Werner Does It Again

Folks...that was an armadillo and that's a Werner Truck. You can find anything on the web. Werner and roadkill.

Hello Friends & Werner

Been a while since I posted. I found an interesting article written by TurboTrucker on 10/25/2005 over at the Trucker's Report. Stay smart.
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I guess my question is this, I here allot of Negative stuff about Werner from truckers on forums and positive from truckers I meat in real life. Are the truckers in forums the winners and complainers of the industry?

Without question, you're going to read personal testimony that will be on that level. But here's the thing; You have to recognize the fact that through all that you read, the names of several carriers pop up over and over. As I've offered many times, one complaint is easy to overlook. A dozen? That's a little harder to ignore. A hundred? Well...something's got to be wrong somewhere.

Werner is like Swift. They've gone through untold numbers of people, and the sizes of the companies lend to them probably getting more attention. Yet, at the same time, there are literally dozens of other carriers that rival in size, that are never written about.

You have to sort through the various complaints to arrive at a conclusion as to what may be truth, and what may be contrived. Do you read repeated complaints about the same thing? The answer is yes. I know I have.

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We had a Werner rep come in. I read allot of negative stuff on Werner. However there is a woman in our class who's son went to the program last year and works for Werner. She said her sone loves it so far and one of the PTDI guys said don't believe anything you here and only half of what you see. He also runs a school in Pittsburgh with about 250 students. He was a trucker for 25 years.

The PTDI representative has a vested interest in seeing that there are motor carriers supporting their efforts. Now, I wouldn't go so far as to totally negate his position, but you have to understand what his motivation might be, in order to understand why he might say this, and then decide for yourself how much truth there is to it.

PTDI receives money through legislative efforts in Washington, specifically to further training and education. They work with training facilities, motor carriers, insurance companies, and financing institutions. Collectively, they take a bite out of every dollar for their "expenses". They have gone to great lengths (honestly) to improve the training standards of drivers, and have set up some rather strict guidelines that must be met, in order to lend a training facility it's stamp of approval.

They bring in motor carriers to hire the trainees. Without them on board, who's going to hire the graduates? Now, understanding that they have to convince the motor carriers that graduates of their training program is more advantageous than those of other's, and there are many groups in Washington doing this very same thing, and it leads to alot of immense butt kissing, if you'll pardon the expression. Of course, they kick a few bucks their way to grease the wheels as well. It's all legal and proper, but hardly without bias.

The bottom line to all of this is simple. For each warm body they sign up, there are several thousand dollars of taxpayer funds dispersed to several entities, when that warm body makes it into a truck. It makes no difference to PTDI which company that is, nor do they really care if the company is good to their graduates. They want them in the classrooms and graduated. The more people, the more money that can be milked from the taxpayers.

What has happened, and what is rarely revealed to the public, is that there are several companies out there, that are practically if not literally, making more for hiring drivers for any period of time, than they make from doing any actual hauling of freight. Werner is but one of them.

In the midst of all this, are people that are hoping for a new career, who are considered to be nothing but chattel, and whether or not they are content with their jobs is of no concern to anyone involved in the process. What is also happening, is that these people are being roped into some rather sordid contracts, complete with predatory lending abuses built right in, and hounded like #### if they default on their agreements. The only thing missing from this rodeo, is a firebranded stamp on everyone's hind end that is roped into all of this.

To be fair, PTDI is the only non-profit where they are a bit more careful in
holding their institutions to tighter line in areas of pricing structures, and training criteria, but they are hardly without need of due criticism for their motivations, and integrity. They truly turn a blind eye to the reality of the situation for the sake of cash.

To illustrate the problem, let's use General Motors as a counter to all of this. They have twenty times the employees that Werner has, with almost ZERO turnover. Someone dies, retires, or screws up in order to have a need to replace an employee. The applications are as high as the Empire State Building, from people willing to work there.

When you have a company, despite the national average figures that are constantly offered to defend turnover rates, that exceeds 100% of it's workforce in a year's time, something has to explain the reason that people leave their jobs and seek another. Translated: When you read all the bad things out there on Werner, there HAS to be some truth to them. If there wasn't, then why the constant need to hire drivers?

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Dose Werner really suck - or do the people that complain about Werner do something stupid to get treated as such? now I wonder about all the negative stuff I have heard on all the companies

It would be easy to just say that Werner sucks, and leave it at that, but I like to be honest. Trucking can truly suck and for some people, it wouldn't make any difference where they worked. They'd never be happy in a million years.

That being said, the only true way you will find out if Werner is worth a shot, is for you to give them that chance. People do it every day, I suppose. Why? I dunno.

Would I ever submit an application to them? No. My reasons are as long as my arm. I do not care for their attention to safety. Their safety numbers are horrible. I don't care for their obvious turnover rates, and this alone is enough to tell me that they have a problem keeping people. They are consistently in need of drivers and advertise for them all the time. I don't care for their dispatching system and their hometime policies. And quite simply, I don't care for their reputation. It's not my kind of place.

You have to set your own priorities, and make your own decision. In agreement with the PTDI rep, DON'T believe everything you read. Don't believe everything you hear. I know I don't. But, I do trust the wisdom, insight, and integrity of people that sufficiently lay out a case of complaint, and when their complaint is supported by that of other people repeatedly, then I can certainly begin to understand that there might be a little fire hidden somewhere underneath all that smoke.
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---WernerScrews 10-4