Schneider Oil Field Truck Driver Jobs/ The Texas shales and beyond

kdc1899 · Jun 26, 2012

Rockdoctor said: ↑

Let's address the statements made by some by presenting real FACTS and not just opinions...

FACT: The crude hauling account in Victoria is not made up of many CDL graduates as some here lead you to believe. A good majority of the drivers have OTR experience. My boss was an O/O before he came to this job for almost a decade. My trainer in Victoria was OTR for 8 years. I've met drivers on this account with up to 27 years OTR experience and 17 years with a tanker. The people I have met on this account have done it all- tanker, reefer, farm, heavy equipment, van here in the USA and overseas in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. If you read some of the nonsense posted here you would believe we all just popped out of our diapers and started hauling crude oil. It just isn't so!

FACT: As a driver with no OTR experience I'm one of the few exceptions here in Victoria on this crude hauling account. However I have made up for that with lots of preparation and training. I attended a PTDI accredited CDL school where I spent 170 hours training under professional drivers with up to 5 million miles under their belt. These men didn't teach for the money, they did it to give back to an industry they loved and prepare a new generation of truckers. I drove some of the steepest parts of I-40 in the eastern USA in the rain, snow, and dark of night before I was allowed to move forward, take and pass the NC state CDL exams. From there Schneider took me under their wing and sent me to their Dallas OC where I was trained for 7 days straight by tanker drivers, sometimes up to 12 hours a day in the classroom and on the road in the busiest areas of Dallas. From there I was sent to their Houston OC for 2 days where I received training on handling the product and more safety instruction. I then went to Victoria and I was trained for 8 days with a driver who basically ran shotgun and molded me into what the job requires of me. From there I had to pass a road skills test and product handling test with a safety officer before I was set loose on my own. For the first three months on the account I am tested each month by the same safety officer on driving and product handling. If I do not pass then I will be sent back to Dallas or Houston for more training. There is also a "tattletale box" in my rig. If I take a curve too fast or if I hit my brakes too hard it will send a message to my manager's laptop. If I get more than 3 of these in a month I will be sent in for more training. If I develop a pattern of taking curves too fast or braking too hard I will be put on what Schneider calls a "commitment to excellence". Basically if I make one more driving error during this time I will immediately be terminated. Did I mention I have been drug tested 3 times (once by hair follicle), given a Breathalyzer once, and followed around and monitored by a manager from their personal automobile?

So let me ask you, does Schneider REALLY sound like a company who simply runs out and hires a bunch of drivers with no knowledge or experience so they can drive down wages? I've heard plenty of complaints about people coming out of CDL school and running off to ND to get a job with some mom and pop who could care less if they are properly trained, yet somehow Schneider is being lumped in with those operators.

If Schneider is so bad I wonder how they managed to attract over 160 current drivers onto this one account in Victoria? If Schneider's wages suck so bad then I wonder why so many OTR drivers with a decade or more experience chose to come here to this account? If Schneider has been so irresponsible then where are all the facts and statistics to prove it??? This account has been running for over a year, there are a minimum of 100 loads of crude moved in a day, and yet no rollovers, no major accidents. How can this be???

The agenda I see being spun here on this thread by some is that Schneider is driving down wages. Under the guise of "safety" and looking out for the "better good" of the motoring public, we are told that Schneider has no business hiring drivers to haul crude oil unless they hauled a load of apples up a dirt path for a decade and followed that up with tanking a load of milk across the USA for another generation. Schneider is being portrayed as bad for hiring drivers and the drivers are being labeled as fools for taking a job. Well the last time I checked this is a free country and we were capitalists and not communists. If people (drivers) feel they are not being paid enough they will find better opportunities. If Schneider hires a bunch of idiots then ultimately a big mistake will occur and Schneider will lose their account and be sued. Until that occurs all parties deserve the benefit of the doubt and to be treated with more respect!
Click to expand...

Great post. Thanks for taking the time to share the info. There's some info I asked about earlier and y'all seemed to work around answering. You seem real confident in what schnider is doing and have presented well in defense. Thanks again.
So, the question (again) is; What oil company's crude is schnieder haulin 100 loads per day for?

Please, Sir, just give me a straight honest answer as to what company's crude is schnider haulin 100 loads per day for?
Thanks in advance.

MattMichigan · Jun 26, 2012

Every swinging dick with a CDL is wanting to work in the oilfield because it has historically paid more than any other trucking job. The problem oilfield drivers have with SNI, Stevens, FFE, etc.... putting trucks out here in the patch is they WILL drive down our pay. The larger corporations are ONLY paying their drivers $60,000 instead of the more favorable $80,000+. They bid their contracts WAY below the current market and make it up by volume and short changing the drivers. Schneider is the Wal-Mart of the trucking industry.

Bikerdave · Jun 26, 2012

Walmart= Huge corporation. I Shop there!
Schneider= Huge corporation. I work there!
I save more at Wamart and make more at Schneider = I'm happy!!!! Are you?

MattMichigan · Jun 26, 2012

LoL! I'm a happy driver. I'm confused by the you make more at Schneider statement?!? Are you saying you make more than I do or you make more than you were at your previous job??

Bikerdave · Jun 26, 2012

MattMichigan said: ↑

LoL! I'm a happy driver. I'm confused by the you make more at Schneider statement?!? Are you saying you make more than I do or you make more than you were at your previous job??
Click to expand...

Sorry for the confusion. They guarantee me double for the same or less hours than my previous job. And I'm home everynight. Im getting better perks and bennies than my other job also. But then agin ask me again in 6 months LOL

MattMichigan · Jun 26, 2012

That does sound like a good deal. I'm curious about whether you are shaking out the oil? I read somewhere on here previously that SNI only loads from LACT units. Do you have to thief, gauge, and sample the oil out there??

Rockdoctor · Jun 27, 2012

kdc1899 said: ↑

Great post. Thanks for taking the time to share the info. There's some info I asked about earlier and y'all seemed to work around answering. You seem real confident in what schnider is doing and have presented well in defense. Thanks again.
So, the question (again) is; What oil company's crude is schnieder haulin 100 loads per day for?

Please, Sir, just give me a straight honest answer as to what company's crude is schnider haulin 100 loads per day for?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Sorry KDC1899, I thought I covered it throughly in my first post on this thread then in another response to you I told you to read the first post for your answer. I'm not trying to hide the info, the account for Victoria is GeoSouthern and the accounts in Corpus Christi and San Antonio are BP accounts. It appears that the BP accounts are growing so fast they are stealing some of the new equipment that was meant for the Victoria account.

By the way, when all this crude started moving by tanker through these small towns like Cuero on its way to the ports, Schneider sent out a business leader to help make sure the local authorities in these small towns had the proper training and knowledge on what to do in case of a spill. The people at GeoSouthern are very pleased with Schneider's work and interaction with these small communities and the local authorities have been thankful and even contact Schneider first if they have questions about training for tanker emergencies.

Rockdoctor · Jun 27, 2012

MattMichigan said: ↑

Every swinging dick with a CDL is wanting to work in the oilfield because it has historically paid more than any other trucking job. The problem oilfield drivers have with SNI, Stevens, FFE, etc.... putting trucks out here in the patch is they WILL drive down our pay. The larger corporations are ONLY paying their drivers $60,000 instead of the more favorable $80,000+. They bid their contracts WAY below the current market and make it up by volume and short changing the drivers. Schneider is the Wal-Mart of the trucking industry.
Click to expand...

I have heard of O/O running up to ND after watching the world news and cutting each other's throats (rates) to get a slice of the pie. It is also documented on a thread on this site. As I said before, big industry always gets the blame yet we all shop at big industry (Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc) and make purchases from big industry (GM, Ford, Exxon, etc) yet when our PERSONAL jobs are on the line, we scream "save me from big industry". And that's the hypocrisy of your argument so I am fine working for big industry.

PS: My father spent his whole life working for big industry in a nonunion position at Georgia-Pacific and it provided a great lifestyle for our family.

Rockdoctor · Jun 27, 2012

MattMichigan said: ↑

That does sound like a good deal. I'm curious about whether you are shaking out the oil? I read somewhere on here previously that SNI only loads from LACT units. Do you have to thief, gauge, and sample the oil out there??
Click to expand...

The Victoria account loads from LACTS, the Corpus Christi and San Antonio accounts do all the measuring, sampling, etc. At first each driver was doing their own load but since all the drivers run to the same spot they hired a guy who stays at the site and does that work for the drivers.

AllieCat · Jun 29, 2012

Well....got word from the recruiter yesterday....I waited too long to decide about going to Victoria. Schneider has locked out all newbies for oil field tanker. They are only accepting tanker drivers with experience now. Newbies can drive OTR Tanker but you'd have to relocate to Houston or Beaumont.

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