Western Express As A Company?

You are in absolutely no position to say who should or should not go to any company.

Ok, I see my mistake. I shouldn't have said inexperienced drivers should not go to Knight for flatbed. I see how that makes me sound like a disgruntled driver.

You are just taking a cheap shot at a very successful company because you can't hack it or haven't learned enough to get by. Stop trusting your brain and your own two eyes, they are all letting you down. You're forgetting we all have a brain, two eyes, can read and have experience, therefore I will chose to believe Knights side of the story, I'm sure their explanation will be entirely different than yours.

Again, I'm not taking any shots at a company. You do not know me well enough to say what I can or can't handle. I'm still with Knight doing runs and trying to learn.

I ask, how can I learn flatbed in one day? That has been my experience, my DM gave me one day with a driver. I had to ask him for another trainer because I'm not ready to be solo with flatbed after going out with a driver for only one day. Being observant and trusting myself has never let me down. I will never stop doing that.

You can choose to believe Knights side of the story even though you have no knowledge of my situation, that's fine. Hopefully Old School will give his opinions on my situation and clear this misunderstanding.

If all of this is because I told someone not to go to a company then I apologize. I should have clarified my statement better. I am not a disgruntled driver, if I had that much of a problem with Knight or "couldn't hack it" I would have quit already. I am not a quitter, I am a hard working individual.

I think there was a misunderstanding in my comment. Now my comments are being moderated and I think there is no need for that considering my previous posts on this site.

Bumping this. TwoSides... in addition to what I wrote to you; this right here is priceless. Chief knows his stuff!

Twosides:

I have been busy running, but wanted to follow up on your struggles with securement. I even took some pictures for you to illustrate a point.

But first, take a deep breath and focus on your situation as opposed to making blanket statements about Knight based on your limited experience.

The general advice on Trucking Truth for years has been that many people don't survive their first year because 1) often the training is inadequate and 2) the learning curve is steep. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your frustrations stem from those two things.

This general advice becomes magnified in flatbed because you have to add in securement. Did you download the securement guidelines to your phone? You also posted a picture of you current load. A quick internet search and I found a 5 minute video of the exact load that you have.

Aluminum Ingot/billet securement

You don't even need to watch the entire video to see the part of the video where he shows how he has it secured.

Turtle, who did flatbed at Prime before going to Walmart, has a saying "you'll figure it."

Trust me, I understand your frustration with the lack of training, but if you're going to stay with flatbed, you need to embrace Turtle's saying. As I posted in the other thread about the load that collapsed on me, you are going to have many challenging loads. You're going to need to "figure it out." That's why I emphasized looking in your mirrors, doing load checks, and fixing problems as they arise.

The pictures below are a load that I just delivered up to Minnesota. When I picked up the load, the forklift operator cautioned me about putting straps in the middle of the wood frame that you see in the picture. My life experience already told me that the weakest part of the wood frame is the middle. So, with these loads, I always put my straps on the corners which are stronger. But to be quite frank, that entire frame is weak and substantially worthless for good securement. The wind pulled the strap at the rear off even before my first load check.

But, as you can see in the second picture, I had looked at how the equipment was bolted to the wood frame. It has a long, strong metal piece that is bolted to the lower part of the frame. I "figured it out" by threading a strap over that metal frame which that one strap probably provided much more securement than the two straps over the outside of the wood frame.

I have never hauled these before. I had no one to train me how to do it. When I asked the forklift operator if I could put a strap over that frame, his response was "sure." He didn't have a clue. But I "figured it out."

And you are even going to get some bad advice. I had hauled some caterpillar engines. See the picture in the links below. The prevailing wisdom, even amongst many flatbedders at Prime, is to secure the wood frame rather than the engine. In the pictures in the link, there are anchor points underneath the plastic covering. The forklift operator at Caterpillar showed them to me. But the flatbedders on the Prime flatbed forum were all adamant that you just secure the wood frame, which has no WLL rating and the bolts securing the frame to the wood will rip out in a heartbeat. But that the was the consensus among the Prime flatbedders.

Flatbed Variety Caterpillar Engines

It's your decision. Are you going to figure it out, or focus on the fact that you got zero training and as a result are frustrated by the steep learning curve.

Okay...

Then please only share your experience. The good, the bad and the in-between. Allow the reader to draw their own conclusion. IMO? You have a great opportunity with Knight. If you adjust your attitude, you could become their model/benchmark for flatbed trainees.

G-town, I will continue to post my experience and hopefully it will help out other new drivers. Apologies again for stepping out of line and trying to persuade someone from going to a company. That was not my intention, badly worded comment on my part. I should have got some rest like IDMtnGal suggested.

I already have in mind to be the best flatbed driver at that terminal and to become a trainer and help other drivers. I'm soaking in all knowledge from this site and other flatbed drivers so I can strive to be one of the best out there in the future.

As an FYI??? No company can adequate train and prepare you for running solo

I assumed differently. I thought a company like TMC that only deals in flatbed would better prepare someone in flatbed driving than a company that has it's hands in multiple divisions. Thanks for the clarification.

Two Sides my comment about training? Was more in line with there is no way any training can begin to cover the myriad of numerous and variable issues we are challenged with.

There is never enough training.

The general advice on Trucking Truth for years has been that many people don't survive their first year because 1) often the training is inadequate and 2) the learning curve is steep. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your frustrations stem from those two things.

Yes Chief you are correct. Along with the stress as a new driver. The learning curve is steep but I have no problem with learning if I am taught.

Did you download the securement guidelines to your phone?

Not yet but will do so right now. I appreciate you taking time out to help me Chief, please make comments in my diary when you can to help me and also future flatbed drivers. Thank you for your support through this

Two Sides my comment about training? Was more in line with there is no way any training can begin to cover the myriad of numerous and variable issues we are challenged with.

There is never enough training.

Yes I understand that and I was told that numerous times by many drivers...

Personally I would steer clear of Western Express from my and others experience they treat their drivers pretty poorly and they also do not train the best as far as flat bed goes. I have spoken with at least 5 others who had that same experience.

Personally from my view and what I have seen so far, I would go for Maverick and Melton and Prime, they treat their drivers well and Melton like gold😊😊. Have a grand day and adventure!

Hey everybody,

So I'm an in experienced CDL-A holder. I've decided I'd like to do regional flatbed. I want to be home every weekend and I like the idea of flatbed being more "physical", so I can move the body more. That being said, I'm looking at Western Express because they offer regional. Melton seemed way more professional to me, but they ONLY OFFER OTR. Anyway, just wanted to pick all of your brains about Western Express. I don't know if I'll be there the next 30 years, but I'm a firm believer in "its what you make of it", so I think its a decent starting point. I just don't know what to believe with everything you read online and the you tube reviews and such. I've seen some unhappy people and some happy people! Anyway, any advice, tips, or feedback would be much appreciated!

Thank you Bobby

Personally I would steer clear of Western Express from my and others experience they treat their drivers pretty poorly and they also do not train the best as far as flat bed goes. I have spoken with at least 5 others who had that same experience.

Personally from my view and what I have seen so far, I would go for Maverick and Melton and Prime, they treat their drivers well and Melton like gold😊😊. Have a grand day and adventure!

Hey everybody,

So I'm an in experienced CDL-A holder. I've decided I'd like to do regional flatbed. I want to be home every weekend and I like the idea of flatbed being more "physical", so I can move the body more. That being said, I'm looking at Western Express because they offer regional. Melton seemed way more professional to me, but they ONLY OFFER OTR. Anyway, just wanted to pick all of your brains about Western Express. I don't know if I'll be there the next 30 years, but I'm a firm believer in "its what you make of it", so I think its a decent starting point. I just don't know what to believe with everything you read online and the you tube reviews and such. I've seen some unhappy people and some happy people! Anyway, any advice, tips, or feedback would be much appreciated!

Thank you Bobby

Funny how so many of you are suddenly experts on which successful companies are horrible at training and treatment of employees after talking to a few terminal rats and losers.

I wouldn’t say western express is a bad company but one thing I have noticed in the last couple years is the condition of many of their vehicles and a lack of equipment for some of their flatbed drivers. The tornado that completely wiped out their home terminal definitely hurt them and I’m wondering if they’re still dealing with the recovery from such a disaster. Before I left open deck work, there were several occasions where I helped out western drivers with securement and even gave or purchased bungees for drivers who simply didn’t have enough on hand to properly pin down the tarps. The claim was that what they had was all they were issued but it’s hard to say if that was true but when you talk to a few of them and they all tell the same tale, I attributed it to still recovering and running as tightly as possible while they got back on track. It still comes down to what a driver makes of their given situation and you have to pay attention to the mindset of the drivers vs the company itself.

Well you definitely do not know what your talking about when it comes to me, so dont act like you know me or what i am saying, thank you. On top of that, when I worked for Western Express Inc., they treated drivers like animals and that came from current and former employees so, and on top of that, many western expressers came to Melton because of their own experience with that company. Sorry not sorry, they are terrible. Some companies deserve their reputation full stop. Now Swift, I will say is fantastic when it comes to treatment of drivers and the only thing they need to work on is training qaulity. Thats it. Would be nice if they pushed the speed up to 68 but thats from a traffic perspective.

Personally I would steer clear of Western Express from my and others experience they treat their drivers pretty poorly and they also do not train the best as far as flat bed goes. I have spoken with at least 5 others who had that same experience.

Personally from my view and what I have seen so far, I would go for Maverick and Melton and Prime, they treat their drivers well and Melton like gold😊😊. Have a grand day and adventure!

Hey everybody,

So I'm an in experienced CDL-A holder. I've decided I'd like to do regional flatbed. I want to be home every weekend and I like the idea of flatbed being more "physical", so I can move the body more. That being said, I'm looking at Western Express because they offer regional. Melton seemed way more professional to me, but they ONLY OFFER OTR. Anyway, just wanted to pick all of your brains about Western Express. I don't know if I'll be there the next 30 years, but I'm a firm believer in "its what you make of it", so I think its a decent starting point. I just don't know what to believe with everything you read online and the you tube reviews and such. I've seen some unhappy people and some happy people! Anyway, any advice, tips, or feedback would be much appreciated!

Thank you Bobby

Funny how so many of you are suddenly experts on which successful companies are horrible at training and treatment of employees after talking to a few terminal rats and losers.