Werner Regional / Dedicated Vs Western Express

Despite my first post, about hair test, for 1 of 3 companies, I was prehired for... Western Express and Werner are my choices, now. I haven't found any positive reviews on Western's flatbed division, or any positive about them. Not to mention, the low to mid 90's CSA rating, even though they have all new trucks. When I first started in the industry, late 90's to early 2000, Werner was good. Now, not hearing that so much, since the father stepped down. Anyone have experience or knowledge, pertaining to how they are now?

First of all welcome to Trucking TRUTH, the best advice I received here was that if you have questions about a company go to a truck stop and talk to their drivers. When I was first looking at Celadon I had heard some bad things, so I went and talked to five of their drivers.... First 4 were good reviews but the last one sold me. It was a guy with 25 years in trucking with six companies, the last 5 with Celadon, he told me it was the best company he had worked for and wishes he had come here 25 years ago. My other company I was considering promised the moon and after talking go five drivers I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. So do your research online but go talk to the drivers. Best of luck.

I totally agree with Aces-N-Eights...if you want to know what life is like at a certain company or within a certain division, talk face to face with some of their current drivers. That's what I always did before choosing a company to work for.

Not to mention, the low to mid 90's CSA rating, even though they have all new trucks

Which tells you the trucks aren't the problem, the drivers are. A CSA score really doesn't tell you much of anything about the quality of the company most of the time. It tells you about the quality of their drivers. Their drivers are getting into accidents, getting tickets, failing inspections because of poor pre-trips, and problems of that nature. So don't bother with a CSA score when trying to find a company. It won't tell you much.

Now we have a regular here in the forum who drives for Western in their flatbed division and loves it. If he sees this post I'm sure he'll comment but he's out on the road so it's impossible to say when he'll get the chance.

Haven't heard much about Werner Enterprises but I know they're one of the most consistently profitable publicly-traded trucking companies out there so they're being run well from an operations standpoint. That doesn't mean it's a dream from a driver's standpoint but at least financially they're sound.

As everyone knows I drive for Werner. I can tell ya first hand its not the equipment nor the company that is the fault of the high CSA score. Brett is right. It is the drivers. The number one safety message that comes across out qualcomms everyday is about pretrip inspections. And they has been a few accidents of late. Nothing major but property damage is property damage and will give the driver points on their CSA report card and if a driver gets points the company will also.

The problem is people are afraid to report a trailer needs to be fix cause the might loose an hour or two having to take the trailer to get fixed so they decide to run it as is and get busted for things that should have been caught during pretrip.

I know if you do call in to get equipment fixed they will send you to get it fix if its a safety issue. Or if not safety related they will get it fix the next time you are in the shop. Our trucks are on a rigous maintenance program. Every 60 days the trucks go into the shop weather they need it or not and are gone over from bumper to bumper.

Now break downs happen from time to time and nothing can be done a out that. All of our main yards have two large shops on it. One for trucks and one for trailers. Most companies do that but I have never known a company that pretty much made your truck like new every time it comes out of the shop.

Hello Mickey, and welcome to the forum!

Well, you got a response from several people and also got one from Guyjax (a knowledgeable and respected driver from Werner), now here's one from me (I would be the person that Brett refers to as a Western Express driver in the flatbed division).

Let me start off by stating that we pretty much consider this current trend of scouring the internet looking for a good review of a trucking company to be a completely bogus method of making a choice of a company to work for. First off, people seem to feel empowered to really go off on a rant when they can hide behind their keyboard, and the truth is that you don't know a single thing about that persons experience other than what they tell you. 99.9% of the folks that go off on these horrific sounding reviews concerning how this or that trucking company screwed them need only to take an honest look in the mirror to see why they failed so miserably in this business. In this day and age people do not seem to want to accept responsibility for their actions, it's more gratifying to go on line and try to get even with their perceived nemesis. While the internet is chock full of information, it isn't always reliable information.

I tell people all the time about how I could not find one single positive review on Western Express. In fact it seemed the devil himself was running this poor trucking company. I could not be happier in my choice of driving a flat-bed for Western Express. I've got a great dispatcher who keeps me running, and I don't ever get any grief from anybody. Now let me quickly say that I've met a lot of disgruntled drivers at various places I go, but every time I do it only takes a few questions from me to prove that it's not the company that is making them unhappy, but rather it is their own choices and ways that make them think the company is screwing them over.

Here's an example: recently I met up with another company driver in Milford CT at the Pilot there. He asked me if a had a load to get out of there, and I said yes I do. He tells me he has been sitting there for three days waiting on a load. Immediately I'm suspicious because the last thing these trucking companies want is to have their trucks sitting idle. Well I come to Connecticut an awful lot and I know that it's real easy to get a load out of here. The problem is that 90% of the time it's going to be a load of trash. Now I'm not real fond of hauling trash, but if a driver could just understand how the dispatcher is thinking he would understand that sometimes you have to take a less desirable load so that it will propel you over to a much better area for freight. These trash loads shoot us over to Ohio (which in itself is about a 600 mile run) and from there we have a ton of options. So I ask him "they can't get you a trash load?" His response is "I don't haul trash, that was what they sent me, and I refused it. I know there is a NuCor Steel plant near here and I told them to get me a load of steel out of there." Okay, now we see the driver thinking he's the boss of this operation and we see where it's getting him. I do my best as an ambassador of Trucking Truth to show him the way to success in this business, but he is adamant that there has got to be some loads of steel in the area that he could be hauling. I leave with my load of trash to Ohio and when I'm over there I get a load of Sheetrock taking me right back to Milford CT. I was back at the Pilot TS in about two and a half days. My fellow driver is still sitting in the same parking spot. He sees me walking in to the store and comes over to me just fuming about how the company is treating him. I gently tell him that he should have taken that load and not demanded his own perceived solutions to what the dispatcher is trying to accomplish - I remind him how I just made about 400.00 while he was sitting over here getting nothing but mad. He goes to his truck and sulks while I go to my truck and find out that I've got a load on me from the NuCor Steel plant with about 1500 miles on it.

Mickey, I could go on and on with tales like this. I see it every day. Now the point I'm laboring to make is this. The fellow that I just told you about is the type of person who goes online spitefully giving out their experiences with these evil trucking companies. What you don't get to see online is the part that I just shared with you.

Where ever you go to work in this industry, you are the deciding factor in whether or not you are successful. You hold the keys in your hands to success or failure. It's a great job. You get to manage it the way you want. There are no supervisors, there is no one watching you, and you are completely on your own to make it happen out there. I've decided that there are some people who need supervision, they need someone to provide them the structure and the understanding of how to succeed in their job - these people need not apply to be professional truck drivers.

If you've got what it takes to be a success at this it's not going to matter whether you go with Werner or Western. Just take a job and do it successfully and safely for one year and your opportunities will be wide open for you in this career.

Where ever you go to work in this industry, you are the deciding factor in whether or not you are successful. You hold the keys in your hands to success or failure...If you've got what it takes to be a success at this it's not going to matter whether you go with Werner or Western. Just take a job and do it successfully and safely for one year and your opportunities will be wide open for you in this career.

AMEN!!!! Guyjax nailed it with the CSA situation and Old School nailed it when it comes to being successful in trucking.

It's a blessing having so many awesome experienced drivers in this forum that know the industry and know what it takes to be successful out there. Our moderators are awesome!!!

Hey Guyjax, one time you had said you didn't want to be a moderator so I made your status say "5 Star Advisor". You want to keep that or have it changed to "Moderator" or something else. Nothing would change other than that title and it doesn't matter to me. The regulars here all know how valuable your advice is. I just want to make sure our new visitors know it too.

Advisor or Moderator is fine either way cause I doubt "Super Duper Total Awesome Super Tucker King Shiznit" is free cause I think that is your title Brett. No matter the color of the title on the left as long as the advice is good then its good.

*raises an eyebrow* You sure that title is not available?

Advisor or Moderator is fine either way cause I doubt "Super Duper Total Awesome Super Tucker King Shiznit" is free cause I think that is your title Brett. No matter the color of the title on the left as long as the advice is good then its good.

*raises an eyebrow* You sure that title is not available?

What kind of font size will that title be in? I don't think it will fit haha! Thanks for the laugh.

Advisor or Moderator is fine either way cause I doubt "Super Duper Total Awesome Super Tucker King Shiznit" is free cause I think that is your title Brett. No matter the color of the title on the left as long as the advice is good then its good.

*raises an eyebrow* You sure that title is not available?

What kind of font size will that title be in? I don't think it will fit haha! Thanks for the laugh.

Font size 36 and it has to be flashing muti colored

Ya know the scarey thought ??? I think Brett can do it !!!

Sorry I've been mia...elk hunting for a few days ( no blood yet, the herds are fragmented and high up )and then I got some yucky headcold thing.. .I'm better now, and my eyes can focus