Is It Normal To Wait A While For A Trainer?

Zach I’ll be at Wilson Logistics in Springfield! Cant wait!

Why do you don’t expect a company to know a trailer needs service, how about a company pre trip on the trailers, I run linehaul and no reason a terminal loading a trailer can’t pre trip it, a lot of wasted time could disappear, hooking up the other day and 2 trailer seals blown, that’s not something that’s easily overlooked, just load it and let the driver deal with it, responsibility should start with the company

WE is good for experience not for making money.

I found it good for both.

Most of us experience troubles like you did, but we learn how to deal with the issues. We don't expect the company to know things like which trailers need service. That's clearly the driver's responsibility to report those things. So, your problem came from your fellow drivers who speak worse of the company than you do. You can't lay blame on the company when the drivers are not taking care of what's clearly their responsibility.

As far as hearing from the CEO, I've never experienced that anywhere, nor would I ever expect to. We have driver managers who communicate with us, and the less communication you need is generally an indication that you are doing really well.

Of course we are thrilled that you are happy with your new gig, but we also know you could have done better at Western Express. It's tough. I can empathize with that. Our first trucking job is just tough on us. We like to see people figure it out and develop themselves into drivers that know how to deal with the issues.

how about a company pre trip on the trailers?

Jakester, you're a linehaul driver. Your trailers are loaded at and delivered to terminals. We are OTR drivers. Our trailers may not be parked at a terminal for months on end - they are parked all across the country at drop yards and customer locations. Therefore it is the driver's responsibility to pre-trip and report trailers that need to be repaired. Those guys in the suits can only know what the drivers communicate to them. Georgia Mike's issues are strictly based on drivers not taking care of their own responsibilities.

And the company not communicating or prioritizing breakdowns. It took me a week to get 4 batteries replaced at the nashville terminal. It have been a good company when you worked there old school but its not anymore the sliding pay scale is the biggest screw you dry van drivers out there. I have to disagree 100% 35$ dollars a day is crap when you have a family at home or are going through a divorce or are divorced and paying child support. Heck even a happily married family. Mr Old school i know you have a love for western express when it was a good company. That good company is gone. There is a reason people call it welfare express.

Welfare Express.... Crash Roll Stunt Team (crst) let’s not get started on poor Swift. Western Express serves a purpose of being a second chance or only chance company. And if I’m not mistaken Old School made a very respectable rookie wage there.

And the company not communicating or prioritizing breakdowns. It took me a week to get 4 batteries replaced at the nashville terminal. It have been a good company when you worked there old school but its not anymore the sliding pay scale is the biggest screw you dry van drivers out there. I have to disagree 100% 35$ dollars a day is crap when you have a family at home or are going through a divorce or are divorced and paying child support. Heck even a happily married family. Mr Old school i know you have a love for western express when it was a good company. That good company is gone. There is a reason people call it welfare express.

And the company not communicating or prioritizing breakdowns. It took me a week to get 4 batteries replaced at the nashville terminal. It have been a good company when you worked there old school but its not anymore the sliding pay scale is the biggest screw you dry van drivers out there. I have to disagree 100% 35$ dollars a day is crap when you have a family at home or are going through a divorce or are divorced and paying child support. Heck even a happily married family. Mr Old school i know you have a love for western express when it was a good company. That good company is gone. There is a reason people call it welfare express.

You will learn to stay away from terminals, with any company. I had 4 batteries replaced at TA, took maybe 4 hours. If I have a bad light or tire or wheel hub, I take it to Loves Speedco, 1-4 hours. A light repair does not warrant a trip to a terminal nor should it take long enough to draw breakdown pay. The terminals should be reserved for major repairs only as they always have a line and take forever to fix anything. To be fair, yes WE pay is very low however you knew what you were making when you took the job. WE has several issues they need to fix in order to have a better retention rate, pay being a major one but it's not really fair to put it all on them as you had every opportunity to say no thank you to the job you asked them for and they gave you. For every successful driver at WE theres probably a dozen that washout or quit over pay or whatever. I do feel for those that have a family to support as, again, their pay is on the lowest end of the scale however once a driver figures out how to perform to their best ability they can and do make money there. I dont fault you for making a change but WE did for you what you needed from them, gave you enough experience to get a better paying job right? Or was you planning on staying with them forever? It's only BS if you weren't aware of the pay when you accepted the job.

Calling them "Welfare Express" is nothing new. Most of the drivers called them that when I was there. I'd just chuckle inside. It's not hard to recognize the drivers who can't figure out what it takes to make it out here. They are either really green, or just too stubborn to pick up the little nuances that make for success in a challenging environment. It's really easy to blame our problems "on the company." It takes work and commitment to deal with the issues ourselves and figure out how to take initiative and make progress in our trucking careers.

My hope for you Georgia Mike is that you are in the "green" category.

I have no recent experience at Western Express. I do have a lot of experience at dealing with adversity. No matter what name is on you truck, this career provides plenty of that. We have to overcome it if we are going to make it out here.

It took me a week to get 4 batteries replaced at the nashville terminal.

This is a great example of the kind of stuff I'm talking about. No veteran driver would ever have this happen to them.

When my truck goes into the shop for repairs I make sure with the service manager what kind of time frame we are looking at. If it's going to be more than a day or two I'm in immediate contact with my driver manager apprising him of the situation. Then we will put together a plan for me to get in an empty truck (temporarily) and keep moving. I actually did this at Western Express one time. I had a break down and had to have my truck towed to a dealership. It was going to be 3 or 4 days to get it back on the road. I told my DM let's put a plan together and find me another truck until this one is complete. They put me in a hotel and had me a bus ticket the next morning taking me to a terminal where there was a truck that I could drive. I packed a few changes of clothes along with a few necessities, and temporarily moved into that new truck. I ended up being in it for almost three weeks, but they finally got me routed back to my original truck. You have to be your own advocate out here, and if you have proven yourself extremely valuable to your Driver Manager they will go out of their way to help you maintain your level of productivity.

Anybody following along here can learn from all this. There are always differing experiences that drivers have at trucking companies. I can assure you that there are successful drivers at Western Express today, even under this new CEO. Resourceful drivers don't need all those people in the office to babysit them. We learn how this thing works and we conquer each and every obstacle that gets in our way. There's no reason to sit at a terminal for a week waiting on batteries to be installed. There is always another way to deal with a problem like that.

Why do you don’t expect a company to know a trailer needs service, how about a company pre trip on the trailers, I run linehaul and no reason a terminal loading a trailer can’t pre trip it, a lot of wasted time could disappear, hooking up the other day and 2 trailer seals blown, that’s not something that’s easily overlooked, just load it and let the driver deal with it, responsibility should start with the company

As Old School pointed out a majority of these trailers don't go through terminals often. On top of that its still the drivers responsibility. One could make the argument about how much time the shop is wasting by inspecting every single trailer. If drivers are doing their job that they're legally required to do its pointless for them to inspect every trailer after every run if the driver just did. Be honest, because your company inspects all trailers do you skip that step in your daily routine? I start and stop at the DC/Terminal every day and I pre/post trip my own equipment. If there's any issues I discover whether they're major or not I inform the shop giving them time to get it on their schedule. Occasionally something will get overlooked whether intentional (being lazy/not inspecting) or not. This is one of the many things that separate the drivers from the Professional Drivers. I have an excellent job that treats us like rockstars and we still have drivers complain. Nearly every driver here could say the same for their company. Yet we all have people trash talking about the pay or negative treatment they receive. As far as the CEO thanking you I agree it's a nice gesture BUT is it really that big of a deal? To me it takes ZERO effort to send out a mass QC message saying thank you and its meaningless. I received a phone call from my VP yesterday telling me great job making the top 10 drivers and he thanked me. It was nice to hear that, but I'm just doing my job the way I always do. What I love most about driving is other than a daily phone call to select my run for the next day I typically don't talk to office staff but they're just a call away if I need anything. I genuinely hope things work out better for you at Freymiller Georgia Mike but it seems many of the issues are just typical rookie problems. I wish you'd have came here seeking advice in dealing with them. I did some looking last night at the FMCSA snapshot and W.E. has just over the national average for OOS equipment violations. Your current company has 14% of inspections resulting in OOS. Still lots of room for improvement and drivers not taking responsibility for operating road safe equipment.

Back to the original topic---- hopefully you get a trainer soon Zach!

Old School, I start orientation on Monday and this information is super helpful. I’m willing to bet that although I’ll be receiving tons of useful information, learning how to change a tail light in a trailer may not be part of it.

Other than knowing how to change the oil and a flat tire on a 4-wheeler, I’m not particularly handy when it comes to automotive DIY fixes, and don’t even know what fixes I would benefit from knowing.

How would I take initiative to learn simple “productivity hacks” such as this? Is there a resource of basic how-to videos? What kind of tools should I need to buy? Where on YouTube should I look for instructions? Thanks so much!

Eugene .. what terminal are you going to ????

re: Videos ... there are many! ScottieD67 has a LOT of YT/DIY vids .. from when he was a trainer for Swift, and then an L/O for JCT (John Christner.)

Our own Kearsey has a YT channel, as well .. but most will show her driving into the shop before attempting a quick fix, haha!! ;)