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

wow are you being serious right now?
You're telling me I can get rejected at the boarder for that?
How do that do that in older trucks?
I never ever heard of such a thing then again I know nothing about Canada truck driving rules and laws.
Schneider never told me that when I just asked them about going into Canada.

 

wow there's a load from CA to FL (Jacksonville) for over $2
You get lucky with long loads sometimes but it's rare.

 

It pay well but nothing better than you can do in the Midwest or Northeast

 

I know Carlisle is not Boston or NYC hellpits.
Yeah supposedly PA is the Northeast but my own opinion of the "Northeast" is the point you reach where is all cheap rates to leave. For me that's anything east of Pittsburgh.
I usually can manage to go west from Pittsburgh at an okay rate but once I go east of Pittsburgh it's extremely difficult to leave not for cheap.
Since I've been here the worst "Northeast" place I've been to is North Bergen, NJ and the ONLY reason I went there was because there was a winter storm coming and I saw a load from there going to GA for more than $1.40 including my 100 mile deadhead.
I've yet to go into New England because it's never been worth it, too dang cheap coming out.
That's just me and my opinion from my time and experience here.

As far as Canada goes well I called Schneider today and they doubled checked and said yes IC Choices driver CAN go into Canada.
All I know is what they told me.. I wanted a definite answer already so that's why I called in and asked.
You all can call in too and see.. if you hear something different please let us know.

I'm just simply sharing my thoughts and feelings in this thread, that does not mean I'm right or think I know it all or that people have to agree with me. If anything there's a group of people here that never agree with a word I say. Just up until a couple days ago I didn't know there was a country drop down window on the load board lol and obviously I don't know anything about Canada. Remember I still don't even have 2 years driving experience. Sure I try to research and learn but there's always more and more to learn.
Please bare that in mind before dropping bombs on me lol.

As far as making things sounds "warm and fuzzy" maybe some didn't read through this thread.
I've blasted Schneider soo many times from endless old POS trailers, them screwing up my appointments, being slow to answer the phones (because Schneider is too cheap to hire enough people), to cheap rates out west to cheap detention pay.. posting wrong information on the load board.. customer service being clueless #######. We can go on and on here.
However what do we have to compare this to? Please tell us what program is far better?
"it's probably the best program out there"

This is how I feel...
I started out in 2013 driving
OTR .26 a mile and I would unload water heaters out of trailers by hand and mainly worked from Chicago area to the Northeast. Busting my behind I was lucky to earn $500-600 a full week
After 7 months experience I went to Shaffer pulling a reefer.. yeah I did well financially I guess for what it was.
I brought in $1150 to $1300 working a full 7 day week however that included pushing myself real hard.
I lived on energy drinks and sleep aid constantly to manipulate my sleep cycle to make my ever changing crazy reefer appointment times. That OTR job required you to stay out 21 days min to then get 4 days off max. My "home time" usually included 2 days of laying in bed sleeping while going through massive caffeine withdrawal. Day 3 was bills, mail, laundry and all that fun BS. Day 4 was preparing my stuff to get ready to head back out again and I treat myself to go out to eat. At day 4 I finally felt normal again and I knew that was all about to change once I went back to work the next day.
You know how much it sucks to wake up at 4am and then deliver at 5am and then you're next dispatch picks up at 10pm and you have to drive through the night to make your appointment? Then flip flop that crap soo often or at least semi often? It's terrible. I had no life and on my time off I felt soo terrible and beat I didn't want to do anything but lay around.
I know people will give me heat for that but it was either make it work or sit or change jobs which I eventually did.
My time off work was recovering time and then hurry up and catch up on chores.
Yeah saying this doesn't make me appear great but that was my life. I hope some will have respect for someone trying to be open. We all have to start out somewhere.
That was my life before I came here. Maybe some can benefit by hearing other people's truck driving journey which I hope it does. Yeah people bash me on this thread but I also get PMs from people simply thanking me for sharing which is why it's worth it. Many of you here including some of you blasting me went out of your ways to share and help me and others in the past.

So what are better options?
My opinion is company OTR drivers are paid crap and usually have to fight a desk jockey for miles.
You'd bust your butt for what? What's the difference fighting to pulling off an extra 300-500 miles in a week as a company driver? An extra $100-$200 over a 7 day week?
This is week I busted my butt and had my best week ever here, I don't know the specific numbers off the top of my head but I know for sure I averaged wayyy over $2 all miles and will clear over $4 grand this week after fixed and fuel costs. No I normally don't do that well... usually working a 7 day week here I'm between $2,500-$3,0000 after costs but that's working for money not working easy long loads in the middle of nowhere.
That might sound like a lot of money but I've taken a lot of time off and those flease payments don't stop when you take time off.
Yeah no job is perfect but I know for sure if I work hard I can earn wayyyyy more than being any company OTR driver lol that's for sure.
Plus I do what I want, when I want.. go where I want.. sleep when I tired not when I "have to". Have a normal sleep schedule most of the time. We've got drop lots and OCs all over the place which is wonderful for always knowing many places to park.
I don't have to fight a desk jockey for miles or to send me home anymore.
Lots of freight has open window appointments and lots of drop and hook.
Best of all being this is % I actually earn a lot more by doing more crap work which sucked when I was a company driver.
As a company driver paid by the scam mile running heavy loads in the hills and mountains for example you work more for less because it takes more time to drive further.
As a company driver I hated extra stops why? Because it's more BS you don't really earn anymore on. Say you get $30 for an extra stop as a company driver but you're there two hours. At .40 a mile you generally would earn more driving those two hours vs getting paid for the time blown on extra stops.
Why do drivers hate the Northeast? Well many reasons lol but a big one is traffic and again paid by the rip off mile you aren't making any money sitting in traffic.
As a company driver short loads suck because it meant more time of BSing around and not driving which meant LESS money for more work.
Here if I do more crap work I actually get rewarded unlike being a company driver so I find it to be more fair work and more motivating to work.
I'll use today for example even though I know I'll piss off people for sharing those details.
I started in Maryland, I did a short load to PA with my deadhead it was about 156 miles and the load paid $441.74 and it was drop and hook at both ends. I next picked up 4 miles away a drop and hook which was all live unloads with two extra stops going to NY. All in all that load was about 227 miles and it paid $600.79.
As a company driver that sucks.. it's a horrible day to be a company driver.
However because this is % and not scam per mile pay I grossed over $1k on less than 400 miles.
Yeah I didn't exactly have fun driving through Baltimore today and it wasn't fun pulling a heavy load in the hills of NY but for me $ wise it was worth and my choice to do so.
There's no desk jockey demanding me to do a load or threaten to sit me which did happened to me in the past btw.
Oh which reminds me I also don't have to take a load into freaking ice storms anymore because "the load must be covered". During winter I checked the weather more often than the load board lol. When I saw bad weather coming I took off somewhere else so I wouldn't have to deal with it. Try pulling that off as a company driver anywhere.
Yes there's stupid crap to deal with here.. I made that very clear throughout this thread.
However at any driving "job" there's BS to deal with.
I took my father on a cruise on his 80th birthday because I wanted to and because I earned the money to enable that.. if I was a company driver that would have been impossible for a number of reasons.
At the end of the day I feel I actually have a better life, I enjoy my lifestyle and earn more on less work.
Yeah I complain sometimes about my job.. at times you we all do BUT overall what is a better job out there??? What job do you get most all the positives of this program with less negative for the similar or more money? When somebody out there finds that job and can prove it please enlighten us.
Until then I will remain grateful overall because I came from crap before this and I don't know of a better job situation than this.
There's is nooooo way I can ever go back to being a company driver ever again lol no way jose.