Starting Schneider Bulk

Not counting the fact that it was split over two pay periods, about $1500 gross. About .57 a mile tossing in the accessory pay.

 

Let me preface this by stating that I lived in Colorado for 22 years of my life. Driving in the mountains, on winding roads, in various treacherous weather conditions doesn’t bother me.

I could be going down nearly as slow as I go up, and I’ll still nervously hover over the brake pedal thinking I’m going into corners way too fast. Sometimes even give the brakes a little nudge before going into the corner and just set everything off. This was my first experience on I-77 and I-64 in VA and WV. Those big sweeping left and right hand corners were no fun, and it was probably not a bright idea to be running it at night I have since adjusted my operating to avoid running through mountainous regions at night at least until I get more comfortable. I think being able to see further down the road makes it a little bit easier when you’re not tensing up wondering if the corners going to suddenly get sharper.

What amazes me is the other tankers I was rolling down the road with that I know were loaded simply because we were all crawling up the hills would just disappear on the way down.

 

As I sit here finishing the last 12 hours of my 34 hour reset I guess I’ll recap last week.

Ran the delivery to Itaska Illinois just on the other side of Chicago. Brought the empty to Quala in Chicago, picked up a clean trailer took to Green Bay, loaded and brought back to the Quala in Chicago for a relay to a driver heading to Maine.

Picked up another clean at the Quala in Chicago and brought it to Quala in Trenton, MI for special prepping. I then shuttled three trailers to Wyandotte to conclude my week.

Tomorrow I will be heading to Wyandotte to pick up a loaded trailer heading to Gettysburg, PA.

Schneider is all about safety. So they take a guy fresh out of training, throw them in a tanker, through mountains and winter storms, New York City and Chicago.

I kept getting a low-voltage load shedding situation in my truck so I took it upon myself to disassemble all the battery cables from the terminals clean everything up and put them back together. As a side effect my inverter now works better. I wasn’t about to check in with maintenance on something so simple. And yes, since I was going to do a 34 hour reset I did make sure to properly log it as on duty not driving time.

 

Whether it’s a stroke of luck, or Schneider’s trying to ensure I pay them back for their training, my first “week” was over 2600 miles.

 

I wouldn’t do I-40 at night, not at this stage in the game. I’ve got family near Lake of the Ozarks, and I now live near Greenville, SC. I’ve been down that road a few times and so far I’ve avoided it with a tanker. Soon enough though, I will conquer it.

 

What OC are you going to be based out of? Mine told me to not expect more than 15-1700 as well.