Schneider National Carriers - Green Bay, Wi.

After reading these posts about alcohol during...

 

Look were this person is from maybey different rules for different area's?
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...riers-green-bay-wi-post551267.html#post551267

 

Portland driver" Maybe working for your company soon out of Portland, would like to talk ASAP. THANKS

 

Sorry to inform you Jon died a couple years back of a massive heart attack.Jon is greatly missed.

 

Thanks for setting the record straight Turbo Trucker! I worked for 2 years at Schneider but I left because my STL was promoted (great guy!) and received another STL (not great!) and I left because of him. I think Schneider trains drivers better and with safety in mind.

 

TT - Appreciate your view and others' opinions on trucking in general, especially all the analysis on Schneider. I have read many many posts across the board on most of the major carriers and must say that from what I have read, Schneider and Stevens seem to be good companies. I was laid off from the corporate world after 36 years of employment and now have to make a decision on what I need to do for wrapping up my career. I have always had an interest in trucking and understand how hard it can be. My brother drove for many years hauling steel back in the 70's and 80's and I had a neighbor in Michigan who also drove many years OTR. Both did alright, but it was a tough job. It's interesting reading many of the comments, but I would agree that there are many people who are not giving some of the companies benefit of the doubt since there are two sides to each situation.

I also had many times I wanted to walk away from my job, and in the past several years, it got worst since the company I worked for was not doing good and eventually declared bankruptcy. I along with many people worked 65+ hours a week to keep the business running despite what the C-levels were doing to make significant changes trying to stay afloat. I had many 16-18 week days and long weekends trying to stay caught up on my work activities. I see the same frustrations in the trucking industry, but from what I have read, and the truckers I have talked to, one can make a decent living, but must also sacrifice time and learn to compromise. It all comes down to communication and each side giving a little to make it work. The corporate world today is just as rough and is running very lean because of all the outsourcing overseas and companies cutting costs. It's all about making revenue to stay afloat. That is all most leaders/managers/boss's ask is for you to do your best and let's keep each's back covered. Might seem like alot at times, and the conditions might not be the best, but it always works itself out.

What attracts me to trucking is being your own boss while on the road, enjoying the view, meeting people, and doing your best. I did have an opportunity to drive a 48' lowboy with an old 65' Ford Tractor, the old two stick (no splitters for hi/low back then), back in the 70's for a telephone company, hauling huge cable reels. Also had 13 years on a volunteer fire dept., biggest truck I drove for them was a 40' Sutphen, 100' Aerial Platform truck for a volunteer Fire Dept., 62K gross weight. Not big compared to the rigs on the road, but gave you experience driving lights and siren with that much truck under you, especially when your adrenalin is pumping. You learn real quick how to that rig. Anyway, I'll keep reading and checking out the situations out there and see if there's a good fit. I live 12 miles from a Swift terminal in KS, but not sure what to expect from them based on many posts I have read. I appreciate the different aspects of trucking opinions out there. Be safe everyone.

 

DialTone - hate to break the news to you, but the days of a truck driver being his own boss, at least if he is a company driver, are long gone.
They will tell you how fast you can drive, what roads you are allowed to drive, what route you must take, where to get your fuel, how much fuel you may get, what time you have to get up in the morning, what time you may go to sleep at night, how much you may idle your truck in order to try and stay comfortable in "your" truck;
they will make you account for your activities and locations 24/7, they will track you with on board computers/GPS, they will analyse your driving skills and critique you for over speed (not speeding, mind you, but going over the company mandated limits), you will have to take care of thier equipment, you will be responsible when their mechanics fail to make a repair and you get a DOT citation or OOS order, they will tell you that you may not snore, they will tell you that you may not use mouthwash (alcohol), they may tell you to wear a company uniform, they may tell you to cover up tatoos. Other drivers will rat on you for not properly securing a trailer, for having an unauthorized passenger, for passing them when they are going too slow. You will be told you will be paid for 6% less than what your are driving (unless they pay practical miles) you will only be offered a $60 reimbursement for losing a days work because they or the shop can't keep you rolling. They will tell you when you can go home and they will tell you when to park your truck and do nothing. They will take away your benefits, they will freeze your pay, they will quit paying you holiday pay and they will shortchange you on your earned time off and earned vacation.
Be your own boss? Hardly.

 

It's sad but so true. YOU HIT IT RIGHT ON THE HEAD !!! 100% true. I couldn't have put it better.

 

This thread is almost as miserable as the Werner thread. I did get some good information though from the usual suspects who seem to moderate this forum with decency.

Schneider has the best training program. If I can suck it up and keep my mouth shut and not drink wine in my hotel room, I can get the best retraining.

Yes I remember in previous application attempts that I volunteered too much information. I admitted to having a mishap that even Swift could care less about over 13 years prior and got a lecture from some well meaning staffer on how I should of prevented an act of god. She of course admitted to never have driven a truck and had no true perspective on the issue. She was just doing her job in weeding me out. I negotiated with the safety department to drop the issue after it was 15 years old (now 18 years ago. I got a feeling that the promise will not be honored when the database pulls up my old application. Nothing ventured; nothing gained I guess.

Ok it seems that the pay is low and the miles are low too. I want their training so I will keep my mouth shut and smile. I do notice that I made more per mile back in 1996 than the quoted cpm for posters in 2006-2007. Amazing isn't it? Same thing happened to me at Microsoft. One year I am making $27 an hour and then a few years later I am making $20 and I had the same boss and co-workers. Good thing trucking can't be outsourced to India.

So here I am rolling the dice and applying online at the public library. Will give it a week and then do a polite follow-up call. Hopefully they will be as nice as the recruiters at US Xpress (who could not bring me in due to the fact that my schooling and otr experience was too far in the past).

 

Turbo et al:
Ok I did the unthinkable and after leaving three messages drove by the terminal and asked if I could see the nice lady recruiter who sent me an email to contact her. This place in Fontana was fortified with enough security to offend a p.o.w. camp commander. I kindly explained to the security staff my intentions and was let in.

Once inside I had to wait an hour to visit with the lady recruiter who does not normally accept unqualified visits (some of you know the old America where persistence pays off). I knew it would be a risky move but I need to get into
an in house training program fast before my Charlie Sheen money runs out. It
could of been a good thing; it could of been a bad thing. At the front desk I was
treated graciously and told to wait at a table where I read half of Transport Topics.

Lady recruiter introduced herself and walked me to a conference room and offered me to sit. She said "I normally like a call first before meeting someone" and I politely (this is important...I was polite) said I left three messages plus responded to her email (it of course bounced as I just noticed but I can deduce her alias for my thank you note easily enough). I explained to her I was anxious to get in a training program since my money was drying up, my trucking school experience was getting old, my trucking experience was over the horizon, and I heard Schneider had the best training program (Turbo and friends).

Lady recruiter was very uncomfortable with me (I could speculate why but what is the use?) and proceeded to interview me like some staff lawyer at Microsoft EEOC
with no trial or deposition experience (meaning she was not good at it while pretending desperately to have control over the conversation). She probed my
driving history and tried to find errors in my declaration of 5 years experience (albeit old by all industry standards). When she dismissed my experience I asked that she consider me green and put me through the training. She said that Schneider only takes graduates of trucking schools but suggested I go to a driver refresher course. She mentioned 20 hours and I said "great I will got get 20 hours at an approved school next week and come back" When I asked what school she recommended she continued her lawyering and said she could not recommend any. I said "just name three of the top of your head and I will throw my money down tomorrow" and she said she could not. So I named three for her and she proceeded to lawyer uselessly. Despite this gatekeeper mentality and her suspiciousness (of whatever) I said I will contact you as soon as I have completed refresher course. I was amicable the whole time for all the right reasons and I was happy to be making some progress in getting a trucking gig.

As we rose to conclude the conversation, she said "oh by the way you should know we take hair folicle tests for drugs so you might want to consider that".
(It is true that my fine Mexican girlfriend cuts my hair very short as I am balding
and like the Mr. Clean look both in the world and the kung ## arena). However this
sounds like a rather expensive test to perform and not justified in my opinion when the DOT for years has legally defended against all cases the traditional urine
spectral analysis test. You all know what I am talking about.

She did not shake my hand as she said that she had a cold. Then she asked my for my last name suspiciously again. Well whatever? maybe my starbucks is making me think things that are not there and my short hair is "reasonable suspicion" of being a coffee drinker.

I must say this left me with a bad impression. I know Turbo has gone out of his way to assure people that Schneider is a good place to start. I acted on his posts.
There is no reason for me to declare Schneider dysfunctional because one person (me or recruiter) was acting weird?. Folks we are in a recession. Recruiters need to not be suspicious that an articulate person from a different background who might want to drive truck (again). However for me it was a warning sign that maybe there is still some issues in recruiting but maybe it is just isolated to one in a million interactions between a slacker from the beach and a suspicious recruiter in fontana.

Ok .... comments welcome (ad hominem too)

Pablo