WERNER ENTERPRISES, Omaha, Ne

I had one of the first trucks in the Werner fleet, actually, if the dispatcher wasn't feeding me a line, I had THE first truck in their fleet that had satellite **** installed in it. I have ALWAYS hated that junk. Big brother is constantly watching over your shoulder, I wasn't used to it at the time - I had driven my entire career without anything like that, and so had everyone else. Now, they know where I am 24 hours a day, whether I'm moving or not, yada yada yada. I got out of OTR after Werner and have driven local since - with NO QUALCOMMS. Even the JB Hunt truck I drove on a local/dedicated route about 4 years ago was stripped of the thing (thank GOD).

Werner ALWAYS made an ordeal of getting things fixed. And maintenance? I'd get this message on this computer keyboard thing saying it was time for PM, take it within the next whatever miles/days to get it serviced. I'd go over to wherever they allowed it to get the oil changed, and no more get in line and have my dispatcher beeping me. Where are you, why aren't you moving? Didn't I tell you this load is a HOT load? Yes, Mr. Dispatcher, you tell me EVERY load is a hot load (seriously, EVERY load I got with Werner was ALWAYS a "hot load" - it had to be somewhere yesterday), but I have to get the truck serviced. "Well get it serviced after this run". You know, if they want to trash their equipment, let them, I had it in writing, couldn't have cared less at that point about that company and was already thinking of quitting.
The other thing that made me angry more than once was them attempting to accuse me of causing the truck to break. I had spent years servicing and repairing semi's - how is a driver going to cause a failed fuel pump? The AC to go out? etc etc etc. The company sucks, that's my view of it.

 

They used to have us sleep in are trucks while they were in the shop at USX till OSHA put a stop to that. Then they played this game were you could not get a hotel room till your truck was in the shop and the shop manager gave them a eta of when the truck would be fixed. It was usually a day wait to get into the shop, and then they would always come and get the truck at like 0100 in the morning so you would be sitting there in the driver lounge till the next afternoon. Then they would take the truck out of the shop and you would have a load that was dp in the am and needed to roll on to pu even though your truck was supposed to be on shop status and not dispatched. So you either made a stink about being up since 0100 in the am or just drank lots of coffee and drove with the window half rolled down because you just spent 2 days at the terminal getting pm done.

These large trucking outfits could care less about safety when they are saving themselves money by not getting you a room for the night. Company's like Werner and USX use a new hire to drive their broke down lemons around to get fixed when they are told they have cleared for re-seat and are ready to roll, when they are not. I have seen new hires who probably need a good paycheck spend days on layover pay ferrying around a truck to get fixed that probably sat for a month waiting for a cheap OTR driver to come take it to Frtshaker or Cummings.

Then there is the long waits at the shops of large carriers while they detailed and changed tires on turn ins or where getting new trucks ready, while you sat eating your PBJ's and baloney sandwiches and getting no miles for the week.

These company's with large fleets don't need to have sufficient infrastructure when they are paying by the mile and only paying you chump change to sit around for days to wait in line for work to be done on the truck that may only take a few hours to complete.

 

My trucker works for Werner. He is deicated to one place and gets home every weekend. There are some hassles with Werner like the night dispatch and one certain person that is a big shot i am sure you all werner drivers know who i am talkin about. This week has been exspecially difficult for my man and when he isnt happy I am not happy.... Lots of BS with loads extremely over limit of 45,000LBS and then him having to sit and waste time that he could be making money on! Some of it is the place he is dedicated out of but most of it is Werners doing.

 

I'll make the best of it. I need the experience and have to start somewhere. 14 years in drywall
Werner here I come.

 

You roll a truck and you are going to get fired at most OTR company's that I know of.

HOS violations can never be forced by the company. I and every driver who has violated the HOS rules at 1 time or another, has done so of their own fee will. You are in control of the truck and no one short of putting a gun to your head can force you to move the truck if you don't want to.

And if you rolled a truck after violating the HOS I doubt that you would want to use that as proof it was not your fault, but the company's. That could put you behind bars eating T.V dinners.

If you read the HOS rules you will see that movements within the city limits can be logged as one stop on line 4 after the first stop and you can always drive within reason to find "a safe haven to park" in a emergency. and with a explanation in the flagging section.

You will not be violating the HOS by going over 14 hrs as long as it is on line 4 and you do not drive outside the city limits of your location and take a 10 hr break before driving again. And I have yet in my years of driving not been able to find a place to park, even in CA where they seem to hate trucks unless they are on a dock.

Remember drivers that the 14 and 11 hour rules apply to driving. You can work 70 hours strait and not be in violation of the HOS as long as it is not behind the wheel moving between city limits and you have your mandated break or a restart before driving again.

 

WEMP was my big break in professional drivin life.And No I was NOT some newbie when I went There in 1990.If I toughed it out longer than 94 it would have ben 4 The better.Thanks WEMP!
Tanks a Million..

 

I keep learning new things as I go along with this company. We were scheduled home on the 14th. Right now, we're about 1,400m away and sitting with a broken truck. I was promised an APU, but the company, having roughly 1,000 new, never issued trucks with APU's installed, says they have none. It's like they believe they've hired a blind driver! I stopped counting at 119 in Dallas, TX 2-3wks ago. I haven't even tried to count the massive lot in Omaha, but there are at least several hundred and many haven't even been serviced yet. Indeed, many of those in Dallas have yet to be serviced. I saw no fewer than 50 in Springfield, OH and more in Lithia Springs, GA. Now we're told they are issuing these trucks only to those on dedicated accounts and those who run the southwest or into CA regularly. At first I saw a point in that, but then... Why have them in GA or OH, just sitting. Of course, the real questions arose when I read that diesel powered APU's cannot be run in CA more than 5min, just like the engine itself. Seems to me, they're waiting for a tax write-off more than anything else, and dishing out as few new trucks as possible. They tell you all trucks are sold off around 300k or earlier, but now we're seeing 400K on many. With the lack of proper service, this is a bad thing. Anyone currently with Werner either already knows, or will soon realize that proper servicing is NOT a company concern at this point. Gra-Gar employees have flat out told us that company policy prevents them from doing proper repair or maintanence by policy. They have told me they wouldn't repair a broken bumper. I had to actually show them the FMCSR and threaten to get a DOT inspection before it was replaced and then, it was done wrong and is being repaired "when we can get to it" today or tonight. Worse, we're again sitting in a terminal instead of earning money. This is, by rough calculation, our 27th day since Nov. 24th, sitting instead of running a load. Fewer than 3 months and nearly one of those has been spent sitting for repairs. If that isn't indicative of a bad company, nothing will be.

The outright lies and lack of responsibility by everyone from recruiters to dispatchers to driver relations managers and even terminal managers has "driven me" to the decision, I will be leaving this company for a smaller one where I will be able to deal with issues as they occur and with a person, face to face(I'll be closer to home at all times). I have yet to meet my dispatcher, and never met the one before him. I have instead been routed around the Omaha terminal on every run, even when told to come in for fuel. Until yesterday! Now they're dealing with a person, and so am I, for a change. I almost wonder about that on their end, considering the "deer in the headlights" look I got last night when we appeared at the window. He(night dispatcher) was cordial, far different from a recent phone conversation we had with him. Perhaps that was because he was a bit concerned that my g/f was nearly as tall as him while standing there looking at us... And she was SEATED! That "big ol fella" sure was nice! To give him some credit, she's 6' tall.

 

Sounds like buiseness as usual for OTR companies, the games never stop.
The secret is supposed to be, shut up and do your job. That might work if you don't get a DOT inspection and they want to see your logbook. It might work if you don't crash into something because you have been working for the past eighteen hours without a break. It might work if you did not piss them off at the office. They all have certian ways to deal with you/me. I believe the preffered method,( used by everyone, including non-trucking companies) is to make you so mad or frustrated in one way or another, that you just quit. It worked for me, and after a collision coming home in which I was not at fault, I had to rethink the OTR companies and decided to get out before my luck ran out. I will be starting at a local company in a week or two, all within one hundred miles, it's a different game than OTR.

 

Wemp got Qualcom in'93.WEMP had Rockwell Trip Recorders long B4 Qualcom or TropperRat was ever imagined ,BY GOD.Good Riddens!!!