Schneider Intermodal

My buddy was making $1000-$1250 per week out of Chicago intermodal

 

I've been doing it for a good while. I'm pretty happy with this gig. If the train yard is close to where you park your car, you'll probably make it home quite a lot. I live an hour away from anything Schneider so I don't even bother going home unless I'm running out of time near the house. It won't take you long to get your raises. Especially if you keep up your Scorecard Number. I was at .40cpm +.06cpm from the performance bonus within 6 months. I had all my training out of the way by the time I went intermodal. I gross over $1300 a week most weeks. But then I work over the weekend. You make a little more that way because there's less traffic and the train yard is a lot less hectic.

All you have to worry about with the bonus is this. Your bonus is based on three things. MPG, Days Worked, and Not hitting anything. Don't idle any more than you have to. Stay out of over-idle. Your QC will warn you 60 seconds before it happens. Do that and you'll be good on MPG. Especially if you get an Automatic. Work a few extra days during each quarter. A few extra days is the fastest way to get your score up and will balance out running the air conditioner in the summer. Don't hit anything with your tractor. That's an automatic bonus loss because it counts the most out of everything they measure. You're gonna' touch some other trailers at the train yard until you get really good at it. These boxes are packed in like sardines. Try not to make it a habit and GOAL as much as you need to. Just know that it's going to happen. You can check your score on crossroads under the intermodal tab>performance metrics.

You get your max bonus of .06cpm if you keep your score over 110. You get no bonus under 100. It's worth an extra $10-$20 on every load and you'll do maybe 6-8 loads a week. The higher your score, the more your next raise will be and you'll reach max pay faster. With a score under 100 it could take 10 years to max out. With a score over 110 it'll take less than 5 years.

Unless your area is different from mine the two things to keep in mind are that most of the people working at the train yards are complete dicks and you shouldn't go into the rail unless you know for a fact that you have time to get in and out with time to spare. About two hours for me. Most times you can get in and out fast if you have all the details worked out before you go in. But when something goes wrong it won't be fixed anytime soon. The staff will stand around talking about football for 45mins while your clock is ticking away and when they finally get moving they're in no hurry to get you out of there.

You'll want to do what you can to avoid interacting with them. Here's how. Use Intermodal Shipment Inquiry on the right side of the page on http://www.shipcsx.com and http://m.bnsf.com/bnsf.was6/dillApp/rprt. These work well on your phone and will give you the location and chassis number of your box before you ever get to the train yard. Bookmark them on your phone and add them to the home screen if you can. It'll make the difference between being there 30mins or 2 hours sometimes. My efficiency went through the roof after someone showed me this and I was on the job 3mos before that happened.

Just please do your best to make sure you send the bills with your box every time and use a zip tie to hold the doc box closed. You'll find out why the first time you have to wait over an hour for your DBL to type up something and fax it to you and you drive 200 miles and the customer refuses your load because they won't do anything without the original BOL.

There's some rough patches in this job but it's the best one I've had yet. Once you get the hang of it you'll see how gravy it is. Just remember Chicago has the craziest train yards anywhere. It'll be much easier anywhere else. If you need to know anything else just ask.

 

I am thinking of doing this as well!

I have my CDL exam on the 12th of January, and I am already set up with Schneider to start!

 

Mightytrucker I'm very interested in your experience with intermodal. I got my CDL a few weeks ago. I live in RI but only 30 minutes from Worcester. I have to stay at my current job till the end of january but would like to apply for schneider intermodal. Will you be running New England mostly?

Thanks

 

Enough of the religious baloney.
This is a truckers forum to discuss issues specific to the industry, with a little lighthearted humor thrown in at times.
If you made a choice to follow whatever man made fairy tell that you have chosen that impresses you, good for you!
Problem stems from when my invisible man says your invisible man is full of beans.
And vice versa, no doubt.
I'm willing to abstain from shoving my beliefs in your face if you're willing to do the same.
We then just may help make the world just a tad better, one holy step at a time.