Any One Drive for Walbert?

I drove for Walbert for 9 months and they will give you more miles per week than any other company out there. This is a blessing and a curse. Its a blessing because I averaged 3400 miles a week. But do that for 9 months and it takes a toll on the body. Now here's the good, bad and ugly. 1) Hands down the best orientation in all of trucking. That guy takes the time to explain to you every trick in the book that dispatchers will try to pull on you. And he teaches you how to handle dispatchers in such a way that, if anything happens, its on them, not you. No other orientation in the industry does this. I learned more in those 3 days about dispatch than in the previous 20 years of driving. 2) Nobody has ever complained about not getting the miles at Walbert! They will absolutely run you to death if you let them. 3) One of the best "in-house" repair shops out there. The shop is open 24/7 and they do good work. Unlike other company shops that just want to get you in and out, Walbert's shop doesn't let the truck leave until its right. They don't care how hot the load is, if there is a problem with the truck then it stays out of service until its fixed, period. Personally, I love that. Okay, now the bad: 1) Dispatch will ask you to run a illegal load, dispatch will tell you to take a loaded trailer with a missing mudflap or flat tire or a trailer with lights out. But, if you paid attention in orientation, you can remedy the situation without putting your ### in a sling. 2) Half the time, when you do a drop & hook, the trailer you are getting will have something wrong with it. And if you are within 100 miles of company HQ, they will tell you to bring it to their shop for repair. Once again, you have to stand your ground with them and CYA. But don't worry, you won't get fired for refusing to pull a trailer with problems. Now for the UGLY: There's only one major issue and it may not bother some but it did bother me. Actually its 2 things, that are somewhat related. Walbert has regular loads from Morristown, TN to Nogales, AZ, its like 1800 miles each way and is usually a round trip. They advertise to drivers that they have a "Morristown to Nogales dedicated run". Which is 100% bull! Its dedicated as far as Walbert is concerned, but if you sign on to do that dedicated run then you will be lucky to get that load once every 6 weeks, and only then if you do a hellofa lot of complaining about it. Walbert does have dedicated runs and you will get "trapped" into doing them from time to time. Because I had once lived in Michigan, and had that on my application when hired, they couldn't wait to get me into a dedicated "Detroit to Cleveland" run that I did for several weeks. I finally had to threaten to quit before they pulled me off that run and got me back south. Then I got trapped into a daily Louisville to Detroit "multi-stop" run that was really tight on the hours. Had to threaten to quit to get off of that run also. Finally, I got "trapped" on a dedicated run that I actually wanted, which was Vance, AL to Nogales, AZ. One round trip a week paid 3200 miles and it was a great run. I did that for about 4 months, and would still be doing it. But then they pulled me off of it to start running Glasgow, KY to Vance, AL EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. After 2 weeks of that, I threatened to quit and they called my bluff, so I quit.

If Walbert would keep me on a dedicated run that I liked, or, would keep me off dedicated runs altogether, I'd still be with them today. But if you work there long enough, you will end up trapped into doing a dedicated run that you absolutely hate, and one that is often illegal on the hours. And once they have you locked into one of those terrible runs, its nearly impossible to get pulled out of doing it.