SNI IC Choice Charlotte Orientation (Company to IC)

Sorry guys...My YouTube channel is behind too...but I'll get caught up on that tomorrow...Let me now catch up here.


DAY 1

I woke up at 5 am local time to get ready. Woke up to a migraine which plagued me all day long. I was not for sure if we took physical or not so I was prepared to take one...AKA No DR PEPPER or breakfast. Yep..that made the migraine worse. Turns out, no physical for me. No drug screen. So, I wished I would've dranken me a dern DP. We left the hotel at 6 am sharp. Got on the school bus. Only day of the week we used the school bus..doesn't make sense. Got started. In the classroom at 7 am. Man named Dennis is the instructor. I've heard people say he is unprofessional and all, but I disagree. Very professional, but talks in "good ole boy" terms which is basically my language. Good to roll!

He got us doing some FMCSR stuff in the book while people went and got their physicals and drug screens. Then the ladies at SFI called us SFI guys out. We went to look at our trucks. Mine is a 2016 Cascadia. Looks like my old 2012 company truck, but alot purdier and it has the idle free APU. Of coarse, the OnGuard is updated. Don't know if for better or not. The dash is black, unlike my old one. It has the SFI mudflaps. I've just gotta figure out where I'm gonna put the "KE5WDP".

After that, we signed the lease. Like many others on the forum have said, they are SUPER COOL and really want us to do well. Lots and lots of tips. Lots and lots of money too. I only signed for a year. I just want to make sure that this is for me. One thing that I've learned, NEVER sign a long term contract if you are not experienced at what you are doing. And this is a new thing for me. Likely, this time next year, I will have an idea on what direction I want to go. Until then, its a learning process.

After being with SFI, we went back to the classroom and started CBTs. Not too long after that, we broke for lunch. Burger and fries...just stuck with what I know...hard to screw that up. The Dr Pepper and food was a relief, but migraine was still there but I had it under control. I really felt like crap all day. Didn't take any video. Just filmed around the truck, but no vlogging. The second half of the day, we had the maintenance guy come in and chat with us. And we also had the operations manager come in and talk about policies. He was straight forward and told the truth. I've been with SNI for 4 years, you kinda know what is real or BS. They pretty much told it like it is. Yes you will get canned on the spot for a few things.

So then we are off to signing the contract with Schneider National. Lots of signatures. I also can now spell Charlotte without spell check.


SOAP BOX TIME

There is one guy in this class who is in it for the wrong reasons. Ex Swift driver...(imagine that)...People, this guy has no business sense what so ever.....He's got one of those KW 680s. 5 grand down. Kid is real young. Just tonight, I was talking to him. He said he wasn't gonna fuel at the OCs. I asked why? He rather fuel at truckstops. OCs are a hassle and he didn't wanna drive out of the way. He just wants to go. I told him, he needs to watch his prices and discounts. OCs are typically great places to fuel. Fuels is your biggest expense. It effects your bottom line and you need to be smart about it. It was like I was talking in a foreign language. He is one of those that didn't do ANY homework on this. Everything that has been discussed in orientation was news to him. Most of the rest of us did our homework. We know people who are on choice or we read blogs like on this website. Some people....Its like he is gonna make ALL this money, but he doesn't know how the fuel works. But wait, he has a KW 680. He is high rolling...whatever...


Also, roommate finally showed up. So...no more quiet nights for me...

Day 2 is next...

73,
Ike

 

DAY 2

Woke up! Feel WAY BETTER!!!

I have tons of energy and my sense of humor is back.

Ate free breakfast. THEY HAD CORN BEEF HASH!!! I LOVE CORN BEEF HASH!!!!

Day started with one of the safety people giving us a lecture. lol..really cool guy. You will see him is some of the Schneider safety videos. He is a young looking guy. Looks like a kid...but has been with SNI for 16 years. Remember 16 years, cuz I've been married with my wife for 16 year. Very informative and all that kind of company butt kissing stuff we have to do on here. Or at least some of us...lol. We initialed the policies and all. Watched some videos. All that safety stuff....

Then we were off to the .....well...useless part of the day for company transfers. Yes...started on the e-logs. Oh my...what a drag...Oh well..that's life. It wasn't too bad. After lunch we, we dived into the load board. I've seen friends of mine run it before so I know what it looks like. So, it was not entirely new to me. But I did need to learn some of the functions. The training was done via Power Point. Guys, this thing is really self explanatory. I feel real comfortable with it.

So that is basically day 2. Guys started learning workflow and all that. I was at SNI when they rolled it out. Our Masonite account was one of the trial accounts to use it. So Yeah....easy stuff.


CELEBRITY TIME

I was approached by a few people today cuz of my YouTube stuff. I've been on YouTube for 5 years and I've been recognized more times than I can count. Most of the time, people approach me and its all awkward and stuff. But I had 2 ladies recognize me...so that's always a plus when getting female attention...haha...But they really didn't make things awkward. One of them was an office person in Charlotte. She asked me about Masonite and all the people and things that I did. So, not too awkward. The other lady was a HAM. Which is cool cuz not too many HAMs out there. Especially young female hams. That was neat. I tell people all the time, "I hate trucking". Its my job. Its a good job. Its an easy job. I enjoy doing it. I just hate talking about it 24/7. So when people come up to me and talk radios, fishing, nascar, or whatever...Thats far better than someone coming up to me and saying "how do you like Schneider..I've seen you on YouTube".....(gun to head)....


Anyway...Day 3...next

73
Ike

 

DAY 3

Today...finally getting caught up on this forum.


Got up there this morning. Got our driver numbers and crossroads passwords. Started the day where we left off, doing the load simulation. Picking loads, and assigning them to our Workflow. Then completed them as if we were doing them. All together, four loads. I think I got it down. I pick up on things real quick. There is one guy who has never done any elogs or anything like this. He is struggling a bit. We are encouraging him as much as possible. Hope he gets it, cuz he is a good hand.

After lunch, we started doing road tests. Basically the same as the company side. As if you are doing your annual road test. You are gonna hook up Schneider's way. You're gonna do a pretrip and a brake test. The road test given to me was by a bald guy. So...a sense of brotherhood...I've got a score of 4. The lower the number the better. 25 is failing. Good to go. Ran about 12 miles or so...give or take. Got back to the yard and did some maneuvers and did a 45 degree back. One pull up for me. Real easy. Dropped the trailer and drove MY truck back to where I got it. After that, we played in the simulator. I got ran over by a K Whopper. Hit a tree..but all good besides that...lol

The rest of the day consisted of CBTs. All 5,000 hours of them...jeez...We put in 12 and half hours today. Full day. My truck doesn't have a Qualcomm so I couldn't drive it to the hotel to put my crap in it. So I paid for another night (Thursday night). Rumor has it, they are gonna send us to Lake Park GA to pick up empty trailers. We will see.


Dinner for the last few nights.

Sunday night: TV dinner
Monday night: Pizza Hut
Tuesday night: leftover Pizza
Wednesday night: walked to the Golden Corral.

There is a WalMart close by too...Plenty of stuff to eat around here.


Now...finally caught up. Talk to ya'll later...


73
Ike