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CB Employers Review of watkins and shepard
watkins and shepard

watkins and shepard review: Poor Equipment and Pushy Dispatch 4

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Author of the review
3:01 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Well its true what they say. OTR jobs are a dime a dozen. This company is no exception. They will bring you in for 10 days of orientation/training is you are inexperienced driver or 3 days if you have 1 year otr experience. But after that good luck getting a truck unless you dont mind traveling to terminal to terminal and waiting for them to rebuild an engin and or transmission. They had me set for over 2 weeks in Helana MT with champaign wishes and caviar dreams of making money and driving a late model truck. They sent me done to Salt Lake city UT to get a truck and made me drive my own car down there. After driving for 5 hours or so and getting to there slc ut terminal, I arrived to find that my so called nice truck was nothing more than a broken down 2007 volvo with 900 thousand miles on it and pet hair and cigarrette buts and ashes every where. The smell inside was sickining. Bald drive tires and a missing head light etc etc. They gave me a load to Helana MT to get it fixed but little did I know I would be taking an involluntary vacation in cold a** montana. After nearly 2 weeks waiting and being told they would give me an older truck with a new motor/transmission I had no choice but to drive my self back to salt lake and get my car with my own gas money and drive home 1200 miles. They would offer me small loads from Montana to Denver and back as a team driver to keep from paying break down pay. Or give you a tee check that you had no where to cash it at. They cut the balls off all the trucks. Low RPM's and locked speed at 65. That supposed to save them fuel. They frown on idling but give you apu's that are nothing more than lumps of metal. Home time forget it. one day off for every 6 days out. Remember at Watkins Shepard they need drivers but have no trucks readily available for you. If you need to start driving asap for this company. Just another company full of [censored]. I made 100 dollars in 2 weeks and had to use that to get home. If you dont want to train as a new driver but just want to have your own truck then watkins shepard is for you but if you so much as ding the truck you will be fired on the spot regardless of the state you in. Ask youself this: how far can you walk to get home ? Equipment is substandard. I used to drive a 98 freightliner FLD and it was in better condition than there 2007 volvo's Oh ya you need to get permission do fuel and must drive there bull [censored] routing regardless if your trucker gps gives you a better way. A lot of their freight is LTL with 20+ stops on the loads in Los Angleles or Georgia. Their trucks DO NOT have a sliding fith wheel. This is quite the problem seeing how they love to haul beer out of FT collins CO or from budwiser and also flour loads. They will often have you get a load of beer with only a quarter tank of fuel. How would you like to stop for fuel every 45 minutes. Might kill your 14 hour clock nicely. Watkins and shepard should be called Walk in and Walk out.

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

4 comments
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Truck Pilot
, US
May 05, 2016 7:35 pm EDT

The guy complained about some other trucking company. I bet that complainer didn't even work for the company. He's better off away from truck driving.

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Watkins and Sheperd
, US
Dec 03, 2015 9:42 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Sorry about your problems. I think your experience was a unusual one and you were one of the few to experience that with Watkins Shepard. I am the wife of a Watkins Shepard driver. He is on the road right now and not much of a computer user.Though I am at home while he's gone, we are a strong team so I will comment. My husband and son have been with Watkins Shepard as team drivers about 2 months now. My husbands experience for the past few years BEFORE Watkins was with both oil field and OTR driving had been horrible. In the oil field my husband and my son & others were treated worse than dogs working for such big companies as Bridger and Taylor and a few private companies like Jeff Derosia Oil Hauling. They lost huge amounts of money getting put in lease purchase trucks that were lemons and having to do out of pocket repairs on them. They were not able to pay the lease on the truck or trailer or make livings due to repair costs and had to hand the trucks back. A few of the companies paid late, shorted them or didn't pay at all. My husband & son are two honest hardworking guys talked down to and disrespected by people in management who were lesser people than them. Not with Watkins. Watkins Shepard has a great group of people overall. They are refreshing to deal with. They have treated my husband and son with respect and have a driver liason to call if the driver has any concerns or issues. The Volvo they were given to drive was almost new & beautiful and any problems that have come up with the truck or trailers were immediately and effectively addressed. Watkins pays on time always. So far my husband & son have been pushing hard to make the extra miles so they could get the extra mile rewards but then have to wait for up to a day and a half for a load and loosing out on some of the extra mile benefits. I also never see him. That & getting a promised dedicated run that they were promised are two subjecst they take issue with and haven"t been able to get resolved. They were supposed to be able to be home at least once a week but haven't had a scheduled day off for about a month. They would like to have used the 3 or 4 days they had to wait for a load at home. We know dispatches job is tough sometimes and Watkins is probably having some growing pains. Overall Watkins Shepard is the best company we've dealt with with a lot of good people. We just hope these issues can get worked out for us with a otherwise a great company.

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Henry232323
Missoula, US
Jun 17, 2015 5:16 pm EDT

Been a great company for me. They have bought a lot of trucks since 2011. Pretty much everything in the review I haven't seen in my 5 years. I think he may have these reviews about every company he has been with. I would recommend and do recommend Watkins and Shepard.

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Henry232323
Missoula, US
Aug 07, 2014 4:44 pm EDT

They kept their word, the truck was good and yes they made me work for my money but the money was very good. A load with 20 stops pays you $20 a stop so $400. I would still be with them but need to be home to take care of my wife. Best 3 years of trucking I did out of 18.