Changing colors...

After 24+ months and 250,000+ miles it is time to say hasta-me–bye-bye to SNI. There are plenty of areas where Schneider could improve but for the most part I can’t say all that much negative about the operation as I have nothing to honestly compare it to. As anyone who has driven for more than a few hours will attest, this industry has a common theme that runs through it regardless of where you work, who you work for and what kind of work you do; many aspects of the motor transportation sector are easily described as one big bucket of bull shirt. Where you work and who you work for determines the color of the bucket; the shirt is always an unappetizing brown. I have decided to leave the Pumpkin colored bucket.

SNI was on time with every pay check and was accurate with the amount; they sent my W-2 on time and to the proper address. The only pay issues involved getting my manager (DBL) to sign off on detention pay and lay over pay where I felt it was earned and they disagreed and having my final metric bonus withheld even though I earned it and received my final pay check the Friday the bonus was paid out. The withholding of my earned bonus is, IMHO, a cheap ### way to save a few dollars while forever creating a bitter aftertaste for this driver. Benefits were expensive and difficult to maneuver. Any issue or question regarding benefits involves a lengthy phone call with Green Bay and, most likely, an unhelpful non answer.

I have many good things to say about the people working out of the SLC OC even though the driver lounge and 50 grit towels used in the dirt bag showers are generously called weak. The maintenance staff is serviceable but there is one guy who is very anal about load bars…the shop is relatively quick and I never had any problems after a PM or express visit. The yard is the standard graveled pothole paradise. The two best things about working out of SLC are Rob Komer and Alice’s restaurant, and in that order. Fontana was usually a nightmare and that long Schneider National nightmare is drawing to a close…Portland is nice but crowded, avoid it in the rain; it is usually rainy in Portland. Phoenix is like most of Arizona; you either love it or hate it. No shower, no laundry, but there is a junk food vending machine and a googol of potholes that, after one of those crazy desert thunder showers, makes the back lot look like an aerial view of northern Minnesota.

During my time with SNI the loads greatly transitioned from 90%+ drop and hook to 50% dp/hk. I believe there are two factors at work here; first the change in the overall freight market and second the dramatic increase in the number of IC drivers who have a penchant for taking all the dp/hks. A few of my friends who decided to go the IC route told tales of high attrition by new IC drivers who had delusions of grandeur and unmeasured wealth and who were replaced quickly by another driver who then leased on with similar dreams. The solid successes were few, while the stories of shattered dreams were many. Yes they had dogs and microwaves, but they also had more skin in the game; it’s not an easy game. Never forget that Schneider makes a very sweet profit off of the IC program and SNI makes money off the lessee be they successful or failure. The IC program wasn’t started out of an altruistic sense of entrepreneurial mentoring.

A few of the CO drivers I got to know and visited with on a regular basis became friends and even a few new drivers who asked for assistance where given my number and invited to call if there were answers I had and could offer. A couple of drivers I avoided like the plague, especially if the plague quoted Alex Jones or felt the need to pontificate on politics all while showing a complete lack of nuance or worldly sophistication. I prefer a quick exit when dealing with the unwashed and uneducated hoi polloi. Schneider drivers are one thing, Schneider office types are an entirely different kettle of fish. If you have never driven or know the issues faced daily then how can you possibly tell us what we need to do or how to do it? I always though Support Shift was an oxymoron because their idea of support was to spiel whatever they were told to say regardless of how little it supported our real world needs. Of course this is an issue that is industry wide and every company has managers who have never climbed into a cab let alone run a load or thrown iron or hunted for a spot to park with 5 minutes left on their 14.

The tractors were always under 200k when I was assigned to them and my last one had 324 miles on it when I picked it up. They are the lowest form of adequate and serviceable with no amount of money spent on comfort or driver consideration. Now we have been told new tractors will have some form of APU and increased DC/AC conversion for our comfort but I can only speak about what I experienced not the promise of tomorrow. They don’t call them Freight-Shakers for nothing. A better suspension and a Bose seat would say that GB really does appreciate all that we do…don’t hold your collective breathes waiting but by all means hold your sore lower back and use a SalonPas.

Not once did Schneider every ask me to run illegal or keep me out longer than I wanted or send me somewhere I wasn’t willing to go. They asked a few times if I wanted to go east and I said no…end of discussion. Texas was as far as I was willing to go and happy as hall to turn west as soon as I could. Though the driver manager didn’t directly ask or suggest that I run harder or push my hours the whiny tone and pleading suggestions hinted that should I succumb to their entreaties any fall-out would be mine to deal with and they would slink into the darkness of denial. If you don’t maintain your position then there is the chance that you will fall into the trap of being a patsy with no one to offer you a ladder to climb out of the hole you were dispatched into. No manager has to answer questions regarding HOS or DOT related concerns. Managers only want the freight moved and for the lowest cost possible; thus ensuring the highest profit for the regions quarterly report.

For anyone considering Schneider I would tell them they mostly (with glaring exceptions) did “right” by me within the rules they have established and within the pay package outlined when I signed on. But, that is not to say all was rainbows and unicorns; read on for a few considerations of improvement…IMHO.


My major areas of concern with Schneider revolved around the following:

A lack of footprint in the West, my area of operation; the closing of Fontana and French Camp and the distance to an OC made PMs and quarterly sustainment an issue. More than once I had to have pertinent documents faxed to me on the road because I never had the chance to swing in to an OC and easily pick up a copy. The closing of California driver amenities in a state where parking is not easy to find made going into the LA market that much harder. A recent discussion with one of my IC buddies who has a very solid inside connection told me that SNI is even going so far as to not hire OTR drivers based out of California as long as the dedicated runs in that area will allow that stipulation; second hand rumor yes, but he trust his source and I trust him given the legitimacy of other things he has told me about SNI changes and decisions.

A second major issue I had; the HMG miles. The only justification for using the HMG miles as payment for cpm is that it is a huge benefit to the company. In a day and age of satellite GPS the fact that HMG is even allowed as a legal form of measurement as opposed to an actual mileage measurement or an odometer count is a testament to the ATA’s willingness to not only play golf with members of congress, but pick up the significant bar tab as well. How can any industry not be paid accurately for the work they do? How is it that this has not been brought before the ICC as an unfair practice that disadvantages drivers while greatly benefiting companies? One can only surmise that it is the lobbying efforts of the ATA on behalf of the “mega” companies that prevents this even becoming an issue. A third issue I had was the low rate associated with layover pay and detention pay. Recently there were a number of weekends where “freight was soft in the West”. Receiving $65 for an entire day sitting is ludicrous and telling a driver it is related to the Chinese New Year is equally laughable. Port shipments and intermodal freight sure, but a load of dog food, paper rolls or Coca Cola going from a bottling plant to a distributor??? Explain the nexus between domestic consumption of domestically produced goods and fireworks popping out of the tail of a dragoon on a street in Hunan province. Personally it was hard for me not to feel and think that “freight was soft in the West” because SNI was only partially engaged in the West and may have lost the pulse of the market by closing CS in Fontana and having only Phoenix and Portland representing the costal ports and SLC covering the Inter-mountain region. Having 3 OC’s in an area that covers approximately 40% of the continental US while having 3 (?) in Ohio doesn’t make a Western Regional driver feel there is a strong presence; that weakness may be part of the frustration one feels while sitting for $65.

Lastly, and this may be more about me than Schneider, I have the sense that some of Schneider’s cultural attitude is façade rather than firmly held philosophy. As an example: If the First Core Value is safety why hire so many marginally competent drivers and why the truncated training process? I am not suggesting “team” training like a few of the other “mega” companies’ use; those styles are even less safe. The idea those 4-5 days OTR with a trainer are adequate, or 5 days covering all things related to the Q-com and trip planning are not ideas representative of what that First Core Value expresses. Would it cost more? Yes! But how does one put a cost control on that particular First Core Value? And as for those marginal hires…the entire bonus system of hiring is absurd and ineffective and ensures that warm bodies will be lining up to hire on; a hire bonus is nothing more than a shiny bauble used to attract those unsophisticated enough to appreciate that it is a short term lure for a long term goal. SNI should scrap the entire bonus system, end all advertising and marketing for new drivers, cut back the recruiting staff and replace it all with an increase pay scale and retention bonuses for productive drivers who have shown commitment to the company and a level of performance that can be counted on. At my year two anniversary I was allowed to order a new pair of boots while a new driver is given $1000. If everyone knows SNI is top tier in pay and shows loyalty to those experienced drivers who perform then drivers will be calling without glossy pamphlets handed out at the truck stops or XM radio advertising. For Schneider the offsets in lower insurance cost alone would go a long way to funding a new adequate pay and retention structure. The rub is getting corporate to consider seven generations ideology and intellectually distancing themselves from the short term, next quarter philosophy. Imagine a Schneider that didn’t have to incorporate the numerous software controls in the tractors operational parameters because they had drivers who had the experience to actually make sound professional decisions while driving as opposed to the “nanny” hand holding utilized now to protect new inexperienced “CDL holders” from their own lack of knowledge, judgment and experience.

I’ve never been to Green Bay or met anyone from the home office so maybe this is all a misperception on my part. Maybe they really do care about the driver and appreciate all that we do. Intellectually I am pragmatic and intuitive, for the most part I have survived this long by applying myself and trusting my reading of people and situations but I could be wrong on my read regarding the true attitude of GB…still I chose not to wager my future that I was reading them incorrectly. Because I feel comfortable with my decision and future I sincerely hope, for all my Pumpkin buddies out there, that I have indeed missed the mark on my read and that GB is going to prove me wrong; that way we all end up winners. The final earned performance bonus being denied is, unfortunately for those still pushing pumpkin, an indicator that I have not misread the corporate culture of Schneider.

I wish everyone of the Pumpkin Posse a safe journey, a fat wallet, and a pull through parking spot the next time they need to log line 2. May all your lv/ld turn into dp/hk, may your fuel solution allow for a fueling unrelated to the hapless Cleveland Browns, may you never again see a TA94 series, may all your TAH request be met and may you never be given a garbage load to Progressive Industries in Wilmington, CA.

Peace out my brothers and sisters, Little Eddy.

 

My base was going to be .38 but it hadn't kicked in yet because pay raises don't go into effect until the the first of the month following your aniversiry date. For the yearly raise system you earn .005 for every quarter bonus you earn and (I've been told) with your DBLs sign off. I had been making .36
I was also making another. 02cpm on the new dedicated account I was driving before I left and would have earned another .02 cpm quarterly bonus as I was tracking well above the metric parameters.
Base was .38 + .02 +.02
My new buckets pay increases my gross income by >40% per year. I'll be driving less, with more home time, with better and less expensive benifits, more paid vacations and holidays...Yada Yada Yada.

Having said all that, there are far worse places to start then Schneider.

 

If you're alluding to Werner with the Smurf Squad reference then I am sure you are spot on.