Finally Starting The Journey to Become a Truck Driver

I've been driving with Schneider for about 3 months and i think it's a fairly decent company. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly in my opinion.

The good:
1. Safety is number one at Schneider. It was drilled into my head in orientation. Not a bad philosophy at all in my opinion. Better safe than sorry.
2. The instructors in orientation are top notch (at least the ones in Green Bay). They will give you help in any area that you need it.
3. For it being a mega-carrier, my DBL knows me by name. I don't know how many drivers she has under her, but the fact that i can call her and not have to recite my driver number every time is a huge plus.
4. I've generally been respected and treated well. Everyone I've spoken to has always been professional and tries to resolve my issues.
5. As per being a mega carrier, they have a ton of different jobs. Anything from regular OTR to Intermodal. The only thing they don't do are reefers, except for a few Walmart accounts.
6. They have OC's spread out everywhere. Most of them are pretty good and it'll save you from having to pay for laundry and/or burn up shower credits.
7. In my experience i wasn't micromanaged that much. As long as i did my job i went days without speaking to anyone.

The bad:
1. I feel like orientation and training isn't long enough. It's 3 weeks from the moment you step foot in the classroom to getting your firsr solo load. You only spend a week on the road with a training engineer, which i personally think is much too short. If they had tacked on a couple extra weeks i would've been much better prepared.
2. They only use Pilot/Flying J's for most of their fuel stops. Not only that but you can only fuel at the ones they tell you to. Trust me when i say that the number of dumpy and nasty pilot/flying j's I've been to far outweigh the number of decent to good ones.
3. Inconsistent miles. Being regular OTR i expected at least a little bit of consistency here. There were multiple times that I was just sitting around waiting for a load. I'm not saying that they always give you bad miles, but don't expect any semblence of consistency unless you're on a dedicated account.
4. Ugly loads. This makes my list because the day i was supposed to go home for hometime, someone decided to have me shuttle trailers around Chicago all day (i live in Michigan). The traffic was a nightmare. I get it that I'm a new driver, but i took one load from the Chicago yard down to a Home Depot facility (it was a "misdirected trailer" supposedly, it had no BOL or anything) that i ended up taking back because they had no record of it ever being there. Almost 3 hours wasted, plus i was late for my next load because of it.
4. I've spent so much more time on various dedicated accounts vs doing what i was originally hired for. One day they just plopped me on a Target account in Wisconsin for no obvious reason. I really didn't like that account. Then i got moved over to a Georgia Pacific account here in Michigan. I've actually enjoyed this account much better but my point still stands. Apparently they've had shortages or something on these accounts though since I'm not the only OTR driver helping out.
5. Their older tractors (2018 and older Cascadia's) feels more like a prison cell than a nice place live in. I had a 2017 Cascadia which featured a steering wheel, some cigarette outlets, and that was about it. This is 2021, not the 1980's. However, with that being said, the 2019 and newer Cascadia's are much better in every way, shape, and form.

The ugly:
1. The pay. It's not great. Even for an entry level position, the pay that Schneider doles out lags behind others. I got started at .43 cents a mile. I hardly make more than $900-$1000 gross a week. I've only gotten their 'guaranteed minimum pay' once. Other mega carriers and even smaller ones are paying much better than that out of the gate. And also their training pay is a joke. So is their breakdown pay.
2. The equipment and maintenance practices are extremely questionable. My first truck assigned was a 2017, and it had 711k miles on it. I had no idea why Schneider still had this truck with high mileage around. I wasn't expecting a brand new truck but i also wasn't expecting a total POS. The first month was fine but the 2nd one it was breaking down left and right. That combined with OC's taking an eternity to get it fixed (only for the same part to break again a week later) led to both my DBL and I getting extremely frustrated. I lost out on so much money with my first truck. Really didn't help the pay situation. As far as their trailers go, it's a mixed bag. Most of them aren't older than 10 years and are fairly decent, I've pulled a couple pieces of work though. Some of the older ones are surprisingly in much better shape than ones that are a couple years old. That being said I've found out that their Hyundai trailers are usually the worst of the brands they have (they also have Wabash, Great Dane, and Stoughton trailers). I'll actually go out of my way to avoid pulling a Hyundai if possible.

There's the good, the bad, and the ugly with Schneider. Overall i like it minus the pay and questionable maintenance practices. It's a good starter job until you can find something better. And like the person above me said, you hardly ever see Schneider in the news, or held up at scales. Been driving with them for 3 months and I've only been pulled into the scale house once, and that was with my training engineer. Their CSA scores are actually pretty darn good.

 

It's almost impossible to find your career home company as your first job with a CDL. There are too many things you will never know are important to you as a driver until you work at the job. Generaaly, everyone grossly underestimates how important home-time is until they have too little it for about a year. Or they underestimate the benefits of wroking for a company with a nerby company yard until they spend half of their home-time commuting after the truck is parked. I'd emphasize workign where the company doesn't expect sneaky/illegal cretive interpretation of the regs, they are honest with payroll, they use or maintain trucks and trailers well. Also don't confuse how your trainer or company does things as The Legal Way. The most useless phrase in trucking is "but that's how my traine/first company does it". Read the regs and recognize trainers are just drivers, not experts. Many only have a few months more experience than you have. Pretending to not understand is better than arguing with your trainer or company. "I thought the regs said X" is better than an argument.

 

Some Companies Require Into Canada.

Reefer, Skateboard (Flatbed), Step Deck, Drop Deck, Dry Van, Dry Bulk, Hopper, Auto Hauler, Dump Trailer, Fuel Hauler, Grocery Store Delivery (Local Company) usually from a Grocery Distribution Center, Parking Lot (Auto Carrier, Flat Top Tractor).

Carrying (You'll Be Given One In Orientation At Whichever Company Of Choice) The "Drivers Handbook For The F.M.C.S.R." would eliminate (the)problem(s) of post #22 OR just stop at a Weigh Station. They'll be Glad To Help!

CHEERS!!

 

You are like me. I did 10 years in IT and I hated it. Love computers and technology, but I hated literally everything else.

My phone never stopped ringing, half the meetings I attended I never needed to be there, long emails I didn't need to get, drama, gossip, needy end-users, and a salary that never changed. That's just for starts.

I'm making more now just driving a truck than I did working on systems after reading like 20 tech books. You know those big, fat Microsoft tech books... yeah, been there, done that. Learned C++ too, that was challenging.

Anyway, can vouch for Frozen Food Express. All around good company.

Now I am driving for Shaffer Trucking doing solo OTR. I'm still green with that company, but so far they have been running me nonstop. They seem to have the loads.

Sitting in Baltimore right now, or just north of it. I had the pleasure of driving through that storm in WV. Lol

If you are anything like me then you would enjoy OTR. It's not hard. The scenery always changes, it's peaceful, people aren't blowing up your phone all day. It's night and day different from IT. You will probably be relieved.

One thing about OTR is that the hours you drive will vary depending on when you get loaded and a few other things.

Right now I seem to mostly be waking up at around 12-3 AM to start driving. When I worked for Frozen Food I did a lot of overnight driving, like 9PM to 9AM overnight. That hits a lot of people pretty hard. I'm naturally nocturnal and I still found it rough sometimes. Sitting in a dark cab staring out into blackness is different from working other jobs overnight. But you do get used to it if you stick with it.

Theres also a bit of a culture adjustment. You won't be dealing with office folks. It didn't bother me too much but there's a lot of little things, you occasionally get yelled at, people are more blunt, they won't always let you use their bathrooms because a minority of drivers aren't potty trained. Some truck stops are just downright nasty, etc etc.

But for me overall it has been great. I have been driving 3 and half years now and I haven't been burned out. Can't say that about any other job I worked.

 

Also, do not throw away empty jugs.

 

Congrats man! You're not that far down the highway from me. I looked into JCC also. My time limits were more constrained for many factors so I went with a company sponsored deal. So far been riding with a trainer for the past week. It's been an experience for sure. Especially since they have a dedicated account that runs from PA to NJ. Have gotten some valuable experience that we couldn't had planned for! If you love road trips, you'll love driving. The only hard part for you may be the away time. Depending on what you chase after career wise.

 

Diesel Direct® - Official Site | DieselDirect.com - Contact Us
https://dieseldirect.com
Diesel Direct - On Site fleet fueling | On & Off road diesel. Supply, delivery, management. We Accept the Challenge of Delivering on Your Critical Fueling Requirements.
Click ----> North Carolina
Company Paid CDL Licensing Fee
We pay for the licensing fee to get a commercial driver’s license, and the compulsory endorsements to get started as a CDL driver.

Company Paid CDL Training
We pay new CDL drivers while they are trained by our experienced team.

Military Service Pay
We pay for your time when performing active duty obligations, like drill weekends. No need to stress about taking time off work.