For the most part SNI is fairly decent for a large company. You are only regarded as a number until they type said number into a computer and find out your name. All of the driver support staff have an open door policy, mainly because there are no offices at SNI to have doors, everyone works in cubicles and you can just walk up and start chatting if you wish. The pay is slightly substandard in my opinion, but they try to do their best to make up for that by keeping the wheels turning. The do pay layover and detention. You are granted 5 days time at home a month, can request those days in any configuration in as short as a 2 week cycle, and they will honor the request. In case of family emergency, the will do anything they possibly can to get you home to take care of business and it wont count against your normal home time. The medical benefits are a tid bit pricey, but that is balanced out by other fringe benefits like supplier discounts from most of the fortune 500 companies we haul for. In most cases the equipment will be maintained to your standard, but you may have to wait a day or 2 for it to get done at the breakdown pay rate of about half of what you can make rolling. They will also never expect you to do anything illegal which can fall under both the pros and cons of working here. As for a pro, the safe and legal standpoint they hold means that so long as you communicate why you are being delayed they will take your word on how safe you feel operating at the time over the urgency of On time delivery. That being said don't abuse said privilege, They make their money as any other company, by delivering freight on time. Just have a good reason for being late and let them know the second you know you will be late. This is the good I see in the company now for the bad.

They have company policies and expect those to be followed to the tee. No stretching the logbook, so far as I've found the only excuse for doing so no matter how messed up of a situation you find yourself in the only excuse for running over 11 or 14 hours is a hurricane. The trucks are so slow that we need bug shields on the trailer doors to fend off the bugs that flay faster than we can move and get squashed there. The trucks can also not be modified in any way. This means if you follow company policy no after market stereos, big cb radios, chicken lights, inverters bigger than 180 watts that run off the cigg lighter, and all of the accessories you might want to plug into said bigger inverter suck as refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot etc etc. There are ways around these policy's, just remember anything you do you must be able to undo within 2 minutes. The reason they say they are so strict is they do maintain the ability to slipseat all company trucks, even though I haven't seen it happen. For the most part you will get your assigned age category of orange beast depending on experience and service record (supposedly) and drive it until it wont go no mo.

Orange beasts turn into ovens in sunlight. They are sticklers for fuel mileage and idle. Even in the dead heat of summer you are allowed 15% idle (adds up to about 1.5 hours per normal running day) if you would like to get your bonus. You may choose to forgo your bonus in the name of comfort however watch it if your fuel mileage drops below 6 mpg as it is likely to sit you in a class for fuel mileage making no money. They aren't willing to forgo the expense of APU's on the trucks and this means with the 24 hour nature of this business you will find your self sweating your ### off in a sauna instead of sleeping on your DOT break. That being said they really prefer you drive during the day and sleep at night in the name of "safety," even if you are one of those backwards people who falls asleep during the day and cant sleep at night.

For such a "safety" minded company they sure don't seem to care about aspects of driver comfort that would do a great deal towards a safe day of driving. As they are safety minded one major accident or 2 accidents of any sort will send you to the unemployment line. An accident of any sort could be as minor as not checking the surface you drive upon in a lot and getting stuck enough to require a tow truck. To ensure that you follow the rules and are a safe driver in their opinion you will be satellite tracked to the T. They can and will monitor every time you turn the key on the truck, move a few inches, etc etc.

As I titled it this is my no BS view of my company. I reiterate this point because at first glance it may appear as I had more bad then good, however in giving the true story I choose to go into more detail on the bad than the good so anyone coming here knows what they are getting into.

RECAP

~~Pros~~

-drivers are treated as a person instead of a number as much as possible for such a large company

-driver support staff and the bosses are easily accessible and will hear out your gripes and at least pretend to sympathize with you

-for the most part we have freight, and we move it, they don't like trucks to sit

-if the truck is sitting away from the house and you have a good Driver Bus Leader most likely you will get paid something for sitting (comes out to be about half of what you can make rolling, but its better than a poke in the eye like you get at most other companies.)

-They do not expect you to drive in trucks or conditions you don't feel safe driving in.

-If you ask to be home within company policy, or have an emergency that requires your presence at home they will do everything in their power to get you home on those dates and times.

-They have all types of insurance (health, vision, dental, legal, tax free savings accounts for medical and childcare, 401k, accidental injury, mental health counseling,and free 20k life insurance, more life insurance at a reasonable rate)

-They have many fringe benefits in the form of discounts with many of the Fortune 500 companies they do business with

-They have quite the network of operating centers (or terminals in the rest of the world) loaded with amenities suck as wireless internet (its there nowdays, not saying its the greatest), good showers, food (again there not the greatest or cheapest), physical therapists, exercise rooms, and free laundry)


~~Cons~~

-They pay is at the minimum of or slightly below industry standard

-the Health insurance seems a bit steep to me for a company sponsored plan (96 dollars a week for me, my wife, and 2 kids. after 750 dollars of expense you are responsible for the next 750 out right then it goes to 80/20. At least on my plan, there are 2 or 3 other options available)

-They reserve the right to slipseat your truck and in doing so thus restrict many driver comfort items you might be able to install in another companies truck.

-They have a brutal stance on idle and fuel milage which makes for some very very hot summer days, or the occasional argument with your boss (your choice)

-The trucks after all are blaze orange Freightliners, spec'd to have no power and limited at 63mph (nuff said)

-They have almost zero tolerance for scratching, sticking, bending, or otherwise maiming said blaze orange Freightliners, even if the situation might have been out of your control.

-They have zero tolerance with exceeding hours of service or covering your exception up even if it may have been necessary.

-They satellite track so closely they will catch you if you try and exceed HOS or cover it up.

-You are going to be here a while before you qualify for a brand new orange beast.

-It is Rumored (and i do say rumored, I cant speak for myself) that they undercut the mileage of drivers that have been around 4+ years and get a decent pay rate and give the freight to the newer (cheaper) drivers.

-We get joked on a lot, but what can you expect if your one of the biggest and slowest turds on the interstate. (For people with a good since of humor this could be a Pro. Personally I do love a good joke even if it is at my expense.)


Thats it, feel free to message or email me if you have any questions about SNI, I'll be more than happy to tell ya how i feel about it.

-DW-

I really appreciate your informative post, thank you very much!

I will be starting CDL training in a few weeks as I continue to interview perspective employers. Currently Schneider rises to the top based on what they offer and what is said about them around the net. My choices to date are:

CR England, PAM transport, Stevens Trucking & Scheider.

I continue to do research and am hopeful that I can find the company that will provide a mutually gratifying relationship, for my part I expect to work hard, listen intently, perform safely & legally.

Some of my hopes in my new career were:

1. Finding a company that has a decent home time policy (3 wks or less)
2. Finding a company that has a pet policy ( It's here dog, but I love the lil s*_t.
3. Finding a company that would maintain the relationship with allowing my hard work and dedication to pay off with a decent 1st year paycheck!
4. Finding a company with APU's installed.
5. Finding a company that I would consider a long term career as apposed to getting my year or two and moving on to the next level.

I feel as though my search is not a difficult set of parameters, however I am having an impossible time finding a company that offers all of my 5 desires.

Schneider seems to come the closest with 3 out of 5. (the important 3)

Any suggestions on companies out there that meet all 5, offer CDL training and treat people like people?

JTH

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SEMPER FI

A man is measured not by his wealth or position, but by others who call him friend!

I tried Schneider's training program. Like an idiot, I left the day before I would have graduated. Like a retard, I just packed up and left without telling anyone. Word to the wise, if you decide to leave their training program, tell them. Otherwise, you are on the DO NOT HIRE list for life.

The 2-weeks at STA is a weed 'em out program. They weed out bad attitudes and illiterates as well as bad drivers. The 14-days to get you the absolute bare basics. Then you are turned over to a trainer - that is where the real training begins.

Don't underestimate the value of the Simulators. Students get frustrated and complain that they aren't "real" enough. That's baloney - learning to drive a truck is frustrating - learning to do it in city traffic can be a bit TOO REAL! I felt the simulators were a great aid for practicing shifting, close manuevers, and backing. The steer tire blow-out scenario will wake you up in a hurry!

Also if you quit during the 2-weeks it will show up on your DAC. One of these days I am going to call USIS and argue why Schneider is on my DAC. My arguement is that how can they be on my DAC if I never worked for them. This is because you are not an employee until AFTER you finish the 2-weeks.

The long and short - Schneider is a good place to drive. From what I see they continue to do things making it an even better place to work. I would go to them in a heartbeat - but they won't have me

England, PAM, and Stevens would lead to disillusionment and depression peppered with occasional musings of suicide.

Centex147 ; Exellent thread!

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SKULL, THE INTERNET GOD!

Schneider fails to inform....I was supposed to get .28cpm and 2500 miles per week. None of those 2 things were ever met during the 6 mos I worked there....they practically starved me out of a job. Then they have the balls to want me to pay back their training $? SCREW THEM....I found out that I was actually getting .26cpm(PER DIEM) dont sign up for that...they get a bonus from the IRS for being a biz with Per Diem....and my average miles during my 6 mos was 1800 AVERAGE...however I remember getting like 2200 one week...I kept asking them to give me more miles...an when I was told why I wasnt getting miles was due to the fact that I was going home every two weeks to see my family....welll that is BS I work for a company now that I get more $ than I did with SNC and I am home every night and weekend....so DO NOT GO WITH SNC...unless you like being babysitted

GBeksel,

I am curious to find out what your current company transports, I too am in Texas and anytime I see someone post a good pay report with great home time it peeks my curiousity.

I will be looking for a company such as this in the future.

Bullfrog

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SEMPER FI

A man is measured not by his wealth or position, but by others who call him friend!

>>"Schneider fails to inform....I was supposed to get .28cpm and 2500 miles >>per week. None of those 2 things were ever met during the 6 mos I >>worked there....they practically starved me out of a job. Then they have >>the balls to want me to pay back their training $? SCREW THEM....I >>found out that I was actually getting .26cpm(PER DIEM) dont sign up for >>that...they get a bonus from the IRS for being a biz with Per Diem....and >>my average miles during my 6 mos was 1800 AVERAGE...however I >>remember getting like 2200 one week...I kept asking them to give me >>more miles...an when I was told why I wasnt getting miles was due to >>the fact that I was going home every two weeks to see my family....welll >>that is BS I work for a company now that I get more $ than I did with >>SNC and I am home every night and weekend....so DO NOT GO WITH >>SNC...unless you like being babysitted"

SNI does not fail to inform you of per diem. You must have failed to listen, because they not only inform you of it but try everything they can to get you on it. This being said if you don't like it and you realize that its advantage is more for the company than you then opt out of it instead of taking it and whining later. As far as your mileage, we have weeks and sometimes even a month that are horrible, but if the most you ever had in 6 months of working there was 2400 miles then YOU were doing something wrong. Smells like a case of not wanting to, or being to stupid to properly fill out a MAC 18. Evan at that you wern't starving as for the first 6 months you are on a weekly guaranteed pay of 500 dollars designed to help those out that are a little slow with picking up the system. Afterwards you are guaranteed 2400 a month, calculated on a monthly basis. If your 28 day month falls short of 2400 dollars then they automatically add the rest of it to your paycheck. If you dont get it then you are spending more than 5 days that month at the house, so once again thats your problem. Also on your weekly average i bet your forgetting to take out the days you spent at home or trashing out a truck stop because you wanted too. Even when i drive 3200 miles a week, my average comes out to about 1900 because of the days i didn't move. So before blaming SNI of failing to inform you of anything maybe you should look at what you were doing to screw yourself up. Too late for you now but for other SNI drivers that find themselves at this crossroads.

1. MAC18 - It sucks, but if you want to make money, LEARN IT, LOVE IT, USE IT EXCESSIVELY!!!!

2. Opt out of per diem unless you really do thing you need or want better weekly take home pay instead of better W-2 Earnings. It is a win - win - win situation for SNI as they are paying you 2 cents less a mile, they don't have to pay as much income tax, social security, or anything else on you. And they can pay you less when you go on vacation since your w-2 earnings are less. The decreased w-2 earnings are also bad in the event you try to get a line of credit as financial institutions don't consider perdiem as gross income. I dont recommend you let them put you on it as a. you can claim it yourself at the end of the year, b. even if you hafta pay a accountant tons of money because your to lazy to organize stuff and don;t understand taxes and you end up making less money after paying them, it will return to you if you need a loan, and when you retire.

3. If the above doesn't work then talk to your chain of command before you quit, SNI doesnt want to loose drivers (especially nice cheap phase 1 or 2 drivers) and they will try to fix the problem.


Oh and the babysitting thing i beileve i said something about being satellite tracked worse than a CIA target in the original message.

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I drive a triple digit Schneider truck, Thats right folks triple digit, she goes 63.5!!!

--DW--

Some of my hopes in my new career were:

1. Finding a company that has a decent home time policy (3 wks or less)

Got it, You can get home every 2 weeks.

2. Finding a company that has a pet policy ( It's here dog, but I love the lil s*_t.

No Can Do unless you wanna buy your own truck and run as an independant contractor.

3. Finding a company that would maintain the relationship with allowing my hard work and dedication to pay off with a decent 1st year paycheck!

Halfway through the year and already made 17k, and even though i had a bit of experience before it didn't help me any here, i still started from the bottom. 34k first year for someone completely new to a career field that the company trains and hands it all to you on a silver platter i would call a pretty decent paycheck.

4. Finding a company with APU's installed.

Nope, and this in itself will get me to leave SNI in the end, but there are very few large compnaies with them installed.

5. Finding a company that I would consider a long term career as apposed to getting my year or two and moving on to the next level.

Well if you wanna roast every summer or idle away and loose money / argue with the boss and your happy with topping out in the low 50k pay range every year, then SNI is for you.

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I drive a triple digit Schneider truck, Thats right folks triple digit, she goes 63.5!!!

--DW--

My brother drives for sni and claims most of the new trucks are getting APU's. They claim all trucks will end up with them.

He also said that in very cold and very warm times you can call and get a waiver for idleing. So it wont bother your bonus.

Some of the new trucks got APU's for testing purposes and after analyzing cost to profit ration (and no considering what the drivers want) they decided against them at least for now. They also tested and decided to use Webasto Blue cool Fleet wide, but after starting to implement the system found out it wasn't what it was cracked up to be and are now scratching that system leaving us at the start again with still no a/c without idle. They are now testing a 12 volt system powered by sealed glass mat batteries similar to the ones used in aircraft. At least this is what my knowledge of their efforts are, and I'm fairly certain I'm at least decently close to correct as I speak with the Dallas Team Operation Manager all of the time harassing him about it. I would like to see it fixed as it is the reason i will ultimately decide to leave SNI.

As far as the idle exceptions, they eliminated the one for the heat (over 90 degrees) about 2 years ago, and the one for the cold is set at 10 degrees unless maintenance or load directed. Anywhere below 30 the batteries in our older trucks (and from what i hear many of the new ones) have a hard time maintaining adequate power to keep the auxiliary heater on for a 10 hour break, much less a restart. In order to bring the battery back you need to idle for about 2 hours. If you have the aux heater in your truck your idle standard is 5% for bonus. if you run 10 hour days, 5% is appx 1/2 of an hour of idle. 1/2 does not equal 2, therefore unless you are a climate tolerant person it is difficult to achieve bonus standards. I would suspect that your brother either has a truck with great batteries, one of the test units with an APU, or he just doesn't get a bonus.

While I will defend SNI against false or driver performance related bad claims to this thread, I will not even attempt to sugar coat them. Like the title says, this is the no BS view of SNI from my truck. It is meant to help people looking into this company get an accurate picture of what they are getting into so they can decide if it will work for them before they hire on instead of after they are here. A job hop in this industry can cost a driver up to 5k in lost earnings / expenses, so I my intent is to help save someone out there the unnecessary job change and expense. There are people that have it worse here and people who have it better than I do, but some things remain pretty much universal company wide.

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I drive a triple digit Schneider truck, Thats right folks triple digit, she goes 63.5!!!

--DW--