Complaint Review: Werner Enterprises Jason Appuhn Fleet Manager - Omaha Nebraska

well he is right that is a video everyone sees but i think its more for show so they dont have to pay a multimillon dollar law suit  and yes i understand the situation with your wife and i hope she is doing bettter

but werner cares is a bunch of sh*t i have experince been driving since i was 18 the driver in the video was to relaxed not keeping track of weather conditions and also speeding werner we care is a joke i have pic of a truck i was sent to recover that was missing for a month the truck had tickets attached to it basically the truck was not driveable but i was sent a massage to drive it like it is so take your slogan and stick it up your a*s

My hats off to Mike and Jenna for their statements.. I too am sorry for your wifes situation, and can understand you wanting to be there to do whatever you had to for her, but then again, all the company wanted you to do is drive your truck 20 miles to meet another driver and you refused, (i can understand not doing the 4 hour drive.. anything could have happened in that time), so you really did bring this on yourself after not just one but several refusals to at least compromise on a solution to returning the truck..So your wife's issue had nothing to do with them firing you.
Part of what a lot of drivers don't understand is this; the company does not fully own theses rigs, they are making payments on them, so the longer the truck sits, the less money they make with it, which means the less profit THAT truck is making.  So it is in the companies best interest to keep the truck moving.  In your case they just wanted to keep the truck on the road, and would have probably had no issue with you staying with your wife as long as you needed... i know this from experience, (i will explain)..
I drove for Werner for almost 2 years and left at the end of 06 (for money reasons only.. not that i wasn't making good money, i was just offered more with another company)..
Anyway,, I had to have surgery that would take me out of work for at least 2 weeks.. after talking with my dispatcher to determine the best way to handle this we both came up with a solution.. I had over 9 days off time saved up.. and ironically my vacation time was coming up.. Ryan (my dispatcher), allowed me to take 15 days all tied into one chunk to allow for recovery... 
However, the two weeks came and went, surgery went fine but recovery was not as fast as we all thought. On the 17th day I was contacted by Ryan, who needed a firm date of return to keep them off HIS back of getting the truck back.. (like said earlier, they don't want the truck to sit.. and 2+ weeks was too long so he was doing me a huge favor by letting me keep it).. (and just a little background.. just 3 months before i had to take this time off i was assigned a brand new.. literally had 46 miles on it when i got it.. truck)..
I had no way of giving him a definite, for sure date for my return due to issues with the type of surgery and issues associated with it.. he asked where i lived so he could directions to whomever was to come get my truck... I asked him if there was any other solution that would allow me to keep my truck, (i mean really.. brand new.. who wants to give that up).. he said he would check and call me back..  which he did less than 4 hours later..
He asked if i had any problem driving a few hours a day and being home every day to take care of my surgery issue.. I was OK with this.. I was to drive from my house, to a location in AR, and back again to swap trailers.. and still made 600 a week... this way the truck was moving and I still got my needed time to continue recovering. I did this for about 10 days, then hit the road again with absolutely no repercussions, meaning I was running as much as I was before the time off.
I told you this to show that how you get treated by your dispatcher really depends on how you act towards them.  You were severely unwilling to cooperate with your dispatcher on returning your truck, which is probably what cost you your job.  You will find that if you are unwilling to work with your company, then they will not work with you, even in bad situations like yours.
Again I'm sorry about your wife and hope she is better or at least getting better, and hope this gives a little insight on how trucking companies work and how they determine who to work with and who they won't.
My best to you and your family and good luck in the future.

Couldnt have said it better mike. And of course I wouldnt get mad.

In regard to the above report, Im sorry for the situation with your wife, but unfortunately, you had a job to do as well. It sounds to me like you werent even willing to cooperate with the company, although, you wanted them to cooperate with you to the 'T'. Again Im sorry, but watch where your going! It makes like in trucking a lot easier and also, will lengthen your career.

Jenna

This is something I knew nothing of as I left Werner in 2006 and this obviously happened after my employment but I have seen drivers use this as a derogatory comeback to Werner when they get the shaft for carelessness or whatever the case may be. In your case, it could have been your inability (even though your wife was in the hospital) to work with them on getting your truck to a terminal and instead made them go out of their way to come to your house and get it. You got what was coming to ya there bud. My regards to your wife because that does suck, but it is your fault you hit the fuel island, and it's your fault you chose not to have anyone come stay with your wife while you did the responsible thing and returned your truck to ensure your still having a job. But heres something about the Werner Cares slogan I read in another post that just might help you. I hope Jenna from Arkansas doesn't get mad that I copied and pasted this but I hate that people use this so sarcastically with there being such a story behind the slogan! The 'Werner Cares' campaign was inspired by a family that was involved in a very serious action at the fault of Werner. Everyone in the compact car was able to walk away from the accidents except for their eldest son, Cody. The boy, not even a teen yet, was severely injured and is now not able to walk, talk properly, cant control his head, and has SEVERE brain trauma that he will never fully recover from...as part of the families settlement, they wanted to make sure that every employee from werner hear their story and know where it came from...and I know that if you attended an OR, you watched the movie in class. I am SO SICK of listening to drivers use the 'Werner Cares' as a weapon towards the company in terms of loads, miles or whatever the case may be. That campaign is STRTICTLY for SAFETY. Werner Cares if you drive safe, watch out for the public, obeys traffic laws and every other responsibility that comes from operating a Tractor-Trailer. Not only are you doing a job, but you are doing a dangerous job that claims hundreds of lives. So whenever you use 'Werner Cares' as a sarcastic comeback to your problems, please remember how much you are disrespecting the family that inspired the logo. So maybe now that will help you understand the slogan and teach you there's worse things in this world then your situation. It sucks your wife had those issues but she is ok, and that kid isn't man. You shrugged out of your responsibility to your company to return the truck when they gave you a chance and then complain because they terminated you? Come on, I mean dude, how bad of a driver are you to hit a fuel island anyways?