Starting at Schneider

We appreciate the update Cherokee65 and glad to see you back at it. Don't be a stranger if you can. Keep the faith.

 

Things improve with more experience...& if you get those relevant endorsements: tanker, hazmat...& doubles/triples.

You have to view your 1st year or so as basically a paid apprenticeship.

For a company driver -- the best money is usually over in hazmat tankers, &/or the LTL sector.

Those can annually pay well into 6 figures.



-- L

 

Put in some applications with better places. Not all places make you have a year of experience or more.

 

An alternative option -- make a move to a better line of freight -- but stay on with Schneider (at least for the time being).

In hindsight -- I'm glad I stayed with "Big Orange"...for almost 2 years, before moving on.

I think successive employers gave me a second & third look, because (in part, at least) I put in some real, honest tenure with my first CDL employer.

Also -- the current CDL job market stinks out loud, in most places. It's a bad time to be looking around, for the most part.

Before leaving Schneider -- get that hazmat endorsement...& look into opportunities with their intermodal fleet:

"Where the rubber meets the rail"

The vast majority of intermodal work will in fact be drop-n-hook loads there.

Intermodal is Schneider's most profitable fleet -- so it naturally follows that "Big Orange" could pay their drivers better there.

I met several drivers there who were doing pretty well money-wise.

Note, however...these drivers all had more than 12 - 15 months total experience.

Right now -- that's a much better move than leaving Schneider outright.

-- L

 

Switch to Georgia Pacific dedicated.

 

That's a good (alternative) suggestion.

I thought that working alongside the railway was much more interesting work...than picking up paper mill loads (they smelled a lot better, too ).

Talk to some GP paper mill dedicated drivers, first. The paper mill experience I had wanted an immaculate trailer on the inside, when I brought an empty -- & it was up to the driver to climb up into the trailer & clean/sweep it out.

The driver also had to make sure the trailer didn't let in ANY daylight -- with the trailer doors closed.

How I solved that problem involves yet another post.

GP may (or may not) be that finicky at all their plants.



-- L

 

Note also...if you haven't already found out -- paper mill loads will usually be heavy (40k+ lbs).

You will scale the load before you leave their facility...&...depending on the circumstances...you'll need to scale it again at a nearby Catscale.

Intermodal loads are all over the place, weight-wise....& some simply didn't need scaling at all (< 25k lbs).

-- L