What's it like to drive for Schneider national as a tanker driver?

The day is typical of any other tanker company you pick up what’s hopefully a clean empty trailer, you take it to the shipper where they load the product and then you head off to the receiver where either you are responsible for connecting everything and monitoring or you sit back and let them do all the work.

The trucks for the tanker division are mid roofs and Schneider has a history of speccing them to be as light as possible, their freightliners for bulk side for example use the DD 13 engine while their vans typically use the DD 15.

I can’t speak for the newer trucks but I can idle mine forever because they don’t have the idle shut off enabled on the bulk trucks. The fifth wheel is quite a bit taller than the van trucks as well.

There have been times that I’ve had to rescue loads with the older P3 freightliner I drove because they were too heavy for the P4 freightliners and the driver had already left the shipper.

 

The trucks are actually very nice, plenty powerful, as they have to be, since the standard bulk load is approximately 45,000 lbs.
The industry requires tanker trailers that are clean, dry, and odor free (done by the tank wash, not the driver). But this means you will couple and uncouple between each load you haul. Trailers are assigned to one specific load, so there's no need to compete with other drivers for a trailer. Tanker trailers have no sliding tandems, they are permanently to the very rear of the trailer. The liquid product self levels in the trailer, so virtually no problems with axle weight issues. Most of the shippers and the manufacturers have their own scales, so that will likely save you a visit to the CAT scales to verify your weight. The loaded trailer's contents go to one customer/one tank with the primary single clean bore trailer. The trailers are only 12' 6" high, so less worries about low clearances. The myths about the surge are highly exaggerated. But there's no place for goof balls in the chemical industry. It's not a difficult job, and it's entirely safe, so long as you don't take short cuts in your duties and responsibilities. Many of the plants we drive into could have a tank with a chemical that has harmful vapors, and for that reason alone, those plants require us to be ready to put on a half-face respirator. Most of us never actually experience a situation where we have to do so, but we still have to be ready to just in case an unexpected vapor release occurs. For that reason, you have to shave your beard. There are many more dedicated accounts in recent years, and there are also regional and OTR accounts too, if you like going to an assortment of different places. We want the drivers who are a cut above, we don't equate that with experience. We'd rather have a great driver with less than a year experience, that a "Billy ###### BigRigger" who has been driving his whole life and wouldn't pass a background check of his/her driving record.

 

I had to use one of those lightweight midroof Schneider trucks as a loaner pulling a van for 4 days last week. Can’t say I was very impressed. Absolutely no storage cabinets. It was like a day cab with a bed. The DD13 had a hard time maintaining even 55 with a moderate wind. The Eaton Ultrashift automated transmission was terrible compared to the DT12 in the VTL fleet. The only thing I liked about it was no idle shut off, which was good because the batteries were so shot it couldn’t even run the bunk heater for the night without the voltage dipping too low.

 

- always know what position those petcocks are in lol.
- don't even go on duty until you know for sure your trailer a/o load is where it says it's supposed to be especially if its a relay.
- hit up every bulk oc you can for parts
- make #### sure those HIT connections are not frozen before u pull off because they won't tell u its required until u start driving.
- make sure that hose rack is secure before u throw more than 4 hoses on it.
- always keep 4 jugs of antifreeze in case oc doesn't have any in the HIT fill up reservoir.
- cut up one of those plastic grass door mats and ty rap it to every truck step.
- don't be surprised if someone goes through your hose connections and adapters over your break cause none of the #### boxes will lock.
- that pair of cutters they give u is a pos, get a good pair of dykes
- bring a cheater bar and large pry bar on the truck if you ever have to deal with an intermodal tank that won't lock down to a chassis trailer at 4am in the yard.
- don't be too embarrassed that their trailers are the rattiest posd in the wash yard.
- don't forget to have that pump washed out even if you just pick up new hoses cause you don't have time to wait for yours to get cleaned.
- got one of those cool dc freezer/fridges? well get ready for it to go off about 4 hours into ur 10 hr break cause your batteries suck ###.
- don't forget to hook up that adapter w/ bleed off when offloading an iso tank.
- after hours ops dbls are worthless so better get all your questions asked before 4pm.
- don't forget to make sure that trailer doesn't have a kingpin lock before u back into it lol.
- watch that trailer catwalk guard rail when backing up or going under take on stations
- don't let ur dbl screw u by making u wait on a load after the temp drops and u have to put it on a steam rack.
- that relay driver is going to forget to put the paperwork in the box. make sure your phone can download to a memory stick like and iXpand key.
- that relay driver didn't gaf that the decals were wrong from the shipper. better have extras and tape cause the holders suck too.
- pile up on everything you can get your hands on at oc's and drivers services casue it'll come in handy at your next job.
-

 

There are a lot better tanker outfits to work for if you’re looking to go into the tanker world.

 

I think tequila got mad and left

 

Some days you shoud have just crawled out the opposite end of the bunk...

Murphy has a special disregard for 'yankers in general.

Some days you ae the windshield, some days you are the bug....

 

Ex-Schneider driver here....

like mustang190 indicated above....keep looking.......

--Lual

 

First time I heard of SNBC was mid 80's when they moved in as a tennant to the small local carier I worked for.

The place was a zoo, comitted to doing the work other cariers didn't want like water treating compound AKA Elephant Snot for the PG/PC verson.

Most of all they expected every driver to work his full 70 every week, no matter what.

Turnover to match.