What's better, OTR dry van or Regional tanker?

I was told same from 3 other drivers they went back to dry van they said there wasn't enough work and constantly sitting. I guess if you want tanker future when you leave Schnieder go that route but I would think there would better alternatives. Chinatown maybe recommends better, Have you thought about the regional dry van or dedicated even.

 

If you can get on a dedicated Schneider tanker account it’s good money everything else is unstable

 

Yes, long times at shippers, receivers and wait times for loads, unlike other companies Schneider doesn't pay much in other pay like shippers and receivers or stops compared say like superior carriers example so if your not getting paid much sitting your wasting your time and money. the only plus is an experience like I said better options are out there would sooner work for Haliburton if I wanted a foot in door for oil field or tankers in general at least then you get more a feel what really expect. I have worked for them, not as a driver or labor on that note it was good to me. That said they all have their issues just gotta pick one and hope something you can live with.

 

Pulling a tanker for the right outfit can make you good money above and beyond the lowly dry van. Reefer pays a little better sometimes but there's to much hassle to deal with like overnight runs, midnight deliveries, lumpers, and long time sitting in the dock waiting. I pulled reefer for 7 years and have had enough of that! Now, for an owner operator reefer can be a good choice.

 

I didn’t sit at shippers and customers that often however it wasn’t surprising early on if I got that at my assigned time and was told I was there at the wrong time. Schneider doesn’t want you calling customers. But it’ll save you from arriving at a customer at 1800 when they close at 1600 better yet they may even have someone stay to offload you. However I would sit over layed for whole weekends or would get to the wash at noon cause they scheduled at 8 o’clock appointment and not get anything til the next day. So sat all day and not getting paid for it. Then a lot of the runs would be less than 100 miles some Chicago to Chicago runs pay 0 miles but they’re short haul is 15$. So 15$ shorthaul 25$load 35unload +sit in Chicago traffic all day so say 9 hours you made 75$ . And they’ll say atleast youre moving where you get paid $65 to be overlayed and 80$ a day for training. Now you worked all day and made less than the guy in training but atleast you’re wheels are turning smh. The only real time I made money was on ecolab they gave you the miles and sometimes were preassigned before you got to the current customer.

 

Then when I was leaving out they were adding in computer adjusted nat, which meant they really messed with you cash... you nat told them when you should be available for another assignment. Which was input by you. The computer adjust nat would disregard what put and adjust to what it felt. For example you have a delivery at 8am and the tank wash is 100 miles away. You want to want to keep moving so you set your nat for 1pm. Computer says no were thinking tomorrow at 12noon. You go to adjust it back to your original time and it simply won’t let you. That was after being the crash test dummy with a non functional eld for 2 months but that was just when I was there. The last 2 -3 months I was clearing 1000 take home a week but on a dedicated account my last week was the week of thanksgiving so maybe they got some stuff fixed maybe not. Just don’t want you to be blindsided

 

$700 a week sounds about average for the big uglies. I was bringing home 1,000 - 1,200 a week running the rails on intermodal with JB Hunt. That is regional , never went over about 350 miles out from home.