Picking my own freight baby! My journey to & of being on Schneider choice, the Adventure & Numbers!

I agree with a lot of what Dougal said. I'm not jumping on the "lets bash someone" bandwagon, I just chime in from time to time on this thread and post my own thoughts and experiences as I've always done.

My thoughts:

SNI does short us on the fuel discount. You know that we aren't receiving the "full" discount. Just look at the discounts that some other carriers get. We don't get the full discount that SNI is getting, plain and simple.

SNI _wants_ to make it difficult to string together the good paying loads so that we are inclined to take some of the crappier loads. Loads show up on the board at random times. They sit in the "appointment not completed" time for days and then show up, with absolutely nothing changed, on the board as ready to be booked randomly. Try running good paying loads from point a to point b and back. Eventually loads from one of those points will disappear or booking them will be near impossible. It's simple, they want to make drivers pull the cheap freight sometimes because it makes up for some of those nice good paying longer runs they entice us with sometimes. Look at why some loads book 3 days in advance and why others book the night before.

Of course running the Northeast looks good on paper but remember the $2/mile that we're making running those short, high dollar loads, SNI is probably making at least double that.

Is there money to be made? Absolutely. Am I still here? Yeah. Will I make a change at some point? Yeah.

This is the hilarious thing that I've noticed. The friggin attitudes that come along with some of these drivers that believe they are the elite of the elite rolling around in their black Cascadia or their T680. Won't give me the time of day. Ever since I bought my own truck and leased it back on to SNI I have noticed that I hardly ever receive a wave from the lease guys. It's like "Dude you're not part of the club any more. You're stealing our loads. Go work somewhere else". Instead I get waves from the other o/o that pull for SNI, usually because they're going slow enough that I have time to actually throw up a wave instead of getting passed at 80 MPH, only to slow down after passing me, in their show of extreme power (13 liters of fury) and dominance that they feel a need to exert. I'm not bashing anyone. It's just my honest experience. I've been on both sides, leasing and owning.

Regarding FW's #s. Looks like you've been doing good and you're happy with what you're bringing home and the job and that's great. The thing I will ask though is could you be doing that good if you had put double that mileage on the truck? You've taken a LOT of time off. It's a tradeoff... run low miles for high pay or sacrifice your pay to run longer miles. That's how SNI wants it it work.

I'm no long time choice veteran, but I have been on here a while longer than many of the drivers participating on this forum and I can honestly say that in the time I have been here I have noticed a huge influx of new drivers on the board, but not the same influx of freight. Back when I started it was... stupid easy. My very first full week I think I grossed around $4,500 running down SOUTH. Now it takes a lot more camping on the load board and running freight into the crappy areas to do the same.

Obviously I know freight patterns change and you have to adjust, but I will still argue that the amount of new freight we're getting just isn't keeping up and it surely isn't what it once was.

Schneider is probably testing to see how many drivers they can get on the program and how low they can push the rates until people start saying "no thanks". I mean they're a company, obviously they want to grow and expand and make more money. But, they may lose drivers like me since nobody has any say at all over what I do with my truck other than me.

Anyway... I'm still here for the time being. Probably will be here throughout the end of the year. Will be interesting to see what it holds.

I'd love to hear the thoughts from some of our resident long-time choice members such as Dipschitt, Ricky Bobby and Atruckr.

 

FSC from Prime's driver POV.

 

Seems excessive to me..but the dealer is always high.
Did you get your overhead done at 50K?

Remember if you have a T680..when getting your oil changed it's supposed to be 10w30 semi-synthetic.
Recommended oil for paccar MX-13..plus there's a ton of add on charges due to the twin filter set up.
Hell 1st time I went to the dealer they put the wrong oil in..I mean Jesus it's says 10W30 right on the frame under the fill cap..Hello anyone home?

Does the 10W30 make a difference.
I think so..last winter I had no problems with hard starts due to the cold.
Oil pressure stays where it should..when I had the 15W40 I actually got a crankcase pressure code.
Went back to dealer and made them change it out and clear the code.

 

Diesel, it's basic economics-the law of marginal returns.

 

Wait until the economy crashes and see where the rates go then. Right now everything is going great. A couple years from now when the bubble bursts? I'm probably going to do a 3 year lease but still the uncertainty is still there. Wonder how many IC's are prepared for that moment?

 

Iwo

I would do a one year to see how it goes first. Yeah, I remember a room full of drivers waiting on loads a couple years back. If it slows everyone will be in trouble. The best business model is to own your own truck like Diesel.

 

Dude

man, dealer did the same thing to me, put in 15-40 instead of synthetic blend 10-30.

 

I agree..you have to WANT to make it work.
Most just like to play O/O..look at my shiny truck.

That and they actually think it will be easy..somedays it is..others not so much.