My 4 Month Review of Schuster

Finally made it in to a KW it’s a 2024, but only 174,000 miles somehow. Must’ve belonged to a regional driver or something. And once I get fully moved in, headed home with my home time load, so this week is off to a good start

 

To the International’s credit, I had zero actual breakdowns in the 270,000 miles I put on it. A couple tire repairs was the extent of any issues, so hard to make any actual complaints about it besides fighting a few squeaks and rattles.

 

Appreciate it, sir. The room is about the same — International had more open shelving and the KW has more cabinets, so whichever someone prefers. I’m not the most creative organizer, so cabinets works a bit better for me

No rattles at idle luckily. Will find out tonight if the APU resonates and creates any. I’ve always been jealous of you all at Holland. I’m a fan of the current gen Cascadias, and they have you all hooked up with nicely spec’d ones

 

I wouldn’t drive it, personally. It’s an OOS violation at minimum, and could be dangerous to you and others at worst. Saving the shop a couple dollars for something you didn’t cause isn’t your responsibility IMO.

Shop is my #1 complaint at Schuster. Have to wait sometimes 24+ hours just to get into the shop at the terminal and they love half-##*ing repairs or straight up denying them. Endless supply of throwing on garbage used tires to replace drive and steer tires, but if you report a truck needs an alignment, they’ll go out of their way to test drive it (bobtailing at 35mph for a half mile, as if that’s the test for trucks that operate at 70mph and 80,000 pounds). And then if it’s not doing circles, they’ll say ‘not that bad’ and refuse an alignment. So essentially, hard up about replacing tires, love running every last mm of tread out of garbage used tires, but doesn’t want to fix the underlying issues for why trucks are shredding tires in 50,000 miles lol. Finally got an alignment once, and couldn’t be bothered to center the steering wheel, so had to go rent a wheel puller myself from AutoZone to center it. Had to get a coolant leak fixed once and somehow left with more leaks than when I went in, but luckily, they were from the APU so was easy to tighten a few hose clamps myself. Had to wait 36 hours for a windshield replacement once and got zero dollars of breakdown pay since it was at the terminal, and it was installed so poorly that it sounded like my windows were halfway down from wind noise. Got sent out missing a coolant reservoir cap once. Got sent out with a missing APU cover screw that was there before I went in for a service. Nearly every time, they’ll adjust your steering wheel and seat completely just to drive a truck 300 feet into the bay. Both the trailer and tractor shop act like you just ruined their day any time you call for a wherever simple thing. Waiting hours for them to approve things on shopconnect or payment.

I know all that sounds whiny and it’s not enough of a gripe to quit over, but the shop is not efficient, not professional/courteous/polite, and quality standards are bare minimum. Being a diesel tech is not an easy job, but I think the shop standards could improve a bit lol. If a shop wants me to run out their raggedy used steer tires with severe cupping, or run equipment with violations back to the terminal to save money, they can at least return the favor with professionalism when I’m there.

If your default belief is truckers are dumb and a nuisance, quality isn’t important, and endless bandaids are better than fixing underlying issues, maybe working on semi trucks for a living isn’t the best fit