Doubts between Schneider and Stevens

I've made money hauling reefer than I ever did hauling a dry van.

 

Starting with training - yes Schneider is 2 weeks at an OC and 1 week on the road with a trainer. During that week you'll be expected to do 80% of everything - driving, backing, inspections, coupling, scaling, customer interactions, Workflow, trip planning. Whenever you're driving, the Trainer will be in the right hand seat. If you're backing, the Trainer will be outside watching and coaching. As long as you apply yourself you'll be as ready as you ever will to go out on your own.

Stevens is 1 week at an OC and then 5 weeks of teaming. You're not going to get much instruction, when all is said and done you'll get the same amount of actual training as at Schneider, with 3 weeks less of being on training pay.

Stevens advertises first year drivers earn "up to" $70,000. Schneider new drivers "average" $62,000. At first glance, that seems like Schneider pays less until you focus on the difference between "up to" and "average". $70K is the most you'll possibly make at Stevens. If new Schneider drivers are averaging $62k then there are a significant number who earn much more. Odds are pay will be a wash overall.

You need to look at more than the base rate. You need to ask about accessory pay - bonus, stop off, short haul, etc. At Schneider you'll have the 39 cpm base, plus up to 4 cpm bonus pay, a 2% annual bonus, and $10 an hour for all time logged on line 4 - rough math is it 'adds' 2.5 cpm to the linehaul. You also need to ask about average miles. Getting paid $1 a mile doesn't mean much if you're only getting 500 miles a week.

Your next criteria is how far you live from an authorized park location AND the closest terminal. That is going to tell you how easy it will be to get home and the likely volume of freight in the area.

Either way you won't go wrong. Each company has it good and bad things. If after you weigh everything it looks like a tie - flip a coin. If after the first throw you're tempted to say "best 2 out of three", go with the loser because that's what your subconscious wants and you'll be happier.

 

Same here and that's why I dumped dry van at the beginning of my career and went with reefers. I love the reefer life and the paychecks.

 

On the other hand, Snackbar is making less than 90% of what I did when I was with Schneider. I'll grant you the possibility of making more is there, but it's dependent on the driver, the manager, and the company.

 

Yeah, but F a bunch of 2am live unloads where people treat you like garbage 100% of the time. You can keep it.

 

I can deal with all that. I keep my eye on the goal, which is the paycheck.
I know how to tune them out and just look at them as pathetic little humans.

 

I guess a local guy would know where that is.

there's only 1 valley in Texas?

 

I looked it up on the internet.

 

You’re throwing a blanket over the whole industry segment, when it’s not all like that.

In 2-1/2yrs pulling reefer, I only had a few overnight deliveries and cruddy people. By contrast, in my current dry van position, I’ve had way more overnight deliveries and cruddy people, in the same amount of time. Union shops have been the worst of both, because they’re miserable, they do their best to make everyone else miserable. And, they’re the only ones who’ve openly damaged multiple trailers I’ve pulled and shrugged it off, with a “What are you going to do about it?” attitude. I’ve never had a trailer damaged, in any other segment.