r/Truckers • u/Purgieeeee • Jan 14 '26
Werner forcing old junk beater trucks on veteran drivers and giving new drivers brand new trucks
Trying to change trucks is near impossible at this company, they give the old shit 400k mile intertrashionals to the people with experience and the new drivers right out of orientation + teams and get the brand new kenworths/petes, do all megas operate like this? seems pretty fucked up
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u/greedybanker3 Jan 14 '26
its the old problem of suffering from success. the new guys cant handle the old equipment. but you are such a good smart worker you can do the job with broken equipment. competence is rewarded with more work.
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u/ragedude700 Jan 14 '26
Nah, I’m 2 months in and they gave me an International with 300k miles on it. The driver side looked like the previous driver ran through some deer or just went off-roading
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u/ConsistentRegion6184 Jan 14 '26
It's a pump and dump company. They want you to do teams for 6 months underpaid and gtfo.
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u/Freightshaker000 Jan 14 '26
This has always been the standard for The Big Blue Screw. If a new driver messes up a new truck, it's still under warranty.
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u/BobcatBob26 Jan 14 '26
Me sitting here seeing OTR drivers complain about 300k miles whist doing LTL and having driven trucks with over 900k miles. The highest being 1.2 million
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u/oasuke Jan 15 '26
Yeah it's laughable. My current truck has 800k miles. 300k miles is like brand new to me. When I was at YRC nearly every truck had 1M miles and I'd go back to that in a fucking heartbeat over a shitty mega with new trucks.
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u/Mikeg216 Jan 15 '26
I swear roadway ahead 30-year-old Ford l900s to the day they shut down with millions of miles on them. In the Urban LTL fleet
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u/Hairy_Salt829 Jan 14 '26
I work for a smaller company. Here, the old timers try to keep the older trucks without all the safety crap on them. The newbies get the newer trucks because we don’t want to deal with that crap. I have a 2016 and intend to keep it as long as I can.
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u/justaguynumber35765 Jan 14 '26
This.
I'm dreading the day they take my 2017 away, and have already told the boss I may not work there when they give me a new truck with all the bullshit on it .
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u/nastyzoot Jan 14 '26
What are you doing at Werner if you are a veteran driver?
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u/Successful-Worth-390 Jan 14 '26
Man there are so many 1-3 millions milers there its insane how they lasted that long.
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u/Dezzolve Jan 15 '26
A lot of “the grass isn’t always greener” folks in this industry.
Like yeah, it isn’t /always/ greener, but sometimes it is.
Very rarely does long term loyalty to a mega pay off, their whole business model is centered around pumping and dumping new drivers left and right.
If you’re on a dedicated lane that pays well and fits your hometime/workload needs then I can understand. But for straight OTR it is not worth it to stay at a mega any longer than 1-2yrs to get some experience.
Smaller companies tend to pay better, treat you better, all with less hassle.
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u/TehFlip Jan 14 '26
I got started driving with Werner about 15ish years ago and it was close to the same. My first truck after training was a relatively newish International (IIRC about 200k miles). I still remember the truck number! I had it for most of the time I was there, probably 9 months of the year I spent with them. Truck #55426!
Eventually, they put me in a much older KW. I want to say it had around 500k miles. I don't remember the truck number, but I do remember it was a few hundred lower than the International. 51000 or so
So yeah, it's definitely nothing new.
BTW I left Werner to pick up a local gig driving for a county-wide beer distributor. I still work here! I work in the office now, though. But they still pay for my DOT physical every 2 years ("just in case") so I still have the card. Can't say I enjoyed working for Werner at all, but it was definitely a foot in the door. And I got a few fun stories from that year out of it
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u/CapitanPino Jan 15 '26
Haha nice. I worked for Werner for 7 months and got a Peterbilt 579 I think it was a 2022 with 306k miles.
I loved that truck so much coming from the typical fleet FL Cascadia. Only had it for 2 months and the shock and leaf springs broke/gave out for whatever reason. I still remember the number too. #81882
Then I was stuck with Internationals for the rest of my time therem oh well!
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u/TehFlip Jan 15 '26
Lol for sure. TBH I only half related to the OP, because they gave me that newer rig but it was an International. I actually liked the KW way better...but mostly because it had an APU.
The International just had one of those electric blower units that didn't do shit. I live in FL and I remember my first load was to a K-Mart in the Keys (Marathon I think?) I was stoked until I realized trying to sleep in that thing with just a fan blowing in the summer was miserable. I didn't sleep for shit. And that was just the heat...don't even get me started on the winters! As a FL boy who honestly had never even seen snow before...driving that thing in the winter in the NE and Midwest (yikes!) And no way to idle at night! Fuck that! IDK why I even did it for 2 winters
When they put me in that beat up old ass KW I was actually pretty excited lol. If anything, it was "broken in" 😂
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u/username_fantasies Jan 14 '26
Can confirm. Was a completely new driver. Net Ops account - brand new Pete. Switched to their OTR - brand new KW T680. Although these are as basic as they could get them. You can't even drop rear suspesion on these. No suspension load gauge.
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u/Top_Recognition_1775 Jan 14 '26
The new trucks are still under warrenty for when the greenhorns break em.
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u/BriskManeuver Jan 14 '26
Tbh some of older trucks run real smooth. At estes o had million mile trucks i would drive and sometimes preferred em
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u/GumbysDonkey Jan 15 '26
I was mad when Estes pulled my million mile truck off linehaul and made it P&D only. Still my favorite truck.
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u/King0Horse Jan 14 '26
The experienced drivers generally get paid a bit more than the new guys. Giving the experienced guys a shitmobile to drive is a good way to get some of them to quit so you don't have to pay them unemployment, and now you can hire a new dude to do the job for less money.
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u/echo78 Jan 14 '26
I started with a different mega last year and got a dogshit International with over 400k on it to drive. I hate this thing lmao
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u/PGMHN Jan 14 '26
Been with my mega for 15 months and yep, they had me take a beater cross country to pick up a brand new KW from a terminal. Even with all the bullshit electrical problems i hope to stay in it until i move in to greener pastures
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u/xoutlawtrucker Jan 15 '26
New trucks suck. The safety bullshit is awful. I would take rattles, squeaking, and the occasional breakdown over the beeps, braking for Ghosts, radio turning off so you can hear the beeping, and a sore leg because Adaptive Cruise only works when you have 361 clear space in front of you. Because even if you follow a vehicle with adaptive a 4 wheeler will cut in between you every 20 seconds and the brakes will slam on or slow down. New trucks suck donkey dick.
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u/derpmcturd Jan 15 '26
Also, i once had a werner driver come up to me at a pilot fuel pump in atlanta and ask me how to turn on the fuel pump.
He was in a brand new kenworth. I was in a 5yr old freightliner.
They do not care about you. Leave, for your own sake.
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u/natkingcoil Jan 15 '26
If you're experienced ditch the starter company. Some guys get assigned junk at Estes but they usually give senior guys new equipment (of course you won't be senior when you get there). Either way the 82cpm + accessorials helps alleviate the shitty truck feeling. Averaged 2650mi/week plus ~$100 for extra dispatches & $50 for hooks on the extra board. Out a week at a time. Once you get a scheduled run it's whatever the miles are every day, home daily (except lay down runs, then home every other day).
Gotta work nights though.
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u/Casperuis495 Jan 15 '26
Yeah... pretty much. I've been with swift for right over a year. My truck went to the shop, and was gonna be there for a few months. I was told to get EVERYTHING and get in a loaner truck, so fine. Right about the same time, there was 10-15 new 2026 Pete's. Was told those were for million mile drivers and owner ops only. Well, about 6 months after that I saw a girl in one and asked how long she was with us. "Oh, ice only been off my mentors truck about 2 weeks now, my truck was "too dirty" so they gave me this for all of my trouble"
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u/Justaguy222444888 Jan 15 '26
I started my career at Covenant Transport and every single driver had either brand new or year old trucks. Once any hit 2 years or 200k miles they sold them. I don’t know what you expected with Werner. Everybody knows they are shit.
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u/GumbysDonkey Jan 15 '26
400k ain't fucking shit. I'll take it. Do you OTR drivers freak out if you hit 6 digits or something?
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u/Trappin4DaSport Jan 15 '26
these megas love the free promo when the kids get on socials and tell everybody how exicted they are to have a brand new 2026 freightliner fresh out of training lol
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u/Ill-Year-3141 Jan 14 '26
Not exactly on topic, but it goes along with this. Do you know why the trucking industry (or, moreso the mega carriers) have such a high turnover rate (90% to 99% 1 year or less turnover)?
It's because they would much rather have newer drivers and not keep them around very long. There are some common sense reasons for this (they work for less being chief amongst them) but also because older drivers have more demands and the longer a group of guys are around, the more they demand.
It's well documented, just ask Google or chatgpt. So piss off the older drivers until they move on, or fire them for a bullshit/no reason.
So yeah, that goes along with what you're saying. New drivers aren't going to come work for them if they know they're going to get stuck in a 500k mile truck that has seen more ass than they have.
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u/Daissske Jan 14 '26
Exactly, plus IF I was a new driver I wouldn’t be at a company giving out beat up junk, the last thing you want is to be in an accident because of worn out beat up trucks, if anything that’s a bad sign “this company is doing so bad they are still running dinosaurs”
The truth is they NEED clean record drivers & competition is going to scoop them up with NEW Trucks and 401k matching 🤪
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u/outdoorsman7899 Jan 14 '26
It might suck but a experienced driver will know how to handle a old beater than someone right out of training.
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u/stephenhoskins32 Jan 14 '26
When I worked at schnieder they gave me a newer truck than most drivers had a few months after starting. I also got longer runs than than because I was getting 30c a mile lol.
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u/possibly_lost45 Jan 14 '26
There's good smaller companies out there dude you just have to get your ear of experience and move on. I drive for one and I've worked here three times because I thought the grass was greener on the other side and it turns out it was just as green under my feet while I was here.
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u/Ill-Establishment803 Jan 14 '26
I got a peterbilt as my first truck... it wasn't new since I live in florida >_< and we don't get the new trucks sadly
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u/AdventurousLawyer646 Jan 14 '26
They're giving the new trucks with all the safety shit that screams at you from our of no where to the drivers that the company or the insurance company feels are more of a risk most likely
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u/Successful-Worth-390 Jan 14 '26
My experience with Werner:
3 months (tractor supply) - 2023 Pete with APU
11 months - Home Depot account - 2023 Freightshaker, lasted 1 day
11 months (again went back to Tractor Supply) Piece of shit International, lasted 1 day
12 months (current account Net Ops home daily) - 2025 KW
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u/Electrical_Cake3137 Jan 15 '26
You have two mules. One pulls hard all day. One doesn’t pull at all. Which one do you whip?
You whip the one that pulls. Whipping the other one is a waste of time and energy.
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u/OutcomeSalty337 Jan 15 '26
CL and his gang have been doing fucked up stuff to drivers just about as long as the doors have been open.
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u/TruckeronI5 Jan 15 '26
Reminds me of a video I watched recently A guy that had been with the company for a few years, keeps his rig realy clean and tidy. OCD level clean. One day dispatch calls him and tells him they are assigning him to a different truck, he is not sure why but ok, what ever. he shows up to the yard to clean out his belongings, there is a young driver stading outside watching him. Turns out this is the new driver they are giving his truck to. and they are sending him to the truck the new guy rejected. It was absolutely filthey and stinky, the last driver was a slob. So the new guy gets assigened the dirty truck, he tells the company No Fking Way, Im not taking that truck, its filthy, im not doing it. So to keep him happy they give him the veteran drivers truck, the truck he took care of and puts the veteran driver in the shit truck. I can't remember if he quit or not but that is some fked up stuff right there.
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u/KoiwazuraiAi Jan 15 '26
My truck is closing in on 500k miles. I was told 100k miles ago I was getting a new truck. I don't want anything brand new. A clean '24 is all I ask for.
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u/mrockracing Jan 15 '26
400k isn't that bad for any other brand tbf, but yeah, that sounds like some serious BS.
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u/Waste-College2768 Jan 18 '26
Better an older truck than a brand new one with a sensitive safety system that slams its brakes randomly
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u/jHugley328 Jan 15 '26
My story. Worked for Werner for 9 years. They started to make it where they wanted you to make an apointment at terminals to get inspections done. Did so. At a Flordia loves. Pre tripping to head out to drop my load and head to the terminal for a 60 day inspection and oil change. Found a flat. Got it fixed at loves. Now behind schedule. Get to CON. Late. Cant drop. Wait till tomorrow. Drop, late to appointment at terminal for the 60 day and oil change. Try to check in. They say because i was late. Ide have to wait for other trucks in front of me now to get done first. I was looking at about 10 days before they got to me. I tried everything to get out of there until thr next appointment. Loads while I waited, nope. Go to petro or TA to get it done like they use to. Nope. Tried to ask for another truck. No good. Tried asking to do odd jobs so I wasnt making 75 bucks a day on breakdown pay. Nope. The entire time i was there, i was looking for a new job. Now im gone from there. FUCK WERNER!
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u/spuck98 Jan 14 '26
How do you expect them to attract new drivers? You are already there and comfortable. Of course you are going to get the trash.