't' agree with the way this industry trains it's new drivers. There is no better system for training then for a rookie to go out with a 5yr+ veteran with a proven safety record and train with him for 3 months. After which you would come back to the yard and test out. If you didn't get 85% or higher on everything then you would be gone. 3 Failed students and the trainer no longer trains. If I had my way that is how it would be. But next to this, this is the best I have seen.

 

still dont have it down right kabar...