Profile For Jonathan W.

To the guy that keeps saying, "you should know how to use a load bar without having ever been taught. It's not rocket science," Here:

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I want you to tell me what that is, what it means and how you're supposed to use it. You should be able to find out without me telling you. It's not rocket science. By your logic, next time the power goes out, I should just climb on the power utility poles myself because I should know how to safely work on power utility lines without ever being trained on them. It's not rocket science. So go on. Tell me what it means and how to use it.

There is no way all of what happened to me was my fault. It was not my fault that someone walked into the trailer and pushed everything on the floor, it was not my fault that the rollers didn't work (I literally said that I searched for better ones, but couldn't fine any), and it most definitely was not my fault that Werner falsely accused me of willful malicious behavior. There is no way any of that was my fault. Also, to everyone saying, "I don't think he should be driving buses because he failed at truck driving," you're totally missing the point! I literally said that I received inadequate training when I was in the trucking industry and the end result was I ultimately failed. On the contrary, I was given adequate training when learning how to drive a bus and I do a good job. Clearly, I'm not the problem. If that was true, I'd have failed at bus driving, too, but since that clearly didn't happen, your logic is wrong. Also, if you need anymore evidence of how actually training someone leads to them succeeding in the industry, I was given awards when I worked at a Zulily warehouse for being a hard worker, I was repeatedly called "one of the best workers" when I worked at FedEx Ground as a loader and I was even called a good worker at UPS when I worked there as a loader. Need anymore proof? God, I cannot understand your logic. What more proof do you need that training someone leads to success in an industry? If I was trained at UPS the same way the trucking industry trained me, all the boxed would be going into the wrong trailers.

If it's not Werner's fault for giving me poor training, then explain why I'm way better at driving buses than I ever was at truck driving. Maybe it's because they didn't train me properly. And are you seriously gonna say it's not Werner's fault I couldn't pay my car note, even though they gave me poor training, then fired me when I made a mistake? Also, Family Dollar's trailers may have HAD sliding tandems, but I couldn't ever get them to slide. No matter what, they just wouldn't move. Also, how is it my fault Werner falsely accused me of willful malicious behavior? I can't believe you could possibly defend companies falsely accusing people of stuff. They lied and said I wanted to get fired, which was NOT true. I went to hell and back for that company. Unloading trailers until three in the morning, and THIS is how they repaid me.

As for "adding details," that's because people keep acting like the experiences I had were completely fabricated, so I feel I have to mention every single detail for clarity. I don't know why anyone would think I WAS lying about it, though. What would I have to gain? I don't understand how anyone could defend Werner after what they did to me. I don't understand why everyone seems to think it makes perfect sense NOT to give people proper training, then get mad at them when they made a mistake. If Werner was such a great company, they could've been bothered to TELL me how to use a load bar, instead of making me look like an idiot in front of the customer.

Also, why would anyone get fired on purpose? That doesn't make any sense. You sound like those people Amazon pays to go on social media and down-play complaints people have about working there.

Why the moderators let you keep commenting is beyond me. You have nothing constructive to say.

Well I guess I can't convince you that the experiences I was were true, however I did 100% experience them and they are why I gave up on the trucking industry. Even if I could find another job, they'd just give me the same rushed training and it'd be no better. And who knows, maybe they might fire me and lie about the reason I was fired. I lost all my trust in the industry.

Jonathon, please explain to me how you "make" a car "back up" so you can execute your turn. Do you do that from your cab or do you have to get out and direct traffic?????? And what if there are 3 or 4 cars in your way? Can you put an instructional video on your YouTube channel to demonstrate how it should be done correctly?

I guess the only thing positive I can say about you is that you decided to drive a bus instead of a truck. But I'd be very surprised if that lasts very long before you get fired from that gig also.

So far, a giant trailer in front of there car was convincing enough to make them back up. I'd occasionally get the "middle finger," but they always backed up. Also, I've been a school bus driver for over two years at this point. I'm usually told I do a good job, unlike when I was a truck driver. (Funny how if you actually train someone, they'll be good at the job after the training.)

Dude, staying angry about stuff that has happened in the past will only turn you into the school bus driver I had when I was 9 years old, Mr. Schillinger. Les was an angry man, and getting onto his bus morning and afternoon was NOT a pleasant experience. I'm over 60 now, and still remember him. On the other hand, I do also remember Mrs. Schoger - Bobbi was so short she had to have blocks of 2x4 bolted to the pedals so she could clutch, brake, and accelerate. She was one of the most cheerful bus drivers I ever had, and being a country kid I rode the bus from third grade all the way through high school. Never a care in the world, even with the cheaters. I hope that your apparent dwelling on the past isn't making you a Les, and that instead you are a Bobbi.

Accept the past. Learn from it, or ignore it as you choose. But you won't change it, and to be brutally honest, you're starting to sound like a you-tube denizen seeking clicks for spewing anger, frustration, and self-proclaimed victimization. I could be wrong. I usually am, if one were to ask The Beloved.

I wish you some kind of peace in your career moving forward. You're hauling our Nation's kids to school. Be a force for good. We need that.

You'd be mad, too if you had a nice car (for me, it was a 2006 Nissan Altima) and it got repossessed. I fell behind on my bills when Werner fired me. I kept telling the loan company, "I lost my job, but I'm still looking for a new one." I filed for unemployment thinking it'll all be alright, but then (and this is why I keep saying what a bad company Werner is) they falsely accused me of "willful malicious behavior." Sure I was mad at Werner, but lying so I can't collect unemployment is really low. That was the last straw. I filed a dispute and said, "I was not fired for willful malicious behavior. I worked to the best of my ability with the information given (which wasn't much) and was not trained on how to make deliveries to convenience stores." I was given a chance to argue my case. They gave me some paperwork explaining what Werner was accusing me of. I didn't get a chance to read all of it, but every single word I read was a lie. They said I "refused to listen to dispatch." I don't even know what they meant by that. Unless "sorry, I don't have anymore drive time and have to do a 70-hour reset, so I can't take that trailer" counts as "refusing to listen to dispatch. I even took trailers to Massachusetts on what should've been my day off. They also said I hit a store on purpose. I don't know what kinda mental gymnastics they had to do to convince themselves of that BS. Anyway, they never showed up, probably because they knew they couldn't prove those tall claims. I was allocated unemployment benefits, but it was too late. Even after I found a job, it was less than what I was making AND it was temporary. The car was taken from me. And good luck convincing a bank you can make the payments on a temp salary, which could last for a year OR one day. That car was gone, and for that, I will always be angry at Werner. I'll take my hatred for them to the grave.

So yeah, the trucking industry was the worse industry I've ever been in, and other than being a traffic flagger, it was the worse job I've ever had.

(Sorry, ran out of characters)

On my first day as a school bus driver, not everything went right (I was running late because the bus was in a different lot than where the paperwork said it was), but because they took their time in training me, everything else worked out (except for accidentally picking up the wrong student). When I got to my first stop, I knew exactly what to do. I knew how to perform a safe stop, etc. On my first Family Dollar delivery (the reason why they fired me), The store was in a dark alley with zero lighting. There were two doors. One was at the end of the alley, the other at the front. I could only see the one in the front because it was so dark, so I thought, "The back of the trailer is supposed to be at the door, so I guess they want me to go in facing forward?" (I know you're supposed to back into an alley, but some of these locations, as I'd find out later, were in fact set up so you'd have to pull into them, and back out towards the street) I pulled into the alley, then saw the rear most door with the Family Dollar logo. I thought, "oh, so I guess they want me to face the OTHER way. I tried to back out, but the street was too busy, so I had to call the police to block the road, so I could back up. I then went around the block and backed in, blocking one lane at a time.

Now, when I worked at FedEx Ground, they used load straps to tie down the cargo, so I was already familiar with them. Unfortunately, Family Dollar uses load bars, which no one taught me how to use, so this caused a delay. I spent over an hour Googling, "How to loosen a load bar," but could only find videos on how to tighten one. "NO, I wanna know how to LOOSEN one! I already KNOW how to tighten one! That's all that happens when I try to loosen it!" Eventually, I gave up and ripped it out of the wall angrily. "Wouldn't it make sense to TELL me how to use these," I thought to myself.

They said, "you need to get closer because our shop rollers are broken and can't be stretched out to the truck." I said, "I'm not sure if it's safe to get any closer." They then threatened me that they'd report me if I didn't do what they said. I reluctantly agreed. Now, Family Dollar trailers are different than the ones I was trained on. I didn't know at the time that their tandems were further forward than on normal trailers. This was bad, as I used the tandems as a reference point when backing. Since the tandems were further away from the rear than usual, I hit and dented the door. I then pulled up about a foot. They said, "don't worry, we'll take care of it, so I thought they had some kinda internal way they handled stuff like that. This was also my first accident / incident in ANY vehicle, including cars, so I didn't know what to do if that happened. (I was hoping it wouldn't) Also, Werner didn't tell me that they had a company policy stating, "no closer than 5 feet of a building" (which is how close I was originally). Had they have told me that from the start, I could've easily told them, "Sorry, but the company policy says I can't get any closer than 5 feet," but since I didn't know such a policy existed, I thought I'd get in trouble for "not obeying the customer." Y'know, "the customer's always right," that sort of thing. The 5-foot thing and not reporting an accident were not why they told me they were firing me, though they did sound quite angry about them, they specifically said "three incidents," which is another long story that I'll get more into.

I believe the 90 degree turn being referenced is what is called a "button hook". We practiced this numerous times and, done correctly, no other vehicles are blocked or forced to back up.

No offense, but you've clearly never been to Lehigh Valley, PA. Here, we have all kinds of intersections that are so narrow, the stop line is moved further back. Cars always ignore this line and drive all the way up to the corner. This means if a truck needed to make a turn onto that road, the car is too far up, so the driver will usually drive as far as they can, make the car back up, then continue making the turn.

I'm surprised there are drivers who have never heard of this, because this happens all the time where I live. The intersection of Northampton St and PA-512 is a good example of this. Here's a Google Maps link, so you can see what I mean: (https://www.google.com/maps/@40.727229,-75.3931412,49m/data=!3m1!1e3)

As for the reason why I was fired, I mentioned that in the videos I linked, but I guess you can't link YouTube videos here, so I'll type out everything instead.

First of all, I'd like to point out that is cost $0.00 to become a school bus driver. On the contrary, truck driving school put me in a special amount of debt I didn't think was possible. It cost $10,000. ($6,000 with $4,000 interest) Normally, I'd walk away from that kinda debt, but they assured me, "You'll only have to pay $25 per week for a year and the company will pay the rest." "I think it's safe to say with all that money you'll be making, you'll easily afford $25 per week." That is what sold me. Except, even though I signed something allowing them to take $25 per week out of my paycheck, it wasn't coming out. All this time, I thought the tuition was being paid, but when I finally got home after training and went through all my mail, I got one from the loan company claiming that nothing has been paid. The $25 wasn't automatically coming out and Werner wasn't paying their part either. I now owed $300 per month, which was too much with other bills I had.

Now how they sold me on the Family Dollar account, is as the people above have said. They didn't tell me at all how difficult it would be. They offered me more money than I've ever seen in my life (nearly $2000 per week) and promised me every weekend off. I thought, "Wow, I thought truck drivers were never home, but they're offering me weekends off?" "I could work on my YouTube channel during the weekend and drive trucks the rest of the week." They didn't tell me I'd be backing in tight areas. If they had, I'd decline. I'm a cautious individual and wouldn't purposefully chose such a risky option as my first driving job. They said it was a roller account, so I thought it would be easy, thinking about my then-current job at FedEx ground unloading trailers. At FedEx Ground, the trailers have rollers built into the floor. The trailer is backed onto a ramp. You place a product on a roller, and it rolls downhill to the back of the trailer, and onto a conveyor belt. I thought, "well I already do that for a living, so that'll be easy!" I also assumed I'd be driving from warehouse to warehouse thinking, "no way they could fit a truck in those tiny parking lots."

Imagine my surprise when I made my first delivery. The rollers are NOT built into the floor, they are 10ft, 50lb segments that have to be carried off the truck and into the trailer. "Why would you do it this way?" "It's so inefficient," I thought to myself, but tried to make it work. Most of the rollers didn't roll, so the product would get stuck. Most of the rollers were bent, so the product would just fall on the floor. Most of the rollers wouldn't attach to each other, so the product would snag on one. Meanwhile, you have a customer saying things like, "hurry up!" "Why is it taking you so long?!" "It's never taken anyone as long as it's taking you!" "You should just quit, you don't know what you're doing!" One day, a customer walked into the trailer and put a bunch of product on the line saying, "Why do you keep putting one on at a time?" I tried to explain to her, "because the rollers are bent, so if I put multiple on the line, they'll just push each other onto the floor. I have to guide each one individually, so they won't fall." She didn't listen, gave the product in the back one big push, then EVERYTHING fell on the floor. She then yelled at me, "THIS IS YOUR FAULT! CLEAN THIS MESS UP!"

When I complained to the company about the rollers, they pointed me to a trailer where they store rollers. I checked every single roller in that trailer and all of them were worse than mine. I only had one good roller and it was stolen from me at a truck stop in Phillipsburg, NJ.

So, short story long, I'm quite fed-up with the trucking industry. I worked for Werner Enterprises on the Family Dollar account, then I was fired in three months, couldn't get a job anywhere else (in trucking), and eventually, just gave up thinking, "screw this, I'm gonna drive buses instead."

First of all, the trucking industry is filled with stuff that just don't make no sense. When I was in truck driving school, the school was so overcrowded, the trainers couldn't focus on anyone. Ya got one attempt to try and back up the truck per DAY, then you waited the rest of the day for another turn, which would never come. Also, the trainers taught everyone aggressive driving techniques and I and a lot of other students failed their first road test, driving exactly like the teachers. For example, we were taught (and I know most commercial drivers do this) that when making a 90-degree turn, if there's someone in your way, block them and make them back up. I got failed for this. They claimed I was about to hit the car, which was not true because I clearly stopped before hitting them. Why would they think I'd keep going when there's obviously a car there? Have they never seen a truck making a sharp turn. They drive like that all the time where I live. I don't know why this behavior was such a shock to my instructor.

Compare that to training when learning how to drive a school bus and it's way less chaotic. For one thing, they only train one person at a time, so you get plenty of attempts to learn how to back up. In fact, I was FAR more confident in my skills on the school bus road test, than when being tested on how to drive a truck. I passed the road test in one try, while it took me four attempts when driving a truck.

Normally in every single job I've ever had, if you make a mistake, they tell you what ya did wrong, how to correct your mistake, and give you a chance to correct yourself. For example, on my first day as a school bus driver, I accidentally took a student to the wrong school because that stop was used for multiple routes, and I didn't know everyone yet. They told me, "for now on, ask each student which school they're going to to make sure you're picking up the right person," I corrected that mistake, and never had a similar problem. On the contrary, in the trucking industry, if you make one mistake, they'll tell you what you could've done differently, then FIRE you, without giving you a chance to improve. Then, no matter how many companies you apply at, not a single one will hire you. You never get a chance to learn from your mistakes. "Well, if you don't know how to report an accident, your trainer failed you..." then they fired me.

When I was in truck driving school, a lot of my classmates said, "I don't wanna drive precious cargo," but I'm tellin' ya, driving a bus is eons easier than driving a truck. Especially since your trainer isn't asleep while you drive.