Schneider tanker training

Man that sux but at least you have a plan "B".

I won't be starting CDL school until September but I actually called and talked Superior ( same guy actually, Vince ) to see if my school was on their approved list? Fortunately it is so I should be good-to-go on that score and it will likely come down to whether or not there are any open positions at the terminal close to me when I finish school in December? If not, my plan "B" is actually to see if I can get on w/ Schneider for their Costco dedicated route running out of Houston and stay w/ them for 18 mos to a two years and take advantage of their tuition reimbursement. After that I'll try to move over to Superior or Highway Transport for tankers.

 

Indeed! I could stand on my head in a dark corner all day for $200/day vs $65/day!

 

It definitely makes a difference man, you will definitely be sitting over the weekend 8 time out of 10 with Schneider

 

Their training center at Coraopolis is supposed to have a 90% lower accident rate for its trainees, probably something to do with the terrain in Pennsylvania.

Their training is IMHO excellent but doesn't necessarily prepare you for the job. Schneider will get your feet wet, but after that it's a roll of the dice as to whether or not you get a workable assignment with tolerable pay or an absolute clusterf*** of stupidity, such as assigning OTR drivers intermodal freight (short haul with almost no miles when you're paid by the mile).

 

Not sure why you're mad about their training...this is better than most companies advertise, let alone actually do for their trainees.

 

Yes this is about right. 9/10 people from my class at Schneider quit before 6 months in. Most common complaint was pay, that at times pay was lower than training pay because either dispatch couldn't get loads to them or because the loads they were getting had very low miles when they're paid by the mile.

You never talk to dispatch, you only talk to your corporate handler (the 'driver business leader') who then talks to dispatch, dispatch may take days to reply to the DBL, then DBL relays dispatch to you. It's stupid. The hope is that during your first 3 months you acquire a reputation for getting the job done, then dispatch will get you loads before you're done with the current one.

Starting cpm is decent considering you have absolutely no experience and Schneider just trained you. Around 40-50 cpm during the course of the first year.

If I were you I'd start with big orange for the training, then if they mess with you (highly likely) go to a different company. It seems they went public not too long ago, and are no longer run by drivers but by bean counters. For example, their trucks are governed at 63mph, if you have your foot on the throttle while going 63 they call this 'overspeed' even though you never pass 63mph. This is a fuel efficiency issue masked as a 'safety' issue, meaning the bean counters don't give a sh** about their drivers, they just want to cut costs. It makes you wonder about other parts of their 'safety' regs are built on this same bullsh**.

 

They don't teach this part during training, this is where the 'training engineer' comes into play, your 1on1 training for 2 weeks after the classroom instruction. Some TEs are awesome, some are complete ######## who should be fired. Schneider will ask for your opinion about their classroom training after all's said and done, but will not ask for your opinion about your TE, meaning that if your TE was a sh**bag, they'll continue to be a sh**bag, likely get perfectly fine recruits to quit, teach them the wrong way to do the job, etc.

 

Thanks for the honest response, it is really appreciated by someone who's trying to make a decision! If I end up w/ Schneider I'm increasingly thinking I'll try to get on the new Costco dedicated acct out of Houston which seems like a far more consistent and controlled kind of environment especially for a rookie driver.

 

As long as their dedicated account has you going to the same customer, with consistent pay, it looks like they're giving you one hellova deal. As long as you stay around Houston, Schneider Bulk west of the Mississippi won't be an issue...anywhere else other than Houston, and just keep in mind that Schneider has absolutely NOTHING in the form of OCs, personnel, even parking lots, for bulk drivers once they cross the Mississippi. Not even their own people know this...that's how disorganized the corporation can get.

Good luck and just keep in mind that the grass gets really green once you get farther away from megacarriers lol.

 

I just seen this thread and my opinion is that I love tankers the gig is awesome and if you can’t get on with something good in tankers right out do your year and comeback when you have that year and try again. I’m counting down my days to my year with the big orange and a lot of what was said is highly accurate. I had a awesome te ( if you're ever at the chi quala you know who I’m talking about) but the company is so disfunctional right now. And there is tons of things that I feel are games to try to get rid of drivers. First let me explain my thinking. Schneider paid for my Cdl training in return for a year of service. If you pass Schneider’s months long training/orientation they want the whole sum back. Make it less than 6mos66%. And less than a year 33%. Now I know over the course of the last 10 months they’ve made well over the 4 grand for the Cdl. I can only imagine how many others are/were in the same situation. My orientation class had 12 people in it. A lot of which have quit I think it still 4 of us. Most of the people you talk to with Schneider are very cool people from Dbls to osr’s to other drivers and the people at the Oc’s. There is a disconnect with the planners and Schneider’s system, there was a longtime driver that called them out on it too during the company conference call. -I started in the winter and got what I thought was decent miles until I got my first pay bump. Everybody was saying wait till it warms up and freight will be jumping. Well it’s been hot and still slowing just ehh compared to my winter. Talking to other drivers it all seems to be the same, so I can only imagine the guys at the top of the payscale.
2. Schneider doesn’t want you calling customers and it took me about a 2 months to realize it was in my best interest to do so. I’ve had plenty of times where I’ve called and a load was cancelled that nobody said nothing about or called to see if I can deliver early only to find out my appointment time was actually later than they wanted me there and I need to get a move on.
3. They think all work is good work for the driver. “Least you’re not sitting right?” Wrong.
Training pay is 80$ a day and layover is 65$.
I remember Memorial Day they wanted me to pick up a hazmat relay. That went 30 miles, 60 round trip. Let’s do some math here. 60x.47 = 28+35for unload= 63 +15for shorthaul = 78$ congrats I just worked all day for 78$ or better yet worked all day for 13$ cause I could’ve done nothing for 65$ They love giving local work to people who aren’t local and sending drivers to the railyard as if there isn’t a whole intermodal department. That’s a whole different story. Even in Chicago they have assignments that pay zero miles because it’s chicago to Chicago even though you are driving 30 + miles in Chicago traffic and have the nerve to say you get shorthaul but either way you are making less than someone in training for the day.
4. The office people will tell you there’s no freight when you’re looking right at it... I’ve had days where they said there’s no freight but can you Prespot(drop them to be preloaded) these trailers. So I spend the day prespotting to nalco and basf meanwhile there’s dozens of trailers just sitting there already preloaded.
I fell these are just a few of the games they play to get rid of drivers.. new drivers coming in every week at a cheaper rate and if you went through them you have to pay them to leave..


The company isn’t bad and I don’t hate schneider is just a frustration disconnected mess right now.. unless you want to do tankers at cost I would see if the other companies called first