Schneider choice program orientation and getting truck Schneider finance

Oh we'll that's changes the name a little then. I run percentage currently as a company driver so that works better for me. I'll be doing more research today.

 

Who do u pull for?

 

I'm with Sharkey transportation currently out of Quincy, Il. Be here a year on the 28th. Overall cant complain but getting boring. Too much sitting and waiting.

 

I applied for them awhile back but they turned me down be cause I live in va

 

Wow thats a $4800 a month truck payment! I couldnt imagine paying that but whatevever works, my truck gets between 6 and 7mpg depending on how heavy i am. I can pretty much bet that half of what i gross will go to fuel, if i had 1200 more dollars coming out i wouldnt bring home very much

 

Hey guys, not to derail the OP but I've been considering putting my own experiences down with SNI, and figured I'd give it a start here as this thread seems to be pretty popular right now.

First, after months of looking around and talking to finance companies I decided to bypass the lease purchase and get my own truck to bring to SNI on the Choice Program (65% of gross linehaul + 100% FSC which is generally between $0.30 and $0.55 cpm). Now, because my credit wasn't the best and I didn't have a spare $15k lying around for a down payment (which in hindsight I should have waited longer) I decided to go through Lone Mountain Truck Leasing. LMTL will lease you a truck (not the best of trucks.. I got a 2009 Freightliner Century w/ 524k miles and a Thermoking Tripak APU) for a much lower downpayment and lower monthly notes than a dealership. The downfall is that the equipment is generally older, between 2007 and 2010, but that's really it.

Orientation was about the same as the OP has been posting, but while the other 12 guys in my class (all going through SNI Finance) went to talk to their finance people, I got free time because I brought my own lol. My first load out of Green Bay (go to Charlotte, NC if you can, less deadhead) I had to bobtail down to Chicago because there were no trailers to be had up in Green Bay. Still, that wasn't bad because they paid me $0.50 cpm to bobtail to my first MT trailer. Picking your own loads is not something you need experience in before coming to SNI, because they will have about a 3 hr class on how to book your loads. You're able to start off on the Choice Program without any prior experience as an O/O, so long as you clear their screening process.

Now, I made the move to O/O in Dec 2012 and went straight to SNI (after many months of research in companies) and it is now May 2013. First, the bad news... as with I'm sure nearly everyone else, the freight has gotten cheaper. This is not to say that it's cheap, just not paying as much as it did when I first started a few months ago. An example of this is a load of chep pallets going from Southaven, MS to Lima, OH... in Dec I hauled that load 3 times for $950 total revenue, and now the load is paying $890. A few other O/O friends of mine on the load board program have noticed the same thing. Still though, it's very easy to make money with SNI picking loads. They will tell you in orientation to find loads based on the highest rate per mile after pickup of load, and you'll have to figure it out for yourself how to run your business. I can say though that I'm working harder (more miles, but less loads per week) than my friend at SNI, but also bringing in more money every week than he is. He runs a tri-city route (Memphis > Charlotte > Detroit > Memphis) and takes home about $1,500 per week after fuel with only about 2k miles per week... I personally choose the highest paying loads, be ###### the rest and run them. Yes, I put in about 2,900 miles a week, sometimes more, but I also bring in $2,500-$3,500 per week, depending on the areas I'm in. There are certain places I do not go to (mainly the west coast) and I try to book my loads 2-3 at a time, so I make sure I can get out of wherever I'm going.

My trailer is about finished being loaded, so I'll stop rambling and wrap it up with this. Schneider is a good company to work for, my ICA and ICR's are the best support staff I've ever had, in any job I've held. There are quirks about SNI that irritate me to the point that I say I'm going to find another company to work for. Thankfully, cooler heads than mine prevail and my wife reminds me that even with load cancellations and whatever else comes our way at SNI, we're making good money. My best advice I can give, seeing as of the 12 other guys in orientation only 1 is left with his truck still and he's struggling to make payments, is this... buy your own truck, through LMTL, a dealership, or a private seller, or wherever you can, but do not get into a Lease Purchase...it's very hard to succeed in one, and I've only met one other guy who says he loves it and has completed 3 lease purchases and put drivers in the other 2 trucks... he was independently wealthy to start off with. Lease to SNI, it's a learning curve with the load boards if you've never seen it before, but it is possible to do very well here.

If anyone has any questions for me specifically or if you're with SNI and need help figuring out how the load boards etc work, please feel free to PM me here and I'll help as I can =)

 

Tovya, can you tell me what you are averaging per mile to the truck for all miles before expenses? In other words, what is your gross per mile ?. And do you figure it on odometer miles or book miles? Thanks

 

Hi Lone Ranger 13. I actually just figured this out the other day. For the little more than 6 months I've been with SNI on their board, my average rate per mile comes out to just over $1.55. I averaged this based on OD miles. The miles you get on the load board for MT miles and LD miles are off because, like everyone else, SNI uses PC Miler or whatever they use to calculate miles. Generally I drive 5-10 miles more MT than they say, and 30-50 miles more LD in actual miles. My goal in picking my own loads was to average $1.50 per mile, so so far I'm right where expected.

Naturally, sometimes I'll take a cheap load to get somewhere better, so some months I'll average less than $1.50 per mile (and my averages are loaded and empty) but then some months I'll have very little deadhead with a lot of high paying loads to bring the average back up. I have never taken a load cheaper than $1.20 per mile after MT miles, except for loads going less than 100 miles that puts me in an area to get a better load, or in the case of going home.... when going home all bets are off lol. Most of the loads I book are between $1.45 - $1.90 per mile, with the occasional short haul anywhere from $2 per mile to my favorite 14 mile loaded run paying $20 per mile. Generally, loads paying less than $1.50 I only take if they are less than 400 miles total (MT and LD) and put me in a position to take a load paying greater than $1.60.

I'm sure there are drivers here doing better, and worse, than I am because each driver has their own criteria for what they'll haul. I know some guys who would rather sit for a day or two hoping for a better load than to take a load paying less than $1.40. Personally, I try to sit as little as possible even if it means taking the heavy load to go 200 miles paying only $1.25 per mile.

 

I agree with your thinking. These guys that sit at a truck stop for 2 or 3 dys cause they CANT run a load less then $2 a mile because they idle all the time and eat at truck stops is ridiculous to me. Their operating cost is so high they've basically killed themselves from running anything and then complain when a smarter guy, such as yourself, pulls the freight for 1.25 a mile cause "it lowers the freight cost then no one makes money".

 

Tovya. Thanks. Looks like you pay attention to what you are doing. I think your averages look good.
I have considered Schneider Choice. It looks like it is worth looking into.
Thanks again for the detailed response. It can sometimes be difficult to get a straight answer from a driver about his actual revenue per mile.

By the way, what areas do you find to he good for getting decent rates?