Schneider (edwardsville)

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by dragondriver2020, Feb 5, 2021.

  1. markealy

    markealy Road Train Member

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    It's time to change that law IAM SURE ATA OR OIDDA IS ON IT LOLOLOL
     
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  3. kemosabi49

    kemosabi49 Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Unfortunately, there are a lot of new driver that aren't worth paying $40,000 a year, much less $100,000. Many new drivers, led on by the so called "driver shortage" crap, think they're going to get a CDL and make top dollar right off the bat. Some do get lucky and get right into a great job. Some will never make the grade, so why should they make top money?
    The megas have no incentive to want to change the pay structure. In fact, their business plan is to train 'em, run 'em as long as they stay and start over with new ones. That's why they want to open Interstate trucking to 18-21 yr olds. A whole group of new meat in the seat. Being mostly self insured they can get away with it
     
  4. gentleroger

    gentleroger Road Train Member

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    There are a bunch of cases like the May Trucking one where trucking companies lost and there are several where they won, and more pending (most going nowhere).

    The question is, which hours count towards figuring out if the driver is over or under minimum wage? Schneider pays it's trainees $80 a day, which at minimum wage is 11 hours. When they're on the road with a trainer for the week, if they burn thru the 70 in 7 days (likely) it's about $8 an hour. If they burn thru the 70 in 6 days (entirely possible, especially if you are logging all instruction time on duty) it's just under $7 an hour. If I put my guy in the sleeper for a couple of hours as I hold the steering wheel going down I-80 so he's fresh to go into Chicago afternoon rush hour - do the hours in the sleeper count? How about once we bump a dock and go off duty - do those hours count? What about trip planning/'homework'? What happens when we "super 14"? What about when you're waiting for your next work assignment and you have 6 hours left to run, but after 3 hours you get assigned a load for the morning? Which of those hours count and which don't? Do sign on bonuses count? What about 'reimbursements' for company paid training? Do we count the hours worked per day, per pay period or weekly/monthly?

    It's a lot of splitting hairs and weaselly, post-modern deconstructionist flim flam. Give the accounts a bottle of tequila and the lawyers a bottle of jager and they can come up with whatever answer you're looking for. And from what I can see, a lot of the lawsuits that are successful are the ones where wage theft is included - i.e. being 'required' to use Comdata/EFS to be paid, then charging a fee to use Comdata/EFS, then having Comdata/EFS charge a fee to actually get your money - or when employees are miss-classified as ICs. At the end of the day, what is making trucking companies pay more than the minimum wage (particually to trainees) isn't the law, but market forces.

    When we took over the dedicated account I'm "helping out on" (for 18 months with no end in sight), top out pay was $200 a day. To be fair, when we started the account we were expecting 8 hour days, with the occasional 10, based on the bid data provided by the customer which was no where close to being realistic. For the first 2 months we were running 14 hour days. We got the customer to add more trucks and raised pay by $10 a day. The bean counters thought a 5% pay increase is pretty good, but the Division Manager didn't like my response of "you're 30% below market, so a 5% increase is nothing" (running mileage pay I average $34o a day). After 9 months, we're finally almost staffed up and I get told "we'd love to have you stay on the account, but you'd have to switch to the account's pay structure". I literally laughed (which didn't go over well), not just because the idea I'd take a 30% pay cut and still spend nights in the truck but because I knew several of the drivers we'd hired were looking for new gigs. They'd all passed the 6 month experience 'threshold', which opens a lot of doors. Three days after being told it was my last week on the account I was asked to stick around "a few more weeks". We hired a couple more 'experienced' drivers (don't get me started), a few rookies, and by mid January we were 'staffed up' again and they started releasing mileage guys. Then we lost a bunch of drivers - two were fired for "just how many times did your mama drop you on your head?" actions, 3 quit for better jobs, and 1 quit for a "better job" (dude is clueless, set up his last day as a Monday, which confused us until he complained about not getting his 90 day sign on bonus - Monday was day 89). After that we raised pay to $234 a day and are limiting day rate drivers to 10 hours straight time. The Division Manager didn't like my response of "you're almost at market rate, did you know the plant across the street is hiring drivers at $23 an hour plus overtime?"

    If they could get meat in the seat for less than minimum wage, they would.
     
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  5. markealy

    markealy Road Train Member

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    Payment you will keep drivers have a great benefits package and pay 100% of time worked...
     
  6. Frank Speak

    Frank Speak Road Train Member

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    None of this effects me so I don’t really care what they pay or don’t pay. But, the law is clear. Minimum wage must be paid. If an outfit tries to skirt that (and many do), then they do so at their potential peril (in court).

    But, forget about all that. You’ve brought up a MUCH more important topic and I’d like to address it.

    You mentioned tequila getting passed around. Well, that is one hell of a thing to do. Hold out tequila. Thus, I have to ask:

    What about me? I’m gonna some of that tequila too ain’t I? Don’t you hold out on me!
     
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  7. gentleroger

    gentleroger Road Train Member

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    I want to open interstate trucking to 18 year olds because I'm tired of dealing with people who were rejected from the Isle of Misfit Toys. Guys in their 50's who suffer from GAM Syndrome (Grown @** Man) - "I've been driving for 40 years, I know how to drive" from the guy who is sitting within 3 seconds of the car in front of him, who is within 2 seconds of the car in front, who is within 2 seconds of the truck who is within etc, etc, etc. "I'm a GAM, I know how to tell time" from the guy who can't tell the difference between Eastern and Central time zones. "I'm a GAM, don't tell me how to live", from the guy who a) didn't bring a pillow or blanket and b) took a cash advance, then blew it buying a Packer's hat from the Pro Shop at Lambeau. I could go on . . .

    Then you've got the guys in their 40's who "always wanted to be a truck driver" and decided that "now's the time because I lost the job I've been doing for the last twenty years". No, you decided to go trucking because you didn't see any other options.

    Or the guys in their 30's who were working low wage, high intensity jobs (flooring, roofing, etc) that they got right out of high school and whose bodies can't handle the abuse anymore so they try trucking. They can't count to 14 without taking off their shoes and socks, let alone use critical thinking.

    And the worst is the 21 year old who wants to be home nightly. They've bopped around between fast food, the used car auction lot, and seasonal pop up jobs. They think the best job they're ever had is at the Amazon warehouse because they just had to do what they computer told them - they only quit because working 2nd shift interfered with their social life. They live with their girlfriend, at their parent's house. They're on their parent's health insurance AND car insurance.

    Give me an 18 year old, let me train them up right. Not with a 240 hour course, but by having 1,000 miles of in town driving under their belt before being able to test for a cdl. Make the general knowledge test a short answer test instead of multiple guess. Make a driver show 30 days of logs before road testing. Eliminate the penalty for pull ups/goals on the backing test, but shrink the size of the hole to 120 inches and 60' in front of the hole and a 8 minute time limit. Require a separate road test for a tanker endorsement where the driver must use a PTO to off load; require a driver to fully set up and break down a set for a doubles/triples; require a flatbed endorsement where the driver has to actually secure various types of freight - bricks/boards, coils, suicide coils, etc. In short, make it so that when a guy shows up to orientation with a CDL in his pocket we don't have to send him home for skills issues.

    We talk a lot about how steering wheel holders and window lickers are ruining this industry but little about why they are the majority in the pipeline. There are a lot of solid guys who graduate from high school, get good jobs and make a life for themselves. Those are the guys we want, but we say "you're too young to be trusted to drive across state lines, come back in three years". I see little difference between Farmer Brown (a friend of mine) hiring an 18 year old to haul his corn from GB to Menominee, WI and Egan, MN. I see less difference between a logger hiring an 18 year old to driver from Menominee, MI to Menominee, WI. I can fly an 18 year old from Yonkers, NY out to the ND oil patch, put him in a 1 bedroom apartment with 4 other dudes and run him thru a quickee CDL 'school', then run him forever. I can have an 18 year old run double 53's from Dunkirk, NY to NYC, break down his set, deliver both trailers, then rehook the mt set and return to Dunkirk in one day, but I can't let him go to Newark?

    If the minimum age to get a CDL is 21, that's one thing. But you can get a CDL at 18, so why the prohibition from crossing state lines? Twenty years ago it made sense, as once a guy was on the road he was at the mercy of Dispatch and had no effective way of communicating home. That's no longer the case.

    I'd rather have 18 year olds with real training than 21 years olds that can fog a mirror.
     
  8. markealy

    markealy Road Train Member

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    We tell a 18 yr old to go kill the enemy but say you can't drive a semi truck
     
  9. gentleroger

    gentleroger Road Train Member

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    You need to get a CPA or and MBA first. Then you need to work for a company whose Executives compensation is dependent upon share price and quarterly earnings. Eventually you'll get called in on a dark and stormy night. If you're a CPA, there will be a bottle of tequila on the conference room table, the MBAs will get bourbon, the lawyers jager. You'll be told "find a way to make the numbers match what we need them to say", then the executives will walk out of the conference room and lock the door. Come morning, the bottles will be empty, corpses will litter the floor while a few bleary eyed survivors will present to the Executives a masterpiece of fiction that Dickens could only dream of writing. The Executives will take this fiction and buy a second yacht, while you will flit from Kentuckian to Kentuckian looking for a liver donor.
     
  10. mjd4277

    mjd4277 Road Train Member

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    LMAO!!!
    The perfect music for that scenario!!

     
  11. Frank Speak

    Frank Speak Road Train Member

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    Okay, new question! How would you categorize those baggie shorts, flip flop wearing yahoos with hair that looks like they just rolled out of bed, and smells like a 6 month old, used depends diaper clowns that are slowly but surely becoming the standard OTR driver?

    Me? I consider them a disgrace and an embarrassment to the industry. Frankly, I don't give a #### if you're the janitor for the local portable john supplier, have some pride. Look like the best #### janitor that's ever been. Hold your head high when you swirl that toilet brush!
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2021
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