Complaint Review: Werner enterprises - Omaha Nebraska

A note to anyone interested in the trucking industry, Do Not Work for Werner Enterprises! Below are my experiences:

The office staff of every deparment (fleet managers, logs, permits, safety ect) treat you like dirt. And its not because I wasn't nice to them and made enemies, the very first time I even talked to them and they don't even know my name they had an attitude. They always have cutsie messages that they are there for the drivers, but when you put that to the test and actually need their help, they are anything but helpful, fast and polite. 

Once I called in to report as a witness to a driver that assaulted another driver over a issue at a drop yard and the guy on the phone in omaha was huffing and puffing like I was inconveniencing his day to take down the info. Werner cares? yea right. Call road breakdown? They will tell you don't bother, just send messages to the computer and when you force them to help you, break out the attitude metter cause it will go off the charts. Call your fleet manager to get a response to a issue or computer message and get attitude, but you take too much time to respond to them, get ready for a ear full.   

PAY PAY PAY, not!: You get hired as a "long haul driver" but get loads from 400-600 miles only. Barely got any trips over 1000 miles in almost a year of being there. As you know, long haul drivers are paid by the mile and when you are doing 400-600 mile trips and loading for hours and unloading for hours at each end and then have to go from previous receivers or go to new shippers, the pay is absolutely miserable, but you are still working well over 10 hour+ days. When i would get a long trip of 1500+miles, they would always make me split it at about 600 miles and then i would have to wait for hours at the drop yard or whatever to get another trip and trailer and possibly have maintenance issues, have to go wait for a trailer to get loaded or whatever that would just kill the pay even more.    

The reason you are a "long haul driver" is so you can get trips from 1500-2000+ mile trips which offsets waiting times at shippers and receivers and everything in between. So as a result of their short runs and wasting a TON of your time in between, you will see checks on average at $300 or less. My best check was $500 for a week. Keep in mind, for these checks I was working over 60+ hour 7 day weeks away from home. NOT my idea of a good life or being compensated fairly for the proffesional license I held, responsibility and major impact on society truckers command.

SUBSTANDARD EQUIPMENT:  I lost count how many trailers I had to fix just to try to make some money. From many months out of dot inspections (picked up LOADED trailers like this, which of course wasted my time), consistently having to change tires, old trailers 10+ years old, poor road breakdown teams (I waiting one time for road breakdown department to set me up for a appt for 9 hours!) They have not one problem about wasting a day or two or your time while you try to get their equipment up to par maintenance wise and won't bat a eyelash to pay you for your efforts. But as long as their CSA score gets better while taking advantage of drivers and threatening them with firing! its all good to them. 

 Also, my truck was in the shop for almost 2 weeks in a terminal once, it took 3-4 days before they even got to it. How many of you folks can survive on a average of $300 and less a week and then afford to have 2 WEEKS! without pay? I had to sell my house because I couldn't keep it and survive without forclosing and I had to eat like a poor homeless person and having to call my mortgage company for help because Werner just did not care about giving me a living wage paycheck.  

POOR PLANNING:  They never got me home on time, a week or two late was the norm. I live in a major city which is a thoroughfare for goods travel and their always was just 'no loads' yea right. They would send me everwhere, even remote out of the way locations the opposite way, except home? Also, once they gave me a load home which contained a illegal loaded trailer by weight and tandem position and even contained a illegal material not allowed in that state.

I was late for home time by a week and a half at this point and was put in a rock and hard place to either haul the terrible load and hope to not get caught or possibly not get home for another week or something. BTW, they had my 'home time' request for a whole 2 weeks but still not be able to plan me home on time. Just shows how poor of planning they have. 

"WE CARE" YEA RIGHT!: You see, the 'We Care' is not that they care about you or other road drivers. They care only about that they make money off you while paying you the lowest in the industry and giving you 15 year old trailers to deal with and expect you to keep their CSA scores good. 

So please, do yourself a favor and run! away from the lying recruiters please. Every single driver I had talked to had all the same issues as me. So please, I beg of you, go somewhere else than this company for the sake of your sanity, self-respect and livelihood, better yet don't join the trucking insdustry period! Werner does not mind keeping you "Working Poor" cause then they think they own you and will try to trap you into that truck so that you have no way out.

Their ideal driver model is one who has no place to live and call 'home' (can't afford to), lives out of the truck solely and the wages to just barely make it to eat and stay alive and pay them so little that their savings are paultry so they have no way out. Luckily for me, I got out and am still recuperating from this hell of a company. I am working in another industry and slowly regaining my life back again. 

Werner, you have EARNED the right to be called THE BIG BLUE SCREW.