Sean McQuaid
Whiny baby
This is long, but take it for what it is worth. It's the God's Honest TRUTH, and others have had similar experiences. I am now unemployable because of the games played in a bad recession, and I can probably forget about driving EVER again thanks to Werner.
Before I went to trucking school I didnt think it really mattered where you got your CDL. I knew how to drive a car good enough, how hard could it be to drive a big truck? It is not really that hard at all when you do it every day and pay attention to what you are doing. However, There is a lot more to it than just driving a truck down the road. It’s the trucking rules and regulations that you can learn or not learn in trucking school that can come back to haunt you. I believe a good school should teach you all the dos and don'ts so it is known before you go to some company who intends to use you as they will as it is a foregone conclusion most drivers (especially new drivers) are stupid and ignorant. Trucking is too regulated to be over-ignorant; and in the end, no matter where you go to school, it's YOUR responsibility to learn the regulations and do what you have to do to adhere to them.
The majority of trucking schools rush you in the front door and out the back door with a CDL (maybe). You end up getting a job working for a break-in trucking company that cares more about moving loads than you or your CDL. A lot of these trucking companies are willing to look the other way if you bend the rules a little bit to get freight moved - especially if you are a new driver who is paid at the bottom of the pay scale. It is common practice that new drivers are dogged and brainwashed into working more hours than they realize is legal so the company will avoid the low paid driver from having to do a 34 hour restart. Even drivers who realize this allow themselves to be pushed because they are afraid of losing their jobs. And in this economy and job market, you WILL lose the job if you do not allow the obvious abuse. It was my experience that Werner is one of these companies. I experienced that Werner will encourage you (even order you) to log off duty, when you are legally and rightfully on duty. In my case as a new driver, Werner did not want to see more than the 15 minute D.O.T. minimum for pretrip inspection at the beginning of my work day. Where pretrip is concerned, I am baffled of why D.O.T. allows 15 minutes. A PROPER pretrip takes longer than 15 minutes - it takes as long as it takes - PERIOD. Second of all, if something happens while enroute, and it can be attributed to a poor pretrip. Then YOU will be responsible to answer why you only show a 15 minute pretrip inspection. I happen to know this has happened to other drivers. There are catches and concequences to the loopholes. In my performing all else, they wanted me on line 1 (off duty). This included when I arrived at a shipper or consignee to get dock assignments or my bills, doing drop and hook, waiting to be loaded or unloaded - etc.. Any D.O.T. official will tell you that you are ON DUTY NOT DRIVING (line 4) whenever you are performing ANY function for the company, and can not leave the truck and do as you please. And it is also outlined in the D.O.T. regulations book. When you are on line 1 (off duty), you are on YOUR TIME, and as such, you should be able to do as you please such as go somewhere to eat - etc.. The most common time I have seen drivers log off duty is during load or unload. During load or unload, unless you can walk off and do as you please during the time you decide to log off duty, you are not on YOUR OWN TIME. Therefore, you are on duty not driving (line 4). Yet drivers will log line 1 (off duty) or line 2 (sleeper) if the waiting is over 2 hours to split their break because of loopholes. You're waiting to be loaded or unloaded - that's not YOUR TIME because you have to stay in the truck to be informed when the load or unload is complete. But you have big problems with companies like Werner if you do not log line 1. My trainer tried to get me to log off duty, and so did my dispatcher when I was rightfully and legally on duty not driving on other occasions other than waiting to be loaded or unloaded. I know of the loopholes drivers use to save on their 70 hour. Other drivers who do not mind being pushed to 80 and 90 hours a week on the job - that's fine for them. That is if you even really know what the rules are and the consequences that go with breaking them. But those of us who do not wish to be pushed into (technically) being on duty more than 70 hours a week get raked over the coals. I was.
Drivers being abused (and allowing it) is a danger to themselves and everyone on the roads. Especially a new driver who is expected to work 80 hours a week and run like he has ten years experience on the road. Sooner or later, you will end up rolled in a ditch. Or worse, kill someone or yourself. The company will se it as another unfortunate tragic accident, and your driver code go down in history as another driver who was probably at fault.
Unfortunately going to a poor trucking school could result in you going to prison for a long time! That’s Right! Truck drivers are encouraged to fib a little on their log books by dispatchers to get loads moved on time. Some schools will tell you this, but MOST will not because they are in cahoots with the major carriers who take students. I also have been told that dispatchers are paid more as they run drivers more. And my dispatcher (JD Hodgestradt) more often than not, gave me loads that could barely be delivered ontime driving in the best of conditions (best being no traffic or bad weather) and not stopping for breaks, showers or food. The distance did not matter. I had what they call JIT (Just In Time) loads than not. Just about every load I had did have a delivery window which far exceeded what I was given by my dispatcher. I checked when I arrived at my stops, so I am sure of this fact. I even had a load that was so tight that I had to request personal drive time and drive two hours to the nearest place where I could shut down. I was not allowed to sleep where I dropped my load, and this was in the New York area at night when truck stops are impossible to get into. Werner's faulty paperless electronic logging aside - A log book is just a piece of paper right? No big deal! What could it hurt? You are just trying to make a living and get home on time without having to take another required break right? Go ahead and fool yourselves or let the dispatcher or company fool you. Then see how much they care when you have an accident or get an expensive violation for breaking a rule, or even lose your CDL. Traditionally in a good economy and job market, Over The Road Drivers who are away from home 3+ weeks at a time with only 1 day off per week can be hard to come by. In this economy and high unemployment, they have an army of students coming in from the bottom which they are getting government bailout subsidy money for. In the end, new drivers are an added dollar sign for companies getting subsidised by the Government for taking on students. Drivers are being cycled through like cattle. New drivers the company has the money from the Government for, or (and especially) veterin drivers making more per mile than most are being pressured into quitting or terminated for the silliest of reasons. They find ways to set you up for failure. I doubt they care for drivers in the company rigs or the motoring public. In the end, it's your responsibility to know the regulations and when you are breaking them. Most trucking schools will not teach you everything. If you are in a 3 week CRASH COURSE school, you certainly will not know everything. Read the books you are given - it's all in there.
Most trucking schools will come up short training you, and informing you about these types of things, and it is too bad. Try telling the court that you didn’t know this thing and that thing was against the law in your jury trial when you rack up 20 log book violations and face up to 5 years for each one!
Are you willing to go to prison for taking shortcuts when it comes to getting your CDL training and picking a truck driving school? Then allowing the company you work for to push you into doing things not legal just because you are at the bottom of the pay scale, and are new and stupid? You will be operating a commercial vehicle under federal rules and regulations. Learning to drive a truck is not a game and getting trained properly is crucial! If you are going to get a CDL please read the D.O.T. regulations. No load was worth my running my 80,000 pound rig into someone's car and taking someone dad, mother or family out.
In the end, I lost my job with Werner because I was smart enough to know when I was used and abused. And I was not afraid to take a stand. But I did not have the things to lose others have (such as a house or a family). What hapened to me will certainly happen to any driver who is not a 100% YES MAN and will allow himself to work 80 - 90 hours a week for $600.00 - $700.00 (this is less than MINIMUM WAGE). And I am unemployable in the industry because I do not have 6 months to one year first seat driver experience most require, and I have the termination on my DAC report. Trucking is needlessly and maliciously ruining the lives of others because of the economy we are in and the subsidies they are getting for student drivers. Unless you allow yourself to be abused, you will not be able to keep a trucking job in this economy and job market. Even when the economy gets better and trucking stops fooling around with people the way they are, there are many of us with ruined lives and driving reports because of the abuse and games played in a bad economy. We have to lump it.
Like I said, believe what you will. I have been shown that if you balk at not being able to stay washed and fed, you will have a problem. I don't care how long other drivers go without a shower or decent food - that's their choice. There is no reason with the amount of drivers coming in that you have to be run like a slave. It's a DIRTY industry. More so now with the economy, and the way these companies are subsidised for taking on students. As far as I am concerned, my life was unnecessarily ruined.
Before I went to trucking school I didnt think it really mattered where you got your CDL. I knew how to drive a car good enough, how hard could it be to drive a big truck? It is not really that hard at all when you do it every day and pay attention to what you are doing. However, There is a lot more to it than just driving a truck down the road. It’s the trucking rules and regulations that you can learn or not learn in trucking school that can come back to haunt you. I believe a good school should teach you all the dos and don'ts so it is known before you go to some company who intends to use you as they will as it is a foregone conclusion most drivers (especially new drivers) are stupid and ignorant. Trucking is too regulated to be over-ignorant; and in the end, no matter where you go to school, it's YOUR responsibility to learn the regulations and do what you have to do to adhere to them.
The majority of trucking schools rush you in the front door and out the back door with a CDL (maybe). You end up getting a job working for a break-in trucking company that cares more about moving loads than you or your CDL. A lot of these trucking companies are willing to look the other way if you bend the rules a little bit to get freight moved - especially if you are a new driver who is paid at the bottom of the pay scale. It is common practice that new drivers are dogged and brainwashed into working more hours than they realize is legal so the company will avoid the low paid driver from having to do a 34 hour restart. Even drivers who realize this allow themselves to be pushed because they are afraid of losing their jobs. And in this economy and job market, you WILL lose the job if you do not allow the obvious abuse. It was my experience that Werner is one of these companies. I experienced that Werner will encourage you (even order you) to log off duty, when you are legally and rightfully on duty. In my case as a new driver, Werner did not want to see more than the 15 minute D.O.T. minimum for pretrip inspection at the beginning of my work day. Where pretrip is concerned, I am baffled of why D.O.T. allows 15 minutes. A PROPER pretrip takes longer than 15 minutes - it takes as long as it takes - PERIOD. Second of all, if something happens while enroute, and it can be attributed to a poor pretrip. Then YOU will be responsible to answer why you only show a 15 minute pretrip inspection. I happen to know this has happened to other drivers. There are catches and concequences to the loopholes. In my performing all else, they wanted me on line 1 (off duty). This included when I arrived at a shipper or consignee to get dock assignments or my bills, doing drop and hook, waiting to be loaded or unloaded - etc.. Any D.O.T. official will tell you that you are ON DUTY NOT DRIVING (line 4) whenever you are performing ANY function for the company, and can not leave the truck and do as you please. And it is also outlined in the D.O.T. regulations book. When you are on line 1 (off duty), you are on YOUR TIME, and as such, you should be able to do as you please such as go somewhere to eat - etc.. The most common time I have seen drivers log off duty is during load or unload. During load or unload, unless you can walk off and do as you please during the time you decide to log off duty, you are not on YOUR OWN TIME. Therefore, you are on duty not driving (line 4). Yet drivers will log line 1 (off duty) or line 2 (sleeper) if the waiting is over 2 hours to split their break because of loopholes. You're waiting to be loaded or unloaded - that's not YOUR TIME because you have to stay in the truck to be informed when the load or unload is complete. But you have big problems with companies like Werner if you do not log line 1. My trainer tried to get me to log off duty, and so did my dispatcher when I was rightfully and legally on duty not driving on other occasions other than waiting to be loaded or unloaded. I know of the loopholes drivers use to save on their 70 hour. Other drivers who do not mind being pushed to 80 and 90 hours a week on the job - that's fine for them. That is if you even really know what the rules are and the consequences that go with breaking them. But those of us who do not wish to be pushed into (technically) being on duty more than 70 hours a week get raked over the coals. I was.
Drivers being abused (and allowing it) is a danger to themselves and everyone on the roads. Especially a new driver who is expected to work 80 hours a week and run like he has ten years experience on the road. Sooner or later, you will end up rolled in a ditch. Or worse, kill someone or yourself. The company will se it as another unfortunate tragic accident, and your driver code go down in history as another driver who was probably at fault.
Unfortunately going to a poor trucking school could result in you going to prison for a long time! That’s Right! Truck drivers are encouraged to fib a little on their log books by dispatchers to get loads moved on time. Some schools will tell you this, but MOST will not because they are in cahoots with the major carriers who take students. I also have been told that dispatchers are paid more as they run drivers more. And my dispatcher (JD Hodgestradt) more often than not, gave me loads that could barely be delivered ontime driving in the best of conditions (best being no traffic or bad weather) and not stopping for breaks, showers or food. The distance did not matter. I had what they call JIT (Just In Time) loads than not. Just about every load I had did have a delivery window which far exceeded what I was given by my dispatcher. I checked when I arrived at my stops, so I am sure of this fact. I even had a load that was so tight that I had to request personal drive time and drive two hours to the nearest place where I could shut down. I was not allowed to sleep where I dropped my load, and this was in the New York area at night when truck stops are impossible to get into. Werner's faulty paperless electronic logging aside - A log book is just a piece of paper right? No big deal! What could it hurt? You are just trying to make a living and get home on time without having to take another required break right? Go ahead and fool yourselves or let the dispatcher or company fool you. Then see how much they care when you have an accident or get an expensive violation for breaking a rule, or even lose your CDL. Traditionally in a good economy and job market, Over The Road Drivers who are away from home 3+ weeks at a time with only 1 day off per week can be hard to come by. In this economy and high unemployment, they have an army of students coming in from the bottom which they are getting government bailout subsidy money for. In the end, new drivers are an added dollar sign for companies getting subsidised by the Government for taking on students. Drivers are being cycled through like cattle. New drivers the company has the money from the Government for, or (and especially) veterin drivers making more per mile than most are being pressured into quitting or terminated for the silliest of reasons. They find ways to set you up for failure. I doubt they care for drivers in the company rigs or the motoring public. In the end, it's your responsibility to know the regulations and when you are breaking them. Most trucking schools will not teach you everything. If you are in a 3 week CRASH COURSE school, you certainly will not know everything. Read the books you are given - it's all in there.
Most trucking schools will come up short training you, and informing you about these types of things, and it is too bad. Try telling the court that you didn’t know this thing and that thing was against the law in your jury trial when you rack up 20 log book violations and face up to 5 years for each one!
Are you willing to go to prison for taking shortcuts when it comes to getting your CDL training and picking a truck driving school? Then allowing the company you work for to push you into doing things not legal just because you are at the bottom of the pay scale, and are new and stupid? You will be operating a commercial vehicle under federal rules and regulations. Learning to drive a truck is not a game and getting trained properly is crucial! If you are going to get a CDL please read the D.O.T. regulations. No load was worth my running my 80,000 pound rig into someone's car and taking someone dad, mother or family out.
In the end, I lost my job with Werner because I was smart enough to know when I was used and abused. And I was not afraid to take a stand. But I did not have the things to lose others have (such as a house or a family). What hapened to me will certainly happen to any driver who is not a 100% YES MAN and will allow himself to work 80 - 90 hours a week for $600.00 - $700.00 (this is less than MINIMUM WAGE). And I am unemployable in the industry because I do not have 6 months to one year first seat driver experience most require, and I have the termination on my DAC report. Trucking is needlessly and maliciously ruining the lives of others because of the economy we are in and the subsidies they are getting for student drivers. Unless you allow yourself to be abused, you will not be able to keep a trucking job in this economy and job market. Even when the economy gets better and trucking stops fooling around with people the way they are, there are many of us with ruined lives and driving reports because of the abuse and games played in a bad economy. We have to lump it.
Like I said, believe what you will. I have been shown that if you balk at not being able to stay washed and fed, you will have a problem. I don't care how long other drivers go without a shower or decent food - that's their choice. There is no reason with the amount of drivers coming in that you have to be run like a slave. It's a DIRTY industry. More so now with the economy, and the way these companies are subsidised for taking on students. As far as I am concerned, my life was unnecessarily ruined.
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