Team Werner

As most of you know from my other posts, my husband and I have decided after IDC fell through, to go with Werner. We leave this weekend for school in Nebraska.

Well, just a little bit ago I got a call from the Regional Manager saying that he was calling to welcome my husband and me aboard and he wanted to make sure that we had all of our questions answered. I have to say that I thought it was nice he called to check on us. He had called me this afternoon and I missed the call and I had to leave him a voicemail when I called him back. He called me back after hours and was at home when he called. (He told me sorry he did not get a chance to call from the office but he did not want to leave me hanging. I also could hear his kids in the background playing.)

I told him that I did have a few things that I wanted to go over while I had him on the phone. Here are the Q&A's:

1. How much will be taken out of our checks each week to pay back the school and when does this start?
A: Nothing will be taken out of your check. You go to school and we pay that upfront and you sign a contract to stay for one year. You pay nothing in the meantime and after the year then you are even steven! (I like that, at IDC we were going to have to pay the school back every week then we would get half reimbursed at 12 months then the other half at 18 months.)

2. What is your policy on pets because we have a 4lb. maltese dog?
A: For pets under 35lbs. you pay $250 upfront then $25 per week until the entire pet deposit of $500 is reached.

3. What do you do for your drivers now that anti-idling laws are taking over?
A: We are installing APU's in all of our trucks. We have over 9,000 trucks and are getting them all installed as we speak. The accounts that are dedicated to no-idling areas are getting the APU first.

4. What about pay for team drivers?
A: After your training period you have a decision to make. There is regular team driving and then there is Team Werner. Regular team driving does not run as hard as Team Werner. With Team Werner you are required to maintain a miniumum of 17,000 miles per month. Most of the Team Werner drivers average 22,000 - 25,000 miles per month. The pay is .45cpm to all miles on the truck and you will average $100,000 - $150,000 per year for the team.
(He only told me about Team Werner pay because I told him that is what we want to do. He said that there are over 370 different pay packages depending on what division you sign up with.)

From there I told him that I believe that was all the questions we had at the moment. Oh, and we also went over when we will start orientation which should be March 3 in Omaha, NE. He then told us that he will be at the school in the 3rd week we are there to meet us.

Of course I am still anxious about going with Werner but so far their communication and customer support has been excellent. I have been treated way better than I was at IDC, who it was like pulling teeth to get a call back from. I will keep you all updated!

 

I am sorry to hear about your problems with them. I hear that lack of miles when you are a solo driver is probably the #1 complaint.

That is one reason I have had tough decision trying to decide who to go with because I know alot of the problems out there are for solo drivers....not that teams don't have problems too!!!

My brother-in-law that drives for Werner never has a problem getting miles but I am sure that is because he is a trainer and drives very hard like a team. He doesn't ever stop! But he does make on average $1200 - $1800 week! He is going to train my husband and my hubby already told him that he better get some sleep and not be driving tired. He had told us last week that sometimes he doesn't get much sleep because he stays up while his trainee is driving and helps him. I am sure he trains very well but he has to get sleep too! I am sure he just doesn't want to give up that money but to me safety comes first! That is one reason why we decided that my hubby would train with him and I would not.

I just can't imagine all the crap that solo drivers have to go through. They are out there by themselves with their family at home and then they get the crappy loads and low miles! I think if something ever happened and we could not team then that would be the end of trucking for us, or local here we come! I could never ever make it as a trucker's wife. Now those gals deserve and award, them and the military wives!! For us it was either team driving or no driving.