Newbie starting with Schneider

Hi everyone, my name is Nathan and I am starting with Schneider bulk here in Houston. Just like most of the others on here that have started with Schneider, I started doing my research on which companies were some of the better ones to start with and I also wanted to find one that would help take care of getting my CDL. The general consensus that I found was that Schneider was one of the better companies to start out with and learn from so I chose to apply with them and got accepted to start going to school at Houston Community College through their program. I have since finished school and completed orientation, I finished with my TE on Friday and am now starting my SQT tomorrow.

So far everything I have experienced has been good, however, my TE was a local driver so I don't have any OTR experience yet but that shouldn't be a problem. I am definitely used to being away from home, I served 11 years in the Air Force, 4 of which I was stationed in Japan. I am looking forward to getting on the road in the next couple of weeks and ready to gain the experiences that I have read from a lot of the other drivers here. I'll update as I go from here.

 

Yeah, we did 2 or 3 unloads, but it was only with air, we did not do any with the pump. But that is fine, from what other drivers have been saying, we really don't do that many loads or unloads ourselves, it is mostly done by the customers. To the point of a lot of drivers are lost when it comes to actually doing a pump unload.

I passed my road test today and we went over trip planning, tomorrow we will be unloading with pump and air (just water) than Wednesday we are going to go over some troubleshooting and other stuff like that that hasn't been touched on yet. After I'm done with these next few days I'll be assigned my truck.

 

Finished my SQT today, and got my truck assigned, is a 2012 Columbia, it's not ready yet, I guess they have to service it. They don't have a time for me to get it outfitted and drive it with an OSR until Tuesday. I was hoping to get a Cascadia, but I'll just have to deal with the Columbia for a while unless I find something wrong with it that is not safe they may let me trade it for something else. Looking forward to getting my first load and hitting the road.

 

Yeah, I already have some experience with this truck, we mostly drove a couple of different 2010 Columbias in the school that I went to for my CDL. I'm tempted to go up there either tomorrow or Friday and just take the truck for a drive around the yard to see how it shifts and everything. I also thought about it a little while ago, the Columbia doesn't have OnGuard or any of that crap.