My journey with Orange starts

I am one of those that went through orientation with softail and warhippy, although I started orientation a week earlier.. I will echo what they said about SNI training and operations. They don't set you up for failure. They, in some cases, went out of their way to help us succeed.

One driver in our first week truck had no clue how to back into a parking spot. She was never properly taught in school. Even with extra help, she couldn't visualize what to do. She washed out. But the trainers had tried to give her extra help to get her through.

On my final drive test, I failed due to nervousness and a bad turn. They understood nerves, and I took the test again the next day with a different trainer. He told me to just drive around for a while to get warmed up, then we would do the test. Well, after driving around for about 15 minutes at his direction, he said, "OK, lets go back, you passed,". He faked me out to prevent the test nerves. I thought that was pretty cool, and certainly setting up for success.

After the three weeks, you have everything you need, you just have to get used to a lot of new situations. As others have said, take your time and go slow, and don't worry about what other drivers may be thinking. Just don't hit anything.

SNI now has a mentor program where you can team up with an experienced driver, after orientation, for several weeks to get you over that first month solo terror. It's optional, but I think it would be beneficial to do it. They even asked me to be a mentor, although I haven't done it yet.

I am now almost 3 weeks past one year. I have driven 107,500 miles. No tickets or problems with inspections, but I did have an incident in a truck stop at about 7 months in.

I came in late and was exhausted. The Pilot in Weed, CA is pretty tight. I made one attempt to back in, but wasn't getting it. I gave up on that spot, and tried another. Still wasn't getting it, so I bailed out again and was going to go around for another try. While watching the traffic coming out of the pumps as they passed in front and around me, I drifted left and scraped my trailer across the front of a parked truck. Not much damage, but it took a couple hours to get everything sorted out before I could go to bed. Bottom line, don't hit anything. There is always enough time to do it right. Doing it wrong means you have to do it over and that always takes more time. Even with that preventable accident, I still got a good bonus that quarter.

I am seriously considering going to tankers and moving to Texas. My goal has been to get out of CA and get into some higher pay driving. If nothing else, I get tanker training to move into the oilfield.

While there have been a lot of challenges, I would say that Schneider has treated me well. I have no real complaints.

 

Thank you for such a detailed post on what to expect. Confirms what I had been suspecting. That they want you to succeed because they need good drivers. Think we all do that thing where we read too much into forum posts etc and start getting a bit nervous or jaded. By the way that is my goal as well to move back south and hopefully move into tankers at some point. Are you considering doing that with Schneider? I'm sure they make it easy if you are already an employee.

 

I am considering it with Schneider. Many oilfield trucking companies are looking for 2 years experience and tank experience. I think mainly for insurance reasons. This way, I get the tank experience while at a company I know. Just saw an ad today on the Schneider job board for OTR tanker drivers, out of Houston, making $77k with a $7500 signon bonus. It's a step in the right direction. Not sure if I would get the bonus as an existing SNI driver.

 

Do they have job boards at the terminals then? I hear their terminals are very good. That is excellent pay by the way and what a bonus for sure.

 

Don't spend your sign up bonus. Just about all companies will pay in increments over 12-24 months in case you bail. Also since it's a bonus and not "earned income ", you may expect that portion to be taxed at 40%. Takes the wind out of your sails.....good luck.

 

Their job board is online. SchneiderJobs.com

As for terminals or OC's, as they are called, for Operating Center, I can only speak to those in the west. They vary. Some are good, some are not. Fontana is nice, with a cafe offering hot food all day, decent showers, free washers and dryers, wifi, and other amenities. Portland is also nice. Phoenix is not nice. No showers, no WiFi, no laundry. Vending machines only. Actually, in the west, only Fontana has a cafe. I have also been to Gary IN. That one is not bad.

I meant to say that bonus was for experienced drivers. Inexperienced get $2500.

I just read the training thread discussing training time. I will point out that for a Regional driver (or Training Engineer), one week is probably 4 to 6 loads. So if you, as a trainee, go out with that TE, you will see that many loads. Not a lot.

In my training, I actually had 2 TE's. I went up to French Camp for the first, and his truck broke down on our first load. Two days later it was fixed, and I drove for one day before being sent back to Fontana, as the TE was taking the next day off (July 4th holiday).

So I went out the next week with a local TE in Fontana. I didn't get the "living in the cab" experience. I got 3 to 5 short loads per day. Lots of dock backing in all kinds of tight real-life situations. This was very valuable and I highly recommend it if you are lucky enough to get it. Of course, you have no say in the matter. Interestingly, we also broke down (brake chamber failure on a trailer) on the last load of the week. Seeing those breakdowns was also good experience.

 

That's one good thing about sni...they are very in depth in the way they train...they no doubt want you to be successful, because if you are then they are...there training programs are near the top in this profession..

 

I was referring to everything we do other than driving.

There's so much more to this job other than driving.

I'm not saying SNI training is bad because for the time allowed they do a great job however they're not perfect nor am I and I just believe there's a lot left to be taught that a TE doesn't have the time to get to because of the short time period they have with the trainee.

 

That Weed pilot really sucks if you don't get their in time for four open spots in a row to back. If yu don't need to take a shower a better spot in NorCal is Pollard Flat, Exit 712, always room to pull in straight without backing there