Comments By Andrew D.

One more detail, the company that im going to actually had me come in for a face to face interview before he hired me. it felt more like a traditional job interview and hire process vs. just given a job over the phone kind of deal.

So now you are going to say that it isn't just Werner, the problem actually lies with all large carriers. And the reason you can say this is because...

i have been told they are all the same. avoid them when possible.

That is a unique statement. Pray, who is it that is telling you this stuff? Could it be that same brother in law who once worked for Werner, or maybe someone else with much more knowledge than him?

You see the vast majority of us work for large carriers, and even got our start with large carriers. They are some of the most successful trucking companies around. Their equipment is top notch, their emphasis on safety is over the top, and they have got all kinds of freight to keep us making good solid money. Have you ever considered how they got to be considered "large carriers?" Well it is because they have been successful, and that success came to them because they had happy loyal employees who helped them get to that point.

I certainly wouldn't begrudge a man who wants to be with his family, I miss mine severely at times. But that is no reason to blame the large carriers and come screaming in here like they are some kind of hateful organizations who try to separate folks from the people they love. It is part of the job! If you don't like it that is all fine and good, just stop trying to lay the blame on someone else.

i really felt i was pushed through Werner's training program without really getting proper training, they were ready to give me my own truck already and i felt i was no where near ready with the limited backing i received.

You see, this is the way EVERYBODY feels when they go through training. We teach this all the time. We warn people all the time that when they hand you the keys to your own truck, you are going to be asking yourself, "do they really think I am ready for this?" You could have made such a better start if you would have just been a part of our forum before you got a bee in your bonnet and came in here with guns a blazing.

You just didn't have any kind of understanding of what it was you were getting yourself into, and then you failed - you were not prepared.

I'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret... you are not prepared for what you are about to get into next either.

i cant say i failed, because i have not given up. im simply making a switch to something that i think will be a better fit. what should i do to prepare me for the next phase of what you say is coming next? failing is giving up, i dont give up easily. i backed down from something that might not get me home every week. i did not give up. i did not fail, and i will not fail. i have a family and bills, i will NOT fail

also my point with the mega carriers YES they have nice equipment no question, but i feel as a generalization it does not matter the industry, the larger the company the worse they are to work for AND more you simply are a number.

All your posts sound as if you had no clue as to what to expect as an over the road driver.

Thinking a carrier was going to get you home for the weekends "even during training" those are not realistic expectations as a new driver.

Had you looked around on this site you would realize everyone feels as if they were rushed through training and that they didn't feel as if they got enough backing practice. The best part was expecting lots of trainers during winter... you know... when everyone is shut down due to inclement weather.

it wasn't so much that they were shut down for weather, more of them were shut down for the holidays. again poor recruiting tactics. when you already have 40 students warehoused in a hotel, why would you continue to recruit more people? makes no sense. here is some solutions, remove the recruiters from commission pay, place them on salary. stop giving them incentives to send too many students in for training. add to this the people at the terminal should call the recruiters and tell them they are full. i wonder how many students actually stay and how many get upset enough to cut bait and leave.

Frankly the dishonesty started with the woman at the CDL school where i got my CDL. when i signed up for classes, one of the first things i asked the school was if i could get a local, home every night job driving truck after graduation. they told me that i would be able to do that. well about 3 weeks after graduating and trying my due diligence to get that local job, i came to realize that wont happen without at least driving regional first. i really dont have an interest in over the road driving and i was expecting not to care for it. if i was single or divorced fine, but i would like to prevent that. ALLOT of OTR drivers end up giving up their marriage, something im not prepared to do. as far as recruiters go, i hate being lied to; actually i despise it. it puts a very bad taste in my mouth as a first impression, honesty is always the best policy.

the company that i am going to informed me that students go home over the weekends, it was not an expectation or even a question. i assumed it would be similar, although probably not gone 8 weeks. they volunteered that information. the big deal for me is being home every weekend and working for a company that doesnt even run weekends. having up to 55 hours of home-time per week is a good gig. i have the advantage of having an "insider" that works in the milk hauling division. this is actually someone i knew from my days in the milk plants. he formerly worked for bugman milk hauling, a company that goes into my former employer. he now works for wadhams milk hauling division. he informed me that wadhams is an honest company that has integrity and he actually likes working there. he suggested i look into them in the first place.

so yes, i would agree that so far this journey has been full of things that don't meet expectations. hopefully the new company is a good fit for me, and i will just bite the bullet, and get my experience....... switch over to the fuel or milk hauling division in a year, that gets me home daily. if my goal is to be home as much as possible i think they are more aligned with my carrier objectives.

thank god my wife has been supportive of me through all of this. i married a good woman

Truckers themselves would be better off if they read it themselves. I've worked for a major carrier and I was laid off from a smaller carrier, the OP will figure out what I mean by that.

I also was a team driver so no sympathy for sleeping during the day in a moving truck. I think you'll find this is a norm for a lot of folks on this forum... if most of us could do it what makes him special?

i will NEVER run as a team. team driving is a choice, one that i will choose not to do. its a good for some but if you already having sleeping problems stay away from team driving. its not a requirement to work in trucking. it should not be a requirement for student drivers. i used to work in a milk plant and know allot of drivers that work for small companies, they always seemed to have work and they were home everyday. sure some jobs are seasonal.

I actually did not want to work for a large carrier to begin with. i got my CDL and tried my due diligence to find a local job with a mom and pop operation. i probably called 30 companies the week after i got my CDL. i went with Werner because the way i saw it, they were better then swift or CR england. i still believe they are. after calling 30 or 40 smaller companies, i came across a common obstacle. the insurance obstacle, the small carriers will not hire you because the insurance companies wont allow them to hire you. its impossible to get your start at a small outfit anymore. Werner kind of was like a last resort. then i discovered a much smaller company that would hire me, its a privately owned family run company. i think they will be a better fit.

did i fail? NO i drove through major cities of LA, Dallas, ect ect. i did allot of that driving while my trainer was snoozing in the back. i did not have accidents. i drove into black ice while he was sleeping in the back, scared the poop right out me. i handled a dangerous situation safely with no close calls. did it meet my expectations? absolutely not. i did not expect to sit in a hotel and do nothing for days on end TWICE, that's 3+ weeks of my life i cannot get back. the recruiters told me one thing, and something completely different happened. dishonesty in order to make paid sales commission sucks. truth is the big carriers lie to the drivers.

i know someone who works for wadhams, and he said they aren't too shabby. im going to try them out. if at least 3/4 of what they are telling me is true it will be a better fit. i want to drive, but i also value time with my wife and child. after i have my time into the dry van division, switching over to a division that gets me home every day is something i certainly will explore.

For someone who does not have a family a large carrier is probably OK. i don't mean to single Werner out, they aren't the only ones, but running student drivers with little or no experience is dangerous and not the best training regimen. team driving students seems to be an industry problem. as far as Werner, i respect that CL is running the company again so to speak, the trucks were nice, and there are things that aren't terrible. they seem to respect safety in the sense they will allow to park it if the weather is bad, and will allow you to re-route around bad weather. i do not want to sound like i am badmouthing them, i just am making the suggestion that people try for a small to medium sized carrier instead of just going to the mega carriers. my exp really could have been much better. Werner is the only mega carrier i have ever worked for but i have been told they are all the same. avoid them when possible. i got my CDL back in November, so yes i am new to this and i will admit that. however sitting people around in a hotel away from their family and offering you no training while you are there stinks. no simulator, no backing, nothing. i should be an expert backer with the time i was sitting there. they should and can be more efficient with training.

as far as my new opportunity, if everything matches at least closely to what i was told it will be a much better fit. if i get home every weekend including training, it will be a pretty good fit. they only have 4 trainers and vet them heavily. not just anyone can be a trainer there. i really felt i was pushed through Werner's training program without really getting proper training, they were ready to give me my own truck already and i felt i was no where near ready with the limited backing i received. safety is #1, im not looking to hit anyone or cause property damage. i also felt that since i was driving while the trainer was sleeping and vesa versa for allot of the time, i was teaching myself how to drive.

I know its a long post, heck its been a long 3 months and more adventure then i cared for lol. one more thing, wadhams is allowing me to take my own car to phelps for orientation so i wont be stuck ridding the bus or at a hotel with no transportation. i like what i hear from them so far.

I also have a brother in law that once worked for Werner. he told me they tell you that you get home for 34 hour resets, but it doesn't always happen that way. the company im going to informed me that typically i will get 55 hours per week at home, and that at the very least i will get 34 hours at home guaranteed. i have a family, house, dogs, ect ect. family time is a requirement for me. i think im making the right move. i also know someone who already works for wadhams milk hauling division and he really likes it there. several truckers that i know all said the same thing, get out of the mega carrier asap.

i started with werner enterprises on December 12th assigned to family dollar with the completion of training. the recruiters lied through there teeth, they said i would be in orientation for two days, get on a trainers truck, drive for a week and be home for Christmas. well that did not happen. i went to werner, went through orientation and sat in the Allentown hotel and did nothing for two weeks. they did allow people to go home for christmas, so i went home for christmas. after sitting there for two weeks and doing nothing, i was highly frustrated but i did not know what to do, i had no other employment. i returned to the allentown hotel and terminal and waited another 1-1/2 weeks for a trainer. i finally got my trainer assignment and had a decent trainer. i ran dollar tree with him for a 1-1/2 weeks. he then informed me he was going home for a week and i would have to sit in a hotel. i had already been away from my family for 3 weeks. i requested a leave of absence so i could see my wife and child. i went home for 4 days and had to return to Allentown yet again. again i waited another 1-1/2 weeks and got with another trainer. i drove over the road with him for 6 weeks and got my 250 hours or so. in the time i was with him, i maybe did 10-15 backings. i could not count how many times he didnt want to be bothered teaching me backing and just did it himself. when i was backing, he would get irritated with me if i struggled, hello jerk im learning and you are supposed to be teaching me. he also failed to show me how to properly interpret qualcom messages from the fleet managers or teaching what macros to send when, he really didnt feel like being a teacher. to make matters even worse once he got me past curfew he tried running me overnights 9pm-8am. i was tried explaining him that i did not sleep well during the day and that i had to leave a third shift job once in my life because i never was able to adapt. regardless he tried running me like that anyways. i did it two nights and almost fell asleep behind the wheel. i told him the next morning that i refused to run like that anymore, having to sleep during the day in a moving truck was dangerous for me. i ended up calling the fleet manager and they adjusted so i could drive during the day. i got my time on the truck went back to allentown and tested out. i passed everything but really dont feel that my backing is good enough, and frankly i dont know how to properly use the qualcom. after being gone 8 weeks i went home on a leave of absence. let me add one more thing, running a student as a team truck is foolish, dangerous, and does not teach you properly. its a way of running more miles off the backs of the students.

when i went home i decided i really had enough of werner, and i started to look for local jobs. unable to find a local job, i did find a more local, smaller carrier to work for. the company is called wadhams enterprises and they have 400 or so trucks vs. the 7,000 some trucks that werner has. they will send me with a trainer for a week or two but told me i would not required the full length of training. they will bring me in next wendsday for drug test and physical. they will then put me through 1 day of orientation and another day of smith systems. that friday after the smith systems class, they will make the arrangements for a trainer and monday i will get a trainer. i will not sit in a hotel over the weekend, i will go home to my family for the weekend. driving training will start that monday and will run monday thru friday. i will go home every weekend during training, no 34 hour resets spent at truck stops. i also have been told NO TEAM driving on student trucks. if the truck is moving, both people are to be in the front watching or driving. if a student goes in the back and sleeps while the truck is moving, its considered sleeping on the job. your job is learn driving the truck, not sleeping on the job. the company runs northeast regional 1,800-2,500 miles per week. they do not run drivers over the weekend. no one works weekends. i also have the ability to transfer over to the milk hauling or fuel hauling division after a year, and keep all of my seniority and higher CPM rates that come with length of service. they offer paid vacations and paid personal days. the division that i will be starting with is rist, the dry van division.

i have a wife of 12 years and a 5 year old child. i hated spending 8 weeks away from them. the OTR lifestyle is a poor fit for a family man, and brought me to tears more then once. werner just comes across as just another mega carrier that does not care about its employees. the training with the first trainer was decent, the second trainer really didnt show me much and more or less used me to put more miles on the truck. i would say that there trainers are a mixed bag of bad and good. no consistency. i could have requested a new trainer, but that would mean sitting for another two weeks, no good options. running as a team is not good training, allot of major carriers do this. i like what i hear from the smaller company and not running students as a team is much better training, less using students to make more miles. being home over the weekends will help prevent the emotional pain i was going through. 5 days gone and home weekends is manageable. depression wasn't setting in until i was gone more then a week. being able to transfer into a home daily job after a year is fantastic.