Frustrations With Werner Enterprises, I'm Finished With Them

You're going to find out or figure out that the only thing that really changes from company to company is the phone number. Try to hang with a company, any company, any driving situation, for one year. Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut. Keep your personal peeves, expectations, promised deals, broken promises, and opinions of companies to yourself. Muster up to the task, stay safe, and commit to the moment. Good luck.

Excellent Sidney!

Hey Welcome to the forum! That is some great stuff, especially coming from a new member who is an experienced driver. So often times our new experienced guys are jaded and have some really negative attitudes coming in here. Of course, you'll get plenty of chance to screw up if you keep commenting, but that was really good stuff!

If dollar accounts are something that as a generalization is not good for a new driver, why do they place so many new drivers into that role? is the worst part worrying about both unloading and driving, and it ends up just being too much for a new guy to handle?

Well, tough jobs are hard to keep employees in, but every once in a while you find a guy who really loves that kind of thing. They need drivers, so they hire drivers. Those jobs pay fairly well, and if they have to go through eight or ten guys to find one that works, that is just what they have got to do. Those are good contracts for the trucking companies, and they are doing what they can to fill those positions - it is the old supply and demand thing working itself out.

We don't recommend them here because we know how tough they are, and they could quite possibly end your career. Not only are they physically demanding, with the very high possibility of injuries due to the intense manual labor (which some folks really like), they have a lot of difficult maneuvering of a big rig under high pressure situations. These stores are located in strip centers or small individual standing sites which are most commonly not very Big Rig friendly.

It is stressful to back a Big Truck into a parking lot off of a busy street, and that is often times the way you have got to do these stores. Traffic is flying by, and cars are rushing around the poor truck drivers rig so they can get out or into the store without having to wait on him to figure out how to get his rig in there. We hear reports of boxes of freight falling onto the drivers while unloading because they are stacked up so high in the truck and other such things as that. It really is a job for an experienced driver, but most of us who have experience are able to make just as much or more by doing a dedicated account where you don't have to do all that extra labor. It is just a tough job to keep filled, so they have resorted to trying to get new folks in there at least for a little bit of time just to help them meet their contractual obligations to there customers. Occasionally they will find a guy who does okay with it and actually likes that kind of thing.

Ad, I hope everything works out for ya. I spent hours researching the industry and talking to drivers ( I was a truck mechanic ) and thought I had it all figured out so I took the plunge and enrolled in swifts driving academy. Like you, my world turned upside once I was actually out on the road. Left my debit card at a truck stop, missed my brothers graduation and even dropped my pillow in bird doodoo walking around the swift terminal in Memphis. All these little things added up and I bailed after a few months with the assumption finding a local job would be easy lol. I found a job with a equipment rental company and ate some crow for a bit working in the yard and driving a class b truck. Got promoted a few months ago to a semi driver finally. These opportunities do exist for rookies but it requires hard work and a good attitude. It's good money and I'm home every night just long enough to shower and eat before bed time but not a day goes by that I don't regret not finishing out the year with swift. there's a good chance you'll feel the same way about Werner one day. Good luck to you sir!

i can relate to most of this. i did not loose my debt card but i set it up on the dash after i bought into the truck stop wifi and that damned thing slid into the dashboard plastics on the truck where i couldnt reach it. had to get the card replaced when i got home. my cell phone, i couldnt find the stupid thing and i ended up replacing it. it ended up showing up later but it really made me panic, not only was i several thousand miles away from my wife but now i couldnt even call her. i was an emotional mess being away from my wife and son for such a long time brought me to tears, literally. i hated it with an absolute passion and i vowed to not do OTR ever again. i dealt with the first week or two ok, but when i started to get past a month i started to loose it. while i was driving, part of my focus was on driving but part of my focus was on my wife and child. what i am leaving werner to go to is a medium sized carrier 3-400 trucks. they are big enough to offer some of the advantages of larger carrier but i think small enough to still be considered a family run business. its ran by two brothers. perhaps if i could have found them first i could have avoided the unpleasant, emotionally painful experience that was for me, over the road. if that lifestyle of being gone suits some people and they do well on it, i would never take that away from them. im happy for them. if werner or any other company is a good fit for many of their drivers, again i would never try to take anything away from them. im glad they found a place they fit in at. however that OTR experience was a terrible fit for myself. its really great for people like my trainer, he is 25 years old and still lives at home with mom and sister, heck if that was me i would want to escape that too.

If dollar accounts are something that as a generalization is not good for a new driver, why do they place so many new drivers into that role? is the worst part worrying about both unloading and driving, and it ends up just being too much for a new guy to handle?

Same reason companies will push for rookies to sign into lease ops. It is not about what is good for the rookie. It is about what is beneficial to the company. With an average 3% profit margin in this industry, companies will do what they have to, to make money. Like bringing in 30+ new rookies each week, hoping a handful of them will pan out to be profitable drivers.

I think another important factor in driving for a mega carrier vs a mom and pop outfit is the stability and reliability of a larger company. They have resources to get you moving again in a timely manner if you have a breakdown, none of the "we're not able to pay you this week" drama and plenty of support for what you need. I've never driven for a smaller company, but based on hearing drivers talk about how their checks bounced or how they sat for a long period of time waiting for a service call for whatever reason would make me question how pretty the picture they're painting is. But ya never know, this new place could be exactly what you're looking for.

I don't know who I feel more sorry for; Old School for wasting his precious time on someone who is so narrowminded to read and think about the great advice he's given or your wife because I imagine she probably has to repeat and yell things 8 times before you'll even consider paying attention.

I mean seriously man, I'm in my 20's but have been trucking for close to 5 years now and you're even more stubborn and stupid than I was when I was going into trucking at the immature age of 21.

I won't even hammer down on your major points because it'll waste my time and I'm on the clock. I work an hourly local job for a small company hauling gasoline and other fuels to gas stations. See that big gas truck filling up the tanks with long hoses at your local gas stations? Thats me. About 150 trucks at this company so I feel very qualified to speak here since most everyone else is on a major carrier.

You speak so falsely about being just a number, sir, I can't tell you how much it sucks to walk into the offices and EVERYONE knows you. They know what kind of worker you are, they remember the times you screwed them over, and its easy for the bosses to keep an eye on you. For example, if we have 30 drivers working a nightshift and 120 loads need to go out. Thats 4 loads per driver which is a busy day. And I come into work and do 3 loads but I feel far too ill to do the 4th, well then a fellow driver who knows me has to do a 5th load and bust his butt because of me and that dispatcher has to bust his butt to take time out of his super busy day to beg someone to do my 4th load. The driver is mad at me, the dispatcher is mad at me. And the next day when I come in I better come in with blue lips and crutches because if I dont look sick then they're going to want to fist-fight me. We all know eachother! It doesn't mean good things sometimes!

Small trucking companies seem to be much more tightly managed. I can slack off at a big company and dodge everyone but in a small company they don't have much to track so they'll know.

And about hauling tankers. I wouldn't even think about that. So far your career in this industry has been a total disaster, your ego is just too inflated to realize it. I would first try to actually drive a truck without killing anyone as a solo driver. 1 step at a time, take your time.

I havent hit anything so saying im a total disaster would be a stretch. im not going to call myself successful either by any stretch of the imagination. i have yet to have a successful start. i am also aware that a dollar account is not going to be a good fit. my brother in law who previously worked for werner on a dollar account had multiple backing accidents. i have heard from other werner employees how bad the backing is. my trainer gave me almost no backing practice. if i was interested in driving OTR i would try stick it out with them. i have zero interest in such a lonely, miserable life. great for single people and divorcees. so if i am not interested in driving OTR or staying with a dollar account, that leaves me with the option of going somewhere else that offers other options.

so what makes me a total disaster? i would say im not established yet, i have not proven anything yet but total disaster is kind of an unfair analysis. total disaster would be damaging equipment, killing someone, or otherwise doing something utter stupid.

also i sure did not ask to sit in that hotel all of those weeks. i should have jumped ship sooner but i didnt know where to go at the time.

Both Dan427 and Daniel B make excellent points about large versus small carriers. In fact, one of the most baffling pieces of misinformation that has plagued the industry for decades is the whole idea that large carriers are just "starter companies" that you go with for a short time until you get a better opportunity with a small company. That was, in fact, the exact opposite of what I experienced throughout my career.

I've worked for companies from 5 to 5,000 trucks and everywhere in between. The larger carriers are much nicer places to work overall. They have tons of money behind them, exceptional equipment, very stringent safety practices, and a ton of really nice perks. The small companies can be a nightmare. They simply don't have the resources at their disposal most of the time to make the driver's job and their life on the road so much more convenient.

After I had been out there nearly 10 years and could go anywhere I wanted to I chose US Xpress and stayed there about six years. They're one of the "starter companies" that many will tell you to avoid, but don't listen to em.

i was an emotional mess being away from my wife and son for such a long time brought me to tears, literally. i hated it with an absolute passion and i vowed to not do OTR ever again........if werner or any other company is a good fit for many of their drivers, again i would never try to take anything away from them. im glad they found a place they fit in at. however that OTR experience was a terrible fit for myself.

Wouldn't it be great to go back in time, knowing what you've learned here the past few days, and maybe revise that initial slaughtering of Werner? Because it should be clear by now that Werner wasn't the problem. Part of the problem was you came into the industry with the wrong expectations. Part of the problem was listening to the wrong people. And finally, the last big part of the problem was that you hated the job that was keeping you away from your family, and no one will ever blame you for that.

You'll find your place in the industry. Trucking has a million opportunities and you'll find plenty that suit you. Hopefully the place you're going to now will be a good fit. Just keep in mind that you're new to the industry and now you're new to this company so you're really starting from square one and having to prove yourself to a whole new group of people that don't know you at all. It's going to take some time to get to know the right people and prove your worth.

I don't know who I feel more sorry for; Old School for wasting his precious time on someone who is so narrowminded to read and think about the great advice he's given or your wife because I imagine she probably has to repeat and yell things 8 times before you'll even consider paying attention.

I mean seriously man, I'm in my 20's but have been trucking for close to 5 years now and you're even more stubborn and stupid than I was when I was going into trucking at the immature age of 21.

I won't even hammer down on your major points because it'll waste my time and I'm on the clock. I work an hourly local job for a small company hauling gasoline and other fuels to gas stations. See that big gas truck filling up the tanks with long hoses at your local gas stations? Thats me. About 150 trucks at this company so I feel very qualified to speak here since most everyone else is on a major carrier.

You speak so falsely about being just a number, sir, I can't tell you how much it sucks to walk into the offices and EVERYONE knows you. They know what kind of worker you are, they remember the times you screwed them over, and its easy for the bosses to keep an eye on you. For example, if we have 30 drivers working a nightshift and 120 loads need to go out. Thats 4 loads per driver which is a busy day. And I come into work and do 3 loads but I feel far too ill to do the 4th, well then a fellow driver who knows me has to do a 5th load and bust his butt because of me and that dispatcher has to bust his butt to take time out of his super busy day to beg someone to do my 4th load. The driver is mad at me, the dispatcher is mad at me. And the next day when I come in I better come in with blue lips and crutches because if I dont look sick then they're going to want to fist-fight me. We all know eachother! It doesn't mean good things sometimes!

Small trucking companies seem to be much more tightly managed. I can slack off at a big company and dodge everyone but in a small company they don't have much to track so they'll know.

And about hauling tankers. I wouldn't even think about that. So far your career in this industry has been a total disaster, your ego is just too inflated to realize it. I would first try to actually drive a truck without killing anyone as a solo driver. 1 step at a time, take your time.

i dont know if my career has been a total disaster, i dont

2 leave of absence, never actually got promoted to a solo driver, went through 2 trainers. You failed hard, you dun goofed everything.

You have so much pride and ego I wouldn't be surprised if you erect statues of yourself in your front yard. The writing is on the wall but you worship yourself so in your eyes you didn't fail. Listen, we dont hold it against you, none of us do not even a little bit. Trucking isnt for everyone. Its one of those careers that you either win big or lose big. You couldn't put me in a 9-5 desk job, I will fail it because its not for me and I wont be good at that.

Theres certain things in life I fail at and have failed at. Trucking was that to you yet you blind yourself to reality and think a small, local company will be your saving grace.

We all could have done something better in life. Its okay to step back and admit your faults and that you're not perfect. Sometimes the best way to fight self-love is to point the finger at ourselves.

Bottom line(s); come here BEFORE you choose a company and most "smaller" carriers won't hire you straight outa CDL school. And NOT ALL "mega carriers" are the same. Sheesh!