Schnieder National ..... What BS!

ampm wayne · Mar 4, 2009

Hooking-up in cold weather is a lot tougher. You had a lot of things working against you. I know when it is really cold my fifth wheel does not latch as well as it does in warm weather. It makes more of a thud sound instead of a nice clear latching sound. If my handle does not go ALL the way in I pull handle back out and try again. In my opinion your mistake was letting the trailer fall off the fifth wheel. If you had re-done things before the trailer fell down on the truck frame you could have saved the situation. Accidents happen. I am sure that if freight was better you would still be trucking. It is a shame Schneider is looking for any minor incident to get rid of drivers. Good-luck to you.

RickG · Mar 4, 2009

I don't know about Schneider but our carrier requires us to look at the jaws and be sure they are fully locked .

Wiscentral · Mar 4, 2009

Rick, SNI requires to check to make to make sure the jaws are locked open when you get out are check you alignment before hooking up. Then, after a tug test is good, get out of the cab and check the space between 5th wheel and apron along with the 5th wheel release handle is slid back in. Next, crawl under the trailor and check the locking jaws are slid accross the kingpin. This is all true. Only after a successful tug test.
I think what they mean by natural turnover is drivers retire, or getting better offers or maybe medically unable to drive. This happens with all companies. Its a gimmie. Un-natural would be the screw ups, accidents, deaths, terminations and in one case, A driver I know was arrested at a DOT inspection stop in TN, outstanding warrants for drug possesion.

AMPM Wayne, As of right now, learning and Knowing from the experience of it, I do agree with you 100%, but take it one step further. Knowing the struggle to get under it. I would get out, with trailor raised, but not hooked up and with tension off, drop the landing gear to raise the trailor up. Why struggle to get back under it. This would also would help prevent the mess. They don't have to time teach you everything to cover all situations. Just the basics and how to prevent a high hook up. But not a low hook up. The rest is learned by hard knocks experience.

Baack · Mar 4, 2009

There are a couple post here that I would say are boarder line
Please keep your comments polite
Its a ruff market out there for all drivers, lets let the Truckers Report be a haven from all that trouble
Thanks

RickG · Mar 4, 2009

Wiscentral said: ↑

Oh...they are on hiring freeze alright. With all their training centers are shut down...including the big one in Green Bay WI. No more newbies for a while. The second half of the cutting the fleet down is letting go drivers for the stupid and most petty of reasons. And in many cases....straight out ########. 1/4 of the drivers out of Woodhaven/Detroit were cut. Some for not wearing thier safety boots.
Brad W, a driver I went through training with, was cut because they claim his fuel MPG was too low. His #### truck was a 2002 that even on a flat stretch, no mountains, steady run from Green Bay, WI to West Memphis, AR via I-43, I-39, I-55, I-74 and I-57 and back to I-55.....only 22,000 lb load. Only made one stop. His truck would still only average 5.4- 5.5 MPG.

How about Troy, Van H, another cut because of excessive idle time. But its ok to leave the poor guy stranded in northern Minnesota for 3 days with temps in the lower teens and a non-working space heater under his bunk. FYI, Schneider only approve truck idle if temp fall below 10 degrees.

Before I left, I got a messege on my quallcomm box to drop our cruise speed to no more they 57-60 mph, to save fuel cost. IF I do that, the truck now falls out of the operating RPM range of 1300 to 1600. The maximum effiency range set by Schnieder. Its a catch 22 !!! Yet, they will route your ### 20 miles out of the way to save 2 cents on fuel.
As for fuel, Schneider is actually burning the fuel they purchased 5 years ago in mass bulk for the Operating Centers fueling only. Like pre-ordered and prepaid. This allows them to cut back buying when fuel cost skyrockets and then order when price of fuel is low. But this does not count for fuel purchased at a Pilot, TA, Pedro etc etc thats seperate.

My departure came in Gary, IN at the operating center. I went to go pick up one of the old "A" trailors with 44,000lb of seeds. The trailor is sitting on 3" of packed snow , plus its sitting low. Last driver did not want to drop the landing gear down all the way. They tell you do this to prevent high grabs from the next driver. Anyway, That weight, older trailor...you can't crank up it up with the landing gear...no way!! So, I line the cab up. If it was dropped, I should be able to pick it up......just grunt my way under it. Took a few tries, but I backed into kinda hard, barely clearing the tires under the trailor. I did a dug test, make sure it grabbed. Pull forward and it breaks free. The 5th wheel did not lock because of ice, frozen mud, and gravel clogging up the lock jaws from working properly.

(This was later determined by a mechanic when the 5th wheel was inspected.)

OK..so I pull it forward slowly to try again, and now the trailor falls and drops on the frame of the truck behind the 5th wheel. AHHHH #####!
What happen?? when I was slamming into the trailor, with that weight, the landing gear was pushed back and then dug/sank into the packed snow underneath them when I pulled forward. Now I sit SNAFU'd. So I go to the shop for help. The shop then writes it up as a "DETACHED TRAILOR INCIDENT" I never left the yard!! Airlines were not hooked up!

They claim it was all preventable if I did a proper pretrip like I was taught at the school. I went to my cab of the truck, grabbed my Schnieder Training manual and demand they show me where it states to "test the 5th wheel in a pre-trip. IT DOES NOT!!!! What do you want me to do, lock it open and stick my hand in there to trigger the locking jaws???

No damage to truck, trailor or load....but here's your pink slip!
They then wanted me to clean all my stuff out of the truck,..TV, DVD, CB, food, clothes, tools, all my gear and even a custom mattress and shove me on a Greyhound bus out of Chicago back to Green Bay. SCREW THAT!
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O.K. dumb question here . Did you dump the air out of the airbags on the tractor or does Schneider not have air ride ?

Wiscentral · Mar 4, 2009

Not a dumb question. Can't touch them, so it was not an option available to me

RickG · Mar 4, 2009

Wiscentral said: ↑

Not a dumb question. Can't touch them, so it was not an option available to me
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Can't touch them ? You mean you drop loaded trailers without dumping them ?? http://books.google.com/books?id=bf...=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA59,M1 .

Wiscentral · Mar 4, 2009

That would be a correct. Park it, release brakes, drop landing gear down to where they just start touching the ground, Pull your airlines and electrical cord. and release 5th wheel. Now get in cab, release tractor brakes only and pull forward a bit, but not all the way, watching your trailor pull free and settle evenly. When all is good ....move on.

RickG · Mar 4, 2009

Wiscentral said: ↑

That would be a correct. Park it, release brakes, drop landing gear down to where they just start touching the ground, Pull your airlines and electrical cord. and release 5th wheel. Now get in cab, release tractor brakes only and pull forward a bit, but not all the way, watching your trailor pull free and settle evenly. When all is good ....move on.
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And the airbags ? I've been told keeping the airbags inflated when pulling from a loaded trailer is harmful for the bags . In cases of a trailer dropped low as mentioned in this thread deflating the bags until half the fifth wheel is under the trailer then inflating them is easier on you and the equipment .

Wiscentral · Mar 4, 2009

RickG said: ↑

And the airbags ? I've been told keeping the airbags inflated when pulling from a loaded trailer is harmful for the bags . In cases of a trailer dropped low as mentioned in this thread deflating the bags until half the fifth wheel is under the trailer then inflating them is easier on you and the equipment .
Click to expand...

I can not argue with that. I will bet by all logical thinking it is true. But It was not part of the procedures taught to Schneider drivers. Maybe they feel differant and some drivers would forget to re-inflate them, I dunno.

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