Moving to the Schneider family!

experienced drivers have a different orientation than fresh drivers out of school.

The hotel is a best western, not the greatest, but it could be worse. Just stay away from the hotel next door lol, it is the drug/lot lizard hang out.

I have filled in on the wal mart account a few times. It was ok but I would never switch to it. You will mainly be delivering to stores in central to southern Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky(maybe indiana). Most runs are 2-3 stop runs, reefer and dry van. It is all slip seat and the trucks are junk, but at least the dispatchers there are nice. You will work 5 on 2 off and be back at the DC most nights.

 

I class up Sept 4th in Atlanta for regional

 

I too am heading to indy the 4th for a reoginal position. I elected to take the 18 day course as i have a few years local experience but no otr.

 

Congrats on getting out of a bad situation and making a move. I ran a dedicated SNI Wal-Mart account in Henderson, NC for over a year before leaving. SNI subsequently lost the account to USX.
1) Worked 5on/2off. The option was there for 6/1 (34hr) but I didn't want it. I had the same 2 days off every week.
2) 90% night driving so you had better be clear that you do not mind this before you start.
3) We had to slot for 10hrs after we came back in from a load. However, I frequently came in say at midnight, slotted for 1000 and sat around all day till 1900 or 2000 waiting for a load and then was expected to work 14 hrs. That really sucked.
4) Expected to slot for full 14 hrs every day when on and they would put 2 loads on you to fill up your time
5) Some days I did not get a load as the product required by the stores did not come up to the number of drivers available. However, those drivers that showed they would get the freight to the stores on time and didn't fall off loads for various reasons worked before others so take that as you will.
6) When arriving at the stores you were put in front of all other deliveries. The store had 15mins to start on your truck. If they didn't then a call to the DC would result in a call to the store mgr and they WOULD get on your truck. I only had to deal with a few managers because of this problem. Almost all would start you right off and were happy to do so.
7) No touch freight. You were not required and SNI specifically did not want you in the trailers.
8) SNI took fatigue seriously. If you were kept late the day before or some other reason you were too tired to make it then a call to the dc would get you the day off. Also, if you came in for a 2 load day and would be too tired to do the second they took you off the second. I would not go to the well on this very often as you would get put into the situation of #5.
9) Slip seat account. The trucks frequently were nasty and I refused to get into several. I would be paid to clean the truck if I complained. My problem was that often I would get scheduled to arrive at the last stop on my 14hr and I was not spending 10hrs in a parking lot in a filthy truck. Maybe your account will take a harder view on this and penalize the previous drivers for this. IDK Also, the trucks while road worthy, were in sad repair and raggedy. The account got the retired OTR trucks because the trucks would be returning almost everyday and could be fixed on a constant basis. I didn't really care much about this as long as they ran and got me back I was good with this equipment age.
10) If you don't mind running nights, slip-seating and the other things above this is a good account. Many drivers had been on it for several years when they finally shut it down. I didn't think that overall it was bad at all. It was just the first time I had tried all night driving and found I hated every minute of it.

 

I don't know for sure on how the slip seating works, as when I fill in, I am OTR and keep my truck. From what I understand tho, when you come in for your 5 on you are assigned a truck and will keep it for those 5 days, then take your 2 off, when you come back you are assigned another truck, might be the same, might be different, just depends on what is available.

As for the night driving another driver mentioned, IDK, the loads I did were during the day, but that may be just because I was filling in and when my hours were available, I don't drive at night if I can avoid it.

 

otr filling in were in a different category than others. Also, some of the drivers tried to keep the same truck for all 5 days on but this was not policy. Several times the drivers left stuff in the truck and took the key home. The company cut a new key and removed the gear and charged the drivers for the new key. I would have fired them myself. Do not count on keeping the same truck for the whole week.