Werner

Well I work for werner as I type this message. I went to school with swift in millington, tenn. Would I recommend swift? No. Would I recommend werner? Dang right to everyone I come incontact with that wants to be a truck driver. No I am not one of there "fan boys" as someone put it, but yes werner has been good to me. I get the runs that I want, I get good miles, and most of all the most important I get paid nicely for the miles I run

 

I'm not going to comment on Werners' turn over rate because I don't have any substantial statistics to back up anything I could say, however I can comment on them as a company in general.

Werner put me through the program they use in Hastings, NE to train drivers 7 years ago. I went through training with a bad trainer, absolutely dreadful. I knew more about how to drive and operate a truck than he did. That is a compliment to the driving school I went to. As an adult I realized long go you can't base a company on one individual, or even a few in the case of Werner as they are a huge company numbering over 8,000 drivers.

Then I got my first truck. Beautiful Classic with only 175,000 on it. After about 6 months of driving I started to think the grass was greener on the other side. Quit and found out you have to pick what is most important and that is not always cpm. Went back to Werner and have worked for them mostly since then. Took a break from driving altogether for 6 months then came back into it.

After 5 years driving experience I finally felt like I knew enough to teach somebody else something about how to drive and survive in the industry. Trained for one year. Won't ever do it again. Too stressful for me.

My point(s)? Werner is a great company to start with. They have a great support network for new drivers, you just have to be patient and learn the system. They have several different divisions and specialized accounts so you should be able to find your niche somewhere within the company. If you get tired of driving but want to stay with the company they have opportunities for employment at terminals, and as off site fleet managers.

Are they perfect? No. I personally wish they would pay more per mile, especially to their flatbed drivers, as that is what division I am in. However, I made an educated decision to sacrifice a couple of cpm for less expensive benefits and the ability to work for a company where if I want I can pull a van or a reefer or a flatbed, otr or regional or dedicated.

Be responsible to yourself, be diligent in your research, be willing to work through the bs. Remember, in general you get what you give. If you work hard for your dispatcher he will work hard for you. They make their money from bonuses, not their salary which is rather paltry considering all the crap they have to handle.

In my experience with Werner, I would recommend them. And before anyone says it, I am not a brown noser to them. I have my issues with Werner but they mostly are small things which are actually rather petty when considering the big picture.

 

Well, I agree with the young lady that just posted. As to I have been with werner since oct. 2006. Im not sure what they give flat bed drivers, but I am on a dedicated account and I get 35 cpm. My dispatcher does everything he can for me. I have quit a couple of times and have come back, but I still have my problems with them but maybe they will get washed out in the cycle. I guess we will see soon.

gizmo:smt067:smt063

 

I too have worked for Werner, I can honestly say they at least gave me average miles, like all the companies they promise the moon and give back very little, they gave me a crappy truck and their terminals were awful, I can understand why people hate paperless logs because the cant cheat, so you cant make money, but when i took a 10 hr break I forgot to put a macro that i was leaving and after going down the road i got a message that i did not complete a 10 hr break so they made me stop for 2 hrs to split break, but what i dont understand is that the qualcom can tell when the truck stops, so why could it not tell that i did stop for 10 hrs and when i started rolling,, they say that in the past werner had so many people with log violations that the government forced them to go paperless but of course they make it sound good, no paper logs for there own benefit,,,

 

I have just finished my first week of basic training with Werner and yes I do compare it to military basic training.... 50 hours of the required 275 hours of driving complete. I have been learning, picking the brain of my trainer and so far the worst part has been sharing the cramped quarters.... I look forward to finishing and getting my own tractor and setting it up my way... My trainers good.... he's a million plus miler on a dedicated run.... have found everyone at Werner easy to deal with ..... I am 56 and some what set in my ways but have played the game many times on acclimating to a new job and employer.... If you want it your way go to work for burger king.... get past the necessary evil of orientation and the 275 hour drive training and I see a future of my choosing with Werner....

 

i dont have a whole lot bad to say about werner i dorve for them for 3 years and for the most part they treated me great. when i went solo (48 states plus canada) i had one of the best dispatchers i could have asked for (it might have helped that when i was in training my trainer and I had her dispatch us). after abou 3 weeks of running solo she calls me and says i have 65 drivers on my board an some of wanna run real hard an some of em do more work gettin outta movin he frieght than if they moved the frieght an it seems your one of my runners i told her well my family is a home so i have nothing to do out here but shift gears an trun tires so dont let me sit i have nothin i wanna stop an do or see im here to make as much money as i can!!! with that she proceded to run me right down to the bottom of my 70 hours every week!!! she woudl always keep me preplanned or on a good long haul for the weekends so most of the time i did not have to deal with the stupid weekend liars oops i mean dispatchers. when my wife became pregnant and it was high risk pregnancy i call my dispatcher an told her i gotta quit but i dont wanna and explained how i need to be home with my wife instead of letting me quit she got me a postion in net-ops wich was great up untill bout a year afer i was on net-ops an they changed net-ops dispatchers on me an thats where it went downhill cause this guy would put the crappiest loadsa on me an make me wait forever for my backhauls. so thats why i finnaly left werner. but if i had to do it all over again and start from rookie status would i go with werner? you bet yuh! out of all the horror stories i have heard i had never experienced one of them when i was with werner. since i left werner im now driving part time for a compnay out of st.louis (actually wentzville MO) called DTS an they are even better to than werner. as a matter of fact im considering quiting my full time job an go lease pruchase with them!!!! oh yeah if forgot to add when i was in training with them my trainer an i became great friends an still talk to each other a few times a week. he made the training part fun and taught me well!!! when he could see i was bummed out an missin my kids he would find us time to stop an go do somethin fun such as one night runnin through new mexico i got off the cell phone with my wife an oldest boy an was missin em and bummed out so he took me to a topless establishment an he bought all the sodas an even bought me a lapdance!!! lol

 

Well see my post in other area about Werner. Yes there is plenty of drivers out there who no matter what a company does will always complain. That is why before I ever went anywhere I asked about a dozen drivers on the road and took sort of a poll to see the pro and cons of a comp. And took what they said and what the recruiter told me and made a decision. Over all if your new in the truck driving then I guess Werner is ok. None of them are the best when your new cause they will all use you to their benefit and run you hard cause they know you dont know you can say "no". By way you can. If you go to a regional or what they call their pony express or relay runs they yes you can make some money not like you can if you go OTR with a company AFTER you get your experience but for a start not bad but also not the best. As I said you are a lamb out for slaughter when your new and all the companies will take advantage of you. After you get your experience you can pick and choose these bad companies and find a good one. But no matter what you will always find drivers who are always thinking the grass is always greener sometimes they are right sometimes they are wrong.

 

Not that I am a fan of Werner by any means... but like someone posted you have to consider the opinions when you see so many. But I would like to expand that a little bit. Keep in mind these numbers: Schneider around 15k tractors / Swift 12k / Werner 9K / U S Xpress 5K... these are some of the largest employers not only in trucking but in the nation. When you have that many employees, you will have more complaints as opposed to a small regional carrier. Just food for thought.

 

I've done this twice, the system automatically takes 15 minutes for the vehicle inspection. you need to wait 10 hours and 15 minutes to be "legal".

I work for Eagle they lease to werner I have to follow all their rules and regs. the miles are pretty good, the pay isn't enough, but they give you all these nifty toll road passes so you don't need to stop, plus prepass.

the paperless log system isn't perfect, twice this time out I put in a macro 46 end of day vehicle report and in the morning got warned for not doing it?!? it puts a copy of everything you send in your recorded messages.
also they had a problem on the 11th that they didn't bother sending me a message about, my truck was in the shop and while I was snoozing in the drivers lounge they took it for a test drive. that of course registered movement in the middle of my break. it's an imperfect totalitarian system.

I think I'll be working for a company soon that has paper logs.

 

oh the other issue I have with werner is near governmental levels of bureaucracy. many, many passings of bucks until you feel like giving up.

if you need anything after the day crew has gone home in Omaha, good luck! you better be actually having an accident when you call or otherwise they will just tell you to call back the next day. it like the building folds in on itself and disappears!

I was at a terminal a week or two ago I needed a werner logo and the DOT numbers to put on my truck, I wanted to put them on, it's a contractor truck they don't touch it unless I say so.

I got the work order processed, and asked parts for the stickers. they told me "a mechanic has to put them on" I just want them I'll put them on myself I said. they wouldn't give them up and I wouldn't let them touch my truck so I still have a temporary sign on the side of my truck