Noob Starting At Werner

It's a 680 manual, and I really like it. Still trying to get used to it after coming off the freight liner. It is roomy!! I was surprised how much more spacious it seems compared to the freight liner. My downshifting sucks in this KW for some reason lol. But I'll get a grip on that soon enough now that I've finally got a load going somewhere. I ended up bouncing back and forth between Dallas and forth worth a couple times yesterday. But now I finally get to leave Texas. My load now is heading up to Illinois 😊 Then I'm preassigned to go down to Tennessee after that. Bring on the miles!! I just hope they don't hold this current load being late against me. Not my fault they ran my clock out yesterday. Supposedly this account pays 36 cpm , but a late load drops it to 33 cpm for the week 😒 We shall see how this pans out in the next few days.

So far on my own is going well. Just got done driving for the day. I made it to Tennessee and I'm about 15 minutes away from the drop for tomorrow morning (I've earned a couple extra hours off duty lol). Then it looks like I'll be heading to Georgia. I've been getting ok miles, could be better I think, but it's better than none. I'll still be making more than I did for training and I was doing more work then, so that's a plus. I must say it's kinda strange being out in this big ol country by myself. I get a lil lonely at times, but at other times I like the solitude. I think more than anything, I'm just looking forward to going home to spend some time with family. It's been a while, but soon enough I'll be home and this trucking gig will have some much needed routine.

Good to see you running with the big dogs. Your in my neck of the woods if you are south of Nashville on I65.

Hope you get home soon.

Bryn

I don't know if I'm running with you guys, more like jogging, but I'm trying my damnedest to keep up lol. I'm crashing at a tiny lil cramped rest area on I155 east bound (west side of Tennessee). Just hope the rig stays intact and that I can get out in the AM. I made myself a bit wider and shorter by parking with a kink otherwise I'm sure there would be issues. Hopefully that saves the front end and gives me space to escape lol

Hey dan, what kind of drug test did they do, hair or urine? Glad things are going well. Thanks

From my understanding tomorrow consists of paperwork, dot physical, drug test, and some tests on a computer. I'm glad it's nothing too serious since I got here 6 hours before I have to get my day started.

They do both urine and hair. Hair will soon be part of DOT tests. Supposedly congress passed something in December of 2015 that gives DOT a year to come up with guidelines to then be able to accept it.

Well it took some poking around, but I will finally be going home tomorrow. It kind of irked my nerves a bit when I was assigned a load that was being dropped 3 hours from home, I just assumed that was the load to get me home. So I asked, and the response I got was "you don't have home time in the system". Ok maybe not then. I was the informed I have to drive an hour closer to home to attend orientation. Ok surely after that I can go home lol. So I ask this morning and got the same response along with "you needed to request home time". Whoa wait a minute!! So when we talked last Friday and you told me I could probably go home this coming weekend after attending orientation and getting loads to get me from Dallas to the east coast was a waste of air?!?! I couldn't request time off because I didn't know when I could go home lol. Needless to say I'm going home tomorrow and return to work Wednesday. I was hoping for a bit more home time considering I've been away for 8 weeks now, but I'll take what I can get.

Been a while since I posted an update!! I had a wonderful time at home for 4 days then got back on the road on Wednesday. The first couple days back on the road from home time were tough. I was really missing being at home and everything that we as truckers sacrifice to make our livings. On Saturday it wore off a bit as I was back in the swing of it all again. With the loads I've gotten so far, I will have logged 2,601 (paid) miles tomorrow afternoon. I don't think that's too bad for 5 days of work. Then a week from tomorrow I should be heading home again.

While I've been out I've been fighting to get a local job with another company (difficult to get ahold of the people). I just like home a bit too much, and there's no other reason for me wanting that local gig. I can't bash Werner like many people do with starter companies. They've treated me rather well, and I don't find the pay to be too subpar. In my current situation I'd have some peace of mind at home that I just can't get out here on the road. My wife was the reason behind me jumping into OTR , but is also the reason behind me wanting to be local. Da struggle is real lol.

(Back story) She is disabled from Kidney failure and requires dialysis 3 days a week, which was caused due to her being a diabetic. I was struggling to find local work, while all my CDL school classmates managed to land local gigs (despite me being top of the class, go figure). That was when I decided to go with Werner and at least acquire a taste for OTR along with acquiring some much needed experience. Make some better money than I was at retail to help with the heaps of medical bills and get some decent health insurance. Until she gets a transplant she can't join me out here, otherwise she'd be right next to me instead of being stuck in our empty home in her lonesome. She really needs someone to be around, but unfortunately at the moment I can't be, but I'm hoping soon that changes as I'm supposed to be getting an interview on my next home time (if I can get ahold of them). When her health gets better in the untold future I can see us getting out here on the road for her to at least see the many sites that I've seen in such a short time that many people never get the opportunity to see. Rant almost over.

I just figured I should explain why OTR isn't right for me at the moment. As you all can see it has nothing to do with all the aspects of the job, just a personal struggle at a young age (I'm 30, she's 28). But in the meantime I'm doing what I have to. Ok rant over. Be safe fellow truckers!!

Daniel a great post. Hope the local gig works out for you. A Werner recruiter called me a couple weeks ago. After asking another driver some questions, and getting good info, I had some questions. I sent them and the recruiter was out and would not be in for several days. Yesterday she called while I was at the dentist. I called her back and she didn't have any answers. The original call was to offer me a four state regional. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Yesterday she said all they had was OTR , or dedicated that drivers have to unload. I was very interested in the four state regional. Hopefully I can get some better info when I get to school. How was that dedicated run you got? Any unload or just a lot of sitting to be loaded/unloaded? Good luck and sorry to hear you wife is not well!

The dedicated routes that drivers have to unload would be the dollar store accounts (family dollar, dollar general), I had no interest in those. Big ol rolling containers that have to be unloaded and loaded. I believe there is a dedicated route for just all over Texas. One lady that finished up training at the same time I did said she was going on that. I don't know what the account was though. The Perdue account I'm on now is out of Kentucky, but I've been running back and forth from Virginia and Indiana all this past week. This week was a lot better than the week I started on my own. I had a couple little waits but nothing severe. It's been probably 50/50 of drop and hook and live load unload (don't touch freight). The only other extra task with reefers is getting the trailers washed out when empty and putting in load locks. They do have multi temp and multi stop loads on this account, but I've yet to do any. I've heard they can be a bit more involved due to a stop taking what's theirs and leaving your trailer unbalanced or unorganized. I'm not sure what area you are in, but if you give me your location I can look in the Werner app for possibilities in your area.