Werner Enterprises Extended Student Training to make a few bucks Omaha Nebraska

After training for 9 months, I'm sorry to have to tell you that your performance was absolutely below average. Those driving tests are incredibly easy, in fact I have complained that they are too easy. Your job was to not hit anything, to keep safe distances, ect. Less than 1 in 10 people fail. If you failed, it was your own fault. 

If you think it was difficult to pass the driving test, I put a bottle on the dash and tell my students "If this bottle moves, things are moving in the trailer. Your job is to get the cargo safely to its desitnation, not just to avoid setting off the roll and brake sensors. Those are to make sure you dont kill yourself, but you need to drive much more gentle than that" 

And you know what? 60% of the students immediately understand and do exactly as I asked them. If 60% can do that, perhaps they expect most drivers to be able to keep the truck between the lines. 

The turnover rate of drivers is the same as the industry average. Seeing as how Werner employs new drivers, its actually fairly impressive that they can maintain the same turnover rate as an industry full of experienced drivers. The thing about Werner is that its a corporation, and like any corporation, it has a wide variety of people working for them. If you dont like someone you are talking to, call back and there are usually a half dozen people working that department at that time. If you dont like your dispatcher, driver placement always has opening on other accounts. 

I know, because as a student, I asked to change trainers, and they did so the same day. When I asked to change accounts, they gave me a new account and told me that the dispatcher could only hold me up to two weeks. My new dispatcher was much much better, and I have even gotten to meet his boss. When I have a problem, they try and fix it for me. 

But do you know why they do that? Because they know what to expect from me. If they give me a "shag" load, I do it. If my dispatcher is asking me to do something that makes no sense, either he needs my help, or he is using me to help another driver. Either way, playing along will go a long way. 

That said, the first 6 months for any new driver is going to be a test. They need to know you can do your job even when you are being jerked around. After 6 months, trucking gets so much better. Its like night and day. Just think about it, do you think their insurance is going to let you haul the real money-making loads? They arent going to let someon take some expensive load unless they know the driver will handle it properly.  

Well dennis i am glad to hear ya have great things to say about werner! Ya must of been one of the 65% they brag about on the cover......one thing though.........If it was all so great and having fun and working things out...Q: Why do ya have to go back? Dont badge people for your mistakes and just cause ya cant find a good job is most likely on werners end like most of us EX employees.....LOL

In response to your complaints...I am an ex Werner driver...I trained with Werner a couple of years ago, and my experience with my trainer, my student driver manager and with the company as a whole were pretty darned good.
My trainer was second to none...he knew his stuff and was 100% professional. Yes, we drove our butts off, and he profited from it, but you know, thats how it is at most companies that train students...the trainer takes the responsibility and reaps the rewards....The one thing that tells me he appreciated my being on board, was that he bought me at least three or more meals per week....we dined in the restaurants, not in the truck as it was rolling, and he never pushed me to the edge in training or while working....
Sure the pay sucks at Werner, but the company, as far as I am concerned, respects it drivers....The only time you'll have any problems with them is if you start something.
I had to stay in training on the truck an extra 100 hours also, and according to my SDM it was because there were too many drivers testing out and not enough trucks (which was probably not the case)....but I was OK with that, cuz they offered me extended training pay and an extra couple hundred bucks for my extra time on the truck.
When I tested out I got a newer KW 900 which is the model I wanted and I hit the road....Never had any problems worth whining about like all of the other drivers on this site.
I tried going to work for two other companies during the last few months, and walked away from one when they issued me a 6 year old truck with 800 thousand miles on it, and decided today, not to go to the other one because of all the nightmarish stories I have heard and continue to hear about poor maintainance, bad routing, and several other issues.....
I may not have made huge bucks with Werner, but thats where I am going back to work because I know the system and I know that if I have a problem, they will work with me and not summarily fire me like other companies.
Whenever I have had issues with the company or when the company had issues with me, everything was reslolved in just a few minutes. They will listen as long as you conduct yourself professionally and not like an overbearing jackass....I have always teated people exactly the way I would like them to treat me, and have always benifited from that phiosophy.