I went to work for Werner, as I became fed up with the loops I had to jump through for S* (REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES).
It was a mistake. I figured that working for S* was way better than Werner.
I attended their orientation, which is where the red flags started rising. When I asked a question, I was told it was already covered in class. No it wasn't. I would've noticed.
I get out to my truck and get sent on my first run, encountering miniscule problems with the truck (mirrors won't stay adjusted, clutch too loose) which led to another red flag: Shop said that it was perfectly within factory tolerances. Okay, but I wasn't comfortable with it. Oh, well, I adapted.
I quickly find out that they simply assign you loads, not giving you a chance to decline them due to reasons such as not knowing if it's possible to get to pickup/delivery on time and still be able to get to a legal place to park.
Then, when one does accept a load, they would either change the appointment time for earlier, completely ruining the trip planning that one would and should do before accepting the load, or they would tell you to drop that 1300 mile load after one would sit for 3 hours trying to get loaded and only have driven 200 miles. Reason being that they want to put it in their Netops system. Even if you have to go out of your way to get to the drop place and even if you had the hours to safely and legally complete the run.
They would also mess with hometime. When they say 'We have until midnight to get you home on the day you requested', they mean it. I was heading towards home with a load and was going to be home a day early. Suddenly, they wanted me to drop the load for Netops, pickup another load that was supposedly already there and take it back the direction I came, and come back with another load that was also supposedly there. Both times I had to sit and wait for the load, and the second time was at a dirt lot with no restaurants or stores for food.
And then there was a load that I was assigned that I didn't have the hours for. Logic would suggest they would take the load from me and give it to someone else, because they'd do it with a load that I had time for, but they said no. Why? Because it'd hurt my productivity.
Then there was the time I wanted to put my truck in the shop because my A/C wasn't working. This is California, getting to be rather warm outside. I was told not to and to take a load because the temperature wasn't going to be that hot in Las Vegas. Luckily my A/C decided to start working again, because it was hot in Las Vegas.
And, while I was in Las Vegas, I waited all day after delivering my load for another load. None was forthcoming. So I went to a truck stop. Waited all day the next day, then decided to visit a particular attraction while there. They told me not to go and simply stay in my truck. I had the money to pay for cab fare and admission, so I went anyways. When I came back, I still didn't have a load, and didn't get one til the next day.
Their paperless logging system sucks, too. I admit that I cheat my logbook when appropriate (who logs going two blocks down the road to get to a truckstop anyways?), but this system will not allow it. Furthermore, depending on how counties and such are set up, one can drop a trailer at one end of the yard and then park at the other end and get charged ten miles and 15 minutes on their logbook. Also, when I was at home, I got charged line 4 for the entire time because my truck had to go to Catepillar for work. Both times I had to call the log department and wait for excessive amounts of time to get it fixed.
The dispatchers there will goad you into delivering a load ontime, no matter what it'd do to your log book, no matter how much you protest it. And when logs wants to talk to you about it, it's all you, despite any sort of evidence, such as Qualcomm messages, of dispatch forcing you to do what you did.
This stuff contantly happened to me the 3 months that I was able to work for them. I finally got fed up with it and quit. I went to work for U* (ROR REDACTED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES) afterwards, but they turned out to be not so good also. I finally went to work for Marten. Marten is the best by far. And so far.
Junior
bellevue, Nebraska
U.S.A.
Font color="red" sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome!
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