I've been driving OTR for 1.5 years now. I trained/started with Werner for 6 months, quickly found out that 20 some cents a mile is a joke and decided to go with JB Hunt. Today is my 1 year anniversary with them. It's been OK. Not totally horrible, but not really that good either. I've made about $35k and been out about 1-1.5 months at a clip.

My problems with JB Hunt (in the last 2 months only)

-I'm "over the road", yet somehow I haven't been west of Kansas City in a year. It was worse when my address was in PA and they had me up and down 95 for months. I recently changed my address to Ohio and have been more midwest. Fact is, there's no such thing as "over the road" at JB Hunt.

-2 months ago I went home to Dayton, Ohio for 5 days. I came back off the road and was scheduled to have truck service done on my tractor. I ran right through the Columbus terminal on my way to Dayton. It could have been done while I was on home time, but I guess that made far too much sense. I came back out from home time and drive to Youngstown for the service. Before I left I asked for a hotel voucher because I knew I'd be sitting a day waiting on the truck. I was told I could send a message or call when I got to the yard and they'd get me a hotel. 250 miles later, I got there and was told by a night dispatcher "you're a truck driver, sleep in your truck." I was furious. Some asshole who sits at a desk all day just told me, the guy who's been sacrificing his social life for the past year or more on the road, that he's a truck driver. Thanks, I didn't really now what I did for a living, I appreciate the clarification. So I slept on a table at the yard while my truck was repaired the next day. I could have stayed home with my family for another day.

-For the first 11 months with them I was able to round up my hometime days. Basically if I was out 33 days, I'd take 5 off, even though technically I'd need 35 days out for 5 off (1 for every 7). I just had my time off set for 4 days and I'd been out 26 days...they wouldn't give me 4 days and said I could only take 3. I'm sorry, but this is just as cheap and disrespectful as it gets. I can't work for a company who doesn't see the benefit in giving a drive time off...and being as stingy as humanly possible about his days earned.

-I've been with them a year now and have earned my PTO time (week's paid vacation). I'm going to take it in June, to Dayton. I was told that I have to "free off" my truck in Columbus. But I want to take my vacation in Dayton. I'm told we're required to get off the tractor for vacation time. It says this nowhere in the driver's handbook, but OK, I'll work with you. I ask if they can get me a rental car/cab ride from Columbus to Dayton since it's 60 miles away and I have no way of getting home...where I want to take my vacation. They won't compensate me for a cab or rental car. They won't compensate me for a cab or rental car back to work after vacation time is up either. So essentially in order for me to go on vacation, it's going to cost me $200 in rental cars and cab rides just to get myself to my home to take my vacation. Is that fair? That's pretty much the final strike for me.



Anyway, those are my problems of late. There have been plenty more that happened over the past year. All in all they're just becoming an extremely cheap company. Every time I have a complaint I'm told "well another driver did this, so that's our policy." Why do I care about what another driver did? Why does another driver affect my work? It's obvious....they are too big a company for their own good and I am absolutely nothing more than a number to them. I have more respect for myself then to continue working for a company who can't respect me.




So now here I am. 1.5 years experience. No accidents, no major tickets (I got one speeding ticket, but in a car for 73mph in a 65mpg...this shouldn't hurt me, should it?), etc. I'm looking at Crete. I've heard good things about them. I see the years of service stickers on the sides of their trucks which tells me they care about their drivers at least a little bit. DO you think this is a good move for me? Will I have any problems being hired by them?

If not, I might be looking at something around the Dayton area that would get me home at least on weekends if not nightly. How much experience does Fedex require? Or maybe something like Yellow/Conway/etc?

I run hard, I run legal, and I have respect for the people I work for. Now I'm just looking for a company that has respect for me.

 

[quote="LARM"] [b]Wow thats is bad money,,, Man Werner treats driver like sh*t/b]

 

Ah, c'mon, I'm not the only guy who ever ran for Werner. :lol:

I only went with Werner because they offered training/job out of CDL school and a friend of mine was a "driver trainer" and owner/operator with them, so I could do my 3 months training with someone I knew. As you can see, after 3 months solo with them, I realized it was time to move on. I think I was making .27 cents a mile, maybe .28.

I stuck it out with JB over this past year even though there were a few times when I wanted to quit them because I didn't want to look like a job hopper and wanted to get at least my 1 year of experience so I could get with a better company.

And no, I'm a born and raised Philadelphian originally, moved to Dayton, Ohio. 26 years old in 2 weeks. I worked at a desk with computers doing IT work for 5 years before selling all my things and hitting the road. I had my mid-life crisis early apparently.

 

[quote="LARM"][quote="Evinrude"]Ah, c'mon, I'm not the only guy who ever ran for Werner. :lol:

I only went with Werner because they offered training/job out of CDL school and a friend of mine was a "driver trainer" and owner/operator with them, so I could do my 3 months training with someone I knew. As you can see, after 3 months solo with them, I realized it was time to move on. I think I was making .27 cents a mile, maybe .28.




Not blaming you bro...Just wish they would pay more to even the playing field.

 

Good luck on the respect issue! :lol: (just kidding...or am I?)

If you want more home time (weekends and maybe throughout the week) have you looked into dedicated? I ran dedicated 1-yr for JB. Weekends off (1 1/2 days) and was home at least 2x/week.

Not saying that you should look at JB's dedicated accounts, but that dedicated routes provide a way for you to be home more often.

 

I asked to be put on the list for dedicated/DCS. They said I was put on the list. Did you run OTR first? How long did it take you to land the dedicated job?

I'm thinking I might be able to tolerate JB if I could get home on the weekends to blow some steam off, but being out on the road and dealing with their crap makes me want to strangle somebody. :lol:

 

I started out driving national with Roehl Transport. Decent company; dispatcher and I did not see eye-to-eye on things (surprise, surprise). Consequently, I started looking after 4-months on the road. After 6-months, signed up with JB.

JB approached me (surprise, surprise) and mentioned a dedicated account based about 7-miles from where I live. Although I was primarily attached to one DCS account, from time-to-time I helped out on other DCS accounts. I left JB because after accepting me to a new DCS account position, they changed their minds one-week later (after I had already been on the account for a month).

After that I went local -- my family needed to see more of dad.

Just because you're on the DCS list doesn't necessarily mean anything. If you haven't closed the door on JB, call up DCS on a weekly basis and politely inquire if anything new is available.

 

FWIW Watkins & Shepard always treated me right, home time began the day after you went off duty and often went a day or 2 over depending on when home time ended (no loads dispatched over the weekend) vacations were wherever you wanted to take them (they would try and route you there) and I would often times take the truck home.
Like any company they have issues but I’d still give them a “thumbs up”
Or get a local gig that pays by the hour, you’ll probably make more money and be home more than any OTR job.

 

Get your local Sunday paper and find a local job. Nothing beats being home every night, especially if you are a family man. There should be plenty of opportunities in Dayton this time of year. With your experience and driving record you should be in good shape.

Man, $35K/yr. to spend all that time away from home and to be treated like you were sure sounds like a raw deal.

 

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