A pivotal point in my life I need answers and opinions.

That's a good plan. Once you gain a year experience, then you can reevaluate and decide if you want to move on or stick with Schneider. You'll have many decent OTR companies to choose from.

 

Excellent advice!

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/UahoUNQKf9A?si=6TPzHxWoBK9AMdJP

 

@MIKEPGH --

At this point in this conversation -- I think it's only fair for you to know the truth...so that you can indeed make a more informed decision -- going forward.

I also started out driving commercially with Schneider....doing dry van, OTR.

Schneider apparently has a notoriously short (far too short) training period for new drivers -- after their orientation.

I was out on a trainer's truck -- FOR LESS THAN ONE WEEK -- after which....Schneider assigned me a to truck...& I started pulling loads for Home Depot in the greater Atlanta area.

After a few weeks of that -- dispatch started running me mostly up in the northeast.

Within 6 months -- I had driven most of the Eastern US -- but 80+% of it was up in the northeast.

If you go back to Schneider as dry van, OTR -- the above (or similar) is what you can probably reasonably expect to get.

Because of their incredibly dismal up-front instruction period -- I will in most cases recommend new drivers start out somewhere else: Swift, Knight, Wiley Sanders, etc....where the new drivers will spend FAAAAARRR MORE time out on a trainer's truck (3 weeks, or longer).

Schneider does indeed offer quite a lot to a beginning driver -- but....make no mistake about it -- in their dry van fleet, they will throw you in with the sharks pretty #### quick.

Thus -- you may also want to consider looking at other "starter" fleets, as well....with more reasonable training periods.

Both Swift & Knight will dispatch you with loads that will run you across ALL of the lower 48 -- whereas....with Schneider, you probably will never go west of I-35.

And thus -- you have now been adequately warned....

-- L

 

There is a demand for Air Traffic Controllers and Ticket Agents

 

First thing first the word you're looking for is 'preventable', not reportable.

The big red flag for me isn't the two preventables in a very short time or all the 'critical events', it's your response to them. You seem to think these are minor, nit picking things. To an extent they are, but taken in aggregate the pattern indicates you're likely to be involved in a major incident.

That 'scuff' really isn't a big deal, but change the scenario a little bit and it becomes massive. I can think of at least two guys on the forum where if you did the same thing to their trailer they'd be screaming "my back! my neck! PAY UP!!!", or otherwise blowing it all out of proportion. Even if they don't flip out, that $200 buff out ends up costing the company over $1,000 once you consider all the costs.

If you were on the breaks hard enough to trip the sensor then you were breaking far harder than you should have and the cargo likely shifted. Hard breaks happen, but if they're occurring more than once or twice a year it indicates poor driving. Either following too close, not looking far enough ahead, or excessive speed for the circumstances.

You should have known about the company prohibition of going over 70 mph and kept it under 68 mph to be safe.

A following distance even doesn't occur when a driver gets cut off, it happens when the truck registers an object within 2 seconds for more than 2 minutes. Safe following distance is 7 -10 seconds.

Add all of this together and it tells me you're driving the truck like your POV. If you slow down, leave more space, and be more aware of your surroundings/anticipate what is likely to occur you won't have to worry about any of these. You shouldn't be avoiding backing, you should be taking every opportunity to practice. First off, you need to have the ability to back. Secondly, backing is often safer than pulling through. If you screw up a pull through, backing out is hard. As soon as you doubt you're going to clear - stop, GOAL, and if necessary back out. Once the tractor is inbetween two objects or is hard up against an object, your options become limited. If you're backing in then the tractor has more maneuverability which gives you more options to move the trailer, and if things get too off - pull out and reset.

If you decide to get back in the truck then you need to adjust your attitude and take ownership of your training and then your driving. When an instructor tells you do something, ask yourself "Why?". Understanding why they want you to do XXX in a certain manner allows you to apply the skill in varied circumstances. Watch the other trainees and see what they do well and what they don't and ask yourself "Why?". Understanding the why of what happened allows you to be more self critical of your own attempts. That self critic seems to be missing in you.

Not trying to be mean, just sharing my perspective of a decade of training. Best of luck.

 

If you have the time and money, take the private refresher course you posted that's 10 minutes from your house. Here's why I like the idea:
Do the course and don't even mention it to trucking companies because they probably won't recognize it anyway.
By doing the course, the company you do decide to go with will be surprised at how well you're doing after being off the road so long.
You'll still go with a trainer, but can concentrate more on what's required because you already have that refresher behind you. That's your ace, but only you will know that.

 

Schneider's "training engineers" are probably some of the best instructors in the industry -- but unfortunately....the quality there of the training while out on a trainer's truck can vary wildly.

 

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