Hi all,
got a message on the Qualcomm today to call in for a recorded message from Wayne Lubner. Yesterday, we had a conference call which was live...about 100 people were on that particular call which was pretty cool. Ltos of questions and answers and someone asked about us being slowe down and their answer was that a special message ws coming out soon regarding that.

Well today, I got the QC message, called in and got the scoop:

Schneider is turning down its entire fleet of company owned solo operator trucks from 63 to 60. They will still be governeed at 63 (which didnt make sense). This will take effect July 1st...so the trucks that will go in for PMs will be hooked up and slowed down. They figure this will save them between 7-15 million each year.

Im pretty sure that this is only the beginning and soon other companies will start following suit.

One thing I heard yesterday which was interesting was their views on APUs. Someone asked about them because of the cooling issue in the summer and the reply was that the APUs with motors...are engines and are subject to the same idling laws that many states are now putting into place. They are getting close to buying a new product to install in their new tractors...when they get them, although they didn't mention any new purchases.

Schneider is not totally correct about the APU's.

California is the only state that I am aware of that specifically mentions APU's. All of the other states seem to accept them.

It is probably because they do not want to spend the money.

This will be what finally makes me move on from SNI, it's simply not safe to go that slow (IMHO) and the teams won't get slowed down, so why should we?

Anyway, the official word that I got last August (driver Business Update Meeting) on the APU situation was that they weren't "cost effective."

• They cost a lot of money to purchase and install
• Maintenance is expensive, and service points are few and far between

They did say they were leaning heavily towards a battery based system (night-something system) which would be similar to the webasto's we have now.

The fatal flaw in this plan is that they again will only put them on new trucks entering the fleet (once they finally decide to buy them that is) and not the old ones they already have. So a lot of drivers will still be suffering with rediculous idle policies for years to come.

SNI needs to either take a more proactive approach to it, or pay for idle-aire. No way am I going to shut the truck off in laredo during the summer. That's suicidal!

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I agree, I was thinking about this yesterday while doing my run and it is silly. They keep talking about the bottom line...cost cost cost. Well ya know...sometimes the drivers are worth taking a bit of a loss or maybe not getting x amount for the tractor when you trade it in. They said the cost would be prohibitive in installing the new APUs...forgot the name they were leaning towards...hadn't heard of it before. But I don't think th ey are terribly expensive and Im sure if they buy a ton of them, they can work it out with the manufacturer to get them at a discounted rate. I mean, its driver comfort for petes sake. I listen to Dave Nemo and they have someone on there from a trucking company...can't remember which one it is...but they have this trange philosophy...treat the drivers the same as the owners...as everyone else. Fly them to training, rent them a car...they feel if you treat your drivers with a bit of respect...

They did mention something about idle air on a conference call they had this week...a driver asked a question about it...forgot their reply.

Seriously...go grab Wayne Lubner and make him park and not idle in Las Vegas in mid July for a week or 4 and see how he likes it.

They keep lowering the speed joggers will be passing them.

They want to save money and get a bigger bonus.APUs and Idleair cost money.You as the employee should be glad to suffer a lttle for this.Dont you feel sorry for them having to sit in an air conditioned office all day going home at night.

I was wondering, if everyone is slowing down that is going to cut into the money you make as you can't travel as far.

Well I don't know. Im hearing things on both side of the fence in regards to this. Sure, if you drive 11 hours a day at max speed, then you will lose miles. However, with everything that is involved in the trucking world...the average speed for truckers is 50 or 55 anyways so I don't think its going to be that big of a difference, if at all.

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Assuming that is true (sounds about right to me), if they slow your truck from say, 65 to 60, now you will average 45-50 instead of 50-55. The only way to make the same amount of money as before is to make that up. You just lost your 45 min lunch break. Now you must pee in a bottle while driving rather than stop at the rest area. Did you used to do a quick work out or anything before taking off driving for the day? Not any more...now you get to eat potato chips for lunch while driving and get fat and ruin what's left of your health so you can still pay your bills.

They have either just given you a pay cut, or just robbed you of any little free time you had through a typical day...which = a pay cut. And don't even get me started on the never ending issue of forever being dispatched on loads that are like 2 minutes from being late if you maintain max speed from load time to delivery in the first place. Now, they are late before you load them and of course it will still be the driver's fault as usual.

Where to start, where to start.

If you are a Schneider driver at 63 or 65, and get slowed down, that means that you will be slowed down. It doesnt have to mean that your average will go down. The average that I mentioned is across the board, not just Schneider.

Its really almost impossible to prove factually how their slowing the trucks down will cost the drivers more money. Sure, we get the blanket 'you will drive less each day...etc" arguments, but that doesnt hold water. It all depends on the miles you get to drive. You could maybe have been waiting more before, and now wait less...that would give you more miles....or vice versa. we all know that one week we can get a ton of miles and the next, next to nothing.

The only way the argument of slowing down causes less miles is only true if every single constant stays the same, which is impossible.

As far as health, the vast majority of truckers out there (myself included) are overweight. Limited access to hospitals or clinics, and Id bet a small number actually regularly get checkups with a doc...EVEN WITH the truckstop clinics like PDMD. I have yet to see any truck driver physically working out, outside of their truck or inside.

and a 45 minute lunch break? Dear lord, are you going to El Chateaus Bordeau of Le fancypants for your meals?


If only Schneider asked you via Qualcomm what time you plan on having available when you drop off the current load you are hauling. This would allow them to find you a load that worked with your remaining hours.

er wait...

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