Complaint Review: Werner Enterprises

The original recruiter that came to our trucking CDL A school was a down right liar. My recruiter that pre-approved me was very nice and professional. Orientation in Indianapolis was fine. I was the first student assigned a Trainer and a Student Driver Manager (SDM). I was extremely lucky with my Trainer, he was cool and we did the Gulf state region. After that it was all down hill which words are hard to describe. At the terminal I tried to call my SDM, Cathy Harrington, twice and was put on hold for twenty (20) minutes each time never to get through to her. My Trainer did call and said to be ready immediately. We headed off to Louisiana and got along very well. Here is where the good part starts. In the seven (7) weeks I was out on the road, not once did my SDM call either me or my Trainer to see how things were going. She is supposed to be my laison to corporate Omaha and assure that my training is going well.

I tried calling probably every other day to my SDM and never got through. I was either put on hold or nobody answered the phone. It was getting near XMAS and my son was coming home from the Navy and I had not seen him for months. I sent my SDM, Cathy Harrington (remember that name, folks), a QualComm message and told her it was darn near impossible to reach her on the phone. She sent a message back and said to call her at 3:00 p.m. You guessed it, was put on hold and never spoke to her. I then sent her my cell phone number to no avail, never heard from her. Finally I sent her a fax stating the days I needed off for the holidays. Absolutely no response. Everytime I failed to reach her, my Trainer would just laugh. Felons in prison have more rights than Werner truck drivers.

I talked to my Trainer and we agreed it was probably best to get off the truck in Memphis and go home because at the rate it was going I would probably not get home for the holidays--remember I was out for seven (7) weeks. My Trainer dropped me off at the motel at about 2:00 a.m. and I prepared for my flight in the morning. Guess what? It took that B***H 15 minutes to call me in the morning after she got to work and said that I voluntarily quit the moment I got off the truck. I tried to explain to her about the communication problems--her response was that if I was trying turn this around I was dead wrong. I called my recruiter that pre-apporved me and she apologized for the bad experience. She said to re-app and it will go to a review board. It was more like a kangaroo court. I had 235 hours out of the 300 required hours and they would not take me back because they said I quit.

Finally I have three (3) favorite stories about how dispatch f**ks Werner drivers. My Trainer says you need an IQ of less than 12 to be a dispatcher. Anyway, we drove all night until about 5:00 a.m. to Avon Product for a "hot" load. We were told that the department we needed would not be open until 7:00 a.m. No problem, we waited until they opened. After they opened we went in and were told that some other Werner driver picked up that load the other day. We just got f**ked out of an entire day. Better yet, after we told dispatch what happened they actually asked my Trainer to go back to Avon and find out who the driver was and which truck it was that picked up the load. Unbelievable.

Next they sent a QualComm message out to schedule Preventative Maintenance for the truck. My Trained did exactly that and stated the city, day, and time. Once we got there we were told by dispatch that our PM had to be approved! I thought it was when they sent out the message. Wrong! We waited ten (10) hours on Sunday and never got approved. On the following Monday morning they sent us a message that we needed to service our truck on such and such day. Unbelievable. My Trainer just got screwed again.

Finally we had a load going outside Atlanta. We passed the Atlanta terminal about 45 minutes ago and were only a few minutes from our destination. QualComm came on and said that they wanted us to turn around and do a split/swap at the Atlanta terminal. Unbelievable. We turned around and wasted another three (3) hours going back. My Trainer does not get paid for this waste of time.

Werner can kiss my arse. Talking to enough drivers I found out that they are about the worst in the business. They make it almost impossible to make any money by the way they jerk the drivers around. I am hoping that a HAZMAT truck with explosives and corrosive materials "accidently" takes out the Omaha building. They suck--never worked for anybody that f**ked up. Stay away to keep your sanity and if you really want to make any money. I could go on and on, but what's the point--bottom line they suck big time.

Dan The Man--hate Werner with a passion!!!

Dan the man
Pinckney, Michigan
U.S.A.

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