6/21/16 Is the beginning of my Schneider career!!!

Which one is Vader?

 

Has to be the one Smiling, because he doesn't work for Schneider !!

 

So, I picked up my load in El Paso going to Commerce City CO (basically Denver). At the time of pick up about 150 miles north of me they were getting pounded with snow. I realize it probably wasn't a lot for here or some of you other experienced drivers but keep in mind I'm new. I decided to take a 30 mile longer route that allowed me to hit the back side of the storm. Yesterday I saw very little snow and rain. I left TX with 78° temp and parked at 28°. I woke up for some reason at 3 am and checked the temp. It was just under 20 so I idled the truck to keep her warm. Woke up early knowing that I had a day in store for me. As I'm driving I remember my teacher at the school I went to saying that there are parts of CO that require chained tires. No idea why I thought this at that time but knew that I was about to find out why. The roads weren't too bad. Packed snow slowed me down a bit but not too bad. Then BOOM. I see the signs for the chains required. Crap. 1st thing was I had never put them on. 2nd was I didn't have any. I'm kind of ticked at this moment. All I can hear over and over in my head was the guy in Schneider class saying he never carried chains because if it was that bad to drive he just pulled over and didn't drive. I call in to the DBL and even though I have 3 bars of service they can't hear me. I know my DBL is off so I knew I has to talk to them and every time I send a message they never answer. They answer if I reply to the message they send but never of I initiate it. So I call again. Same thing. Can't hear me. I call my wife and she is having the same issue but she finally is able to hear me. It cuts in and out and a 3 min conversation took 10 min. I have her call them and let them know my situation. They tell her to have me send a message to SEM. I do it and another Schneider driver pulls up behind me. He's been on for 3 months. Said he has chains but doesn't want to put them on. I'll take em lol. I help him put them on. Actually, for the pain in the arse it was it was actually fun. It was 8°. I was pretty close to frostbite. But mission accomplished. I look in his box and there is a bag. Another set of chains. The Schneider gods have smiled on me today. We put them on my truck and off we are. I should have had chains. Actually, better yet, what is a regional driver out of Memphis doing in ##### Colorado? I got the assignment. I didn't complain. I didn't really care. But had I known I guess I would have made sure I was definitely better prepared. Still my fault. I get in my truck and I have a message from SEM. We don't handle you're chains contact your DBL. This is where I'm just livid. Even though I'm ready to roll, these hillbillies can't make up their mind who does what. It's exacerbating. Their only saving grace was the scenery I saw today. Snow covered mountains. And trees. And roads. The best was seeing the snow blowing off the top of the mountain from the heavy winds. As if they were smoking. Pretty cool. I made my drop on time. And my preassignment was due to pick up tonight. Then due in OK by 0700 Tue. 750 miles. I get here with 16 min left on my 14. They have overnight parking. They tell me they'll call me when they are ready to load. 2 hours later I still sit waiting. Crazy. No way I'm making that delivery time. I do like a challenge though. So I'm going to try.

 

Well. I made my ETA. 3.25 hours after my original appt set when load picked up. I estimated for 1100 today. Arrived at 1016. The gate wouldn't let me in because I didn't know what Schneider changed my appt to. A guy walks up and takes my paperwork. Says I'm not on the appt list for either 0700 or 1000. Where does 1000 come from you may be asking? Well late 2 nights ago some goofball updated my NAT and made changes to my assignment. I'd say about 2200. In the remarks it said appt 1000. That's it. No date. No more information. Well I'll try to make it but I doubt it. I was right. So they take my paperwork and come back. My appt was set for 1000 the day before. Wait. What? I wasn't finally unloaded till 0100 750 miles away? Classic Schneider. They debate about taking it off me and giving me another load. I'm running low on hours so I said it don't matter to me as long as I'm compensated. They said ok. Set it for 0500 this morning. I get here at 0445 and they tell me my appt was 0400. I'm livid. I'm thinking if I can generate enough speed I can open the gates and drop this load on the side of the road and be done. I get in the truck. Call up Schneider 911. I'm going to lay into them. The dude that was on the intercom kept talking and I just walked away when he told me I was late. He had an attitude over the intercom and I wasn't going to get into it. So I am on hold and he comes up to me and says he can squeeze me in. Had he been minutes later I was on my way to create a Christmas party at the nearest Pilot. If be providing the truck load of Bud Light!!! Unloaded in 15 minutes. Record time. I couldn't even finish this post till now lol. Off to Herrin Il to see if I can make it home on time. I asked for Fri-Mon off. We'll see if it happens. As of now it's looking like home on Friday morning. Recap sucks.

 

6 months and 1 day. I just couldn't take it anymore. I was stuck waiting on a load for 34 hours and asked to continue to wait. Basically every 3 hours I was told they just started my load and it would be ready in 3 hours. Schneider said they didn't have any other loads to put me on and refused to allow me to bobtail 250 miles home. I must also say that I had requested guaranteed time at home for 4 days. Thursday night I was scheduled to get home for Fri-Mon off to come back on Tuesday. My mistake was not being more firm from the beginning and allowing them to hold me over into Friday morning. But it just continued on. At 6am I was told 9am it would be ready. At 9 am I was told noon. It wasn't till then I refused. I told them that if it wasn't ready by noon I would leave the truck there or bobtail home whatever they preferred. I was assured it would be ready by then. I told them I would be ready to get my rental car if not ready. Then I'm instructed to call the OC operations manager. I call him and told him I'm not waiting any longer. He tried to get me to wait till 1600 and if not ready they would pay me to bobtail home. I refused. I asked for it in writing that they assure me I would not be charged for abandoning the truck and he did. So I packed up and left.

So, this concludes my blog or whatever this is. I've learned so much. With so much more to learn. I'm not sure where I'm headed at this point but I've been looking for a while at many other options. I'd rather not go to another mega company. I'd rather do a smaller company. I'm thinking of maybe doing an IC or lease of some sort. Suggestions are appreciated. I really do appreciate all of the help I've received from a lot of yall. The bonus to this all is that I'll be wearing basketball shorts and printed tshirts for a little bit. Ahhhhh comfort away from Dickies steel toed boots and loud lime green shirts.

 

CS strikes again!

I'm glad you got home for Christmas. It sucks to leave a job on a bad note, but it seems like it was a long time coming. Gonna miss reading your updates. There's always other jobs out there though man, don't worry.

Good luck

 

Did you abanden the load?

 

Nooooo. I arrived with an empty to pick it up at 0700 on Thursday. It was continental tire in Mt Vernon Il. I have them my pick up number. They scaled my truck with empty trailer and asked me to drop it scale as bobtail and come back for the trailer number of my load with the receipt. When I got there they gave me a phone number to call and said the load was not ready and it would be about 2-3 hours. Also said I could not stay on site. I left to truck stop as bobtail. I let my DBL know I was waiting. At 0900 I called and was told that they just started on my load and it would be about 4 hours. I called in and talked to another DBL and let them know. They advised me that because of holidays there are no other loads to switch to. Call back at noon and was told that it would be another 3 hours that they just backed the trailer to the dock. At this point I called DBL again to let them know that I hadn't been to sleep but only had 5 hours to drive home. I'd give them till 1800 I'd have a fresh 10 and I'll take a nap. They said ok and if load wasn't ready to call back. Sure enough load wasn't ready and again told they just finished staging the load and will be loading it soon. Give us 6 hours he said because we are short staffed at the moment. I told him that I would sleep till 0500 and if the loads not ready I'll have to let Schneider know I'm not waiting any longer. Also, I couldn't sleep cause I was so steamed for that nap I mentioned. I finally did sleep and woke up at 0500. Again, a lady this time tells me it's just being started loaded and the trailer just hit the dock. It'll be ready soon. I chuckled and said how long? She says 6 hours. And I quote "but that's just a guess". MA'AM!!!! I understand its not your fault but I'm going to need someone else to confirm this load rather than just a guess. She hung up on me in the middle of me talking. I call Schneider 911. He says to me that he had a load he could have switched me to hours before had he known I was waiting. The 3 DBLs I spoke to before didn't leave notes that I had been waiting on this load the whole previous day. He was scattering for hours looking for a driver and had to cancel the load pick up. Now I'm really ticked. He calls up CS I guess and they talk to the customer and get the same response I get. Just backed to the dock and loading it now. Be ready at 0900. He says if it's not ready to request to bobtail home. So at 0645 I text my DBL knowing she is probably on her way to work. I said after 0900 I'm leaving. She made some calls and then came back with 1000 it'll be ready. I said at 1000 I'm leaving. She said she would get it approved. So at 1000 the load is still not ready. Same response. I'm sick of typing it lol. DBL says they promise it'll be ready by 1300 and if it's not you can bobtail home. Nope. Not waiting. We go back and forth and I'm asking for written permission to drive the truck back to the OC without being charged the money they said they would by the paper I signed in orientation. They said no that I had to wait for the load. I didn't think they understood that I was quitting. So I told them I'm either driving home or leaving the truck there and getting a rental car. I then get a text asking if I talked to that OC manager guy. I said no. She said he left me a message. I got nothing. She gives me his number. I call and he doesn't answer. I leave a message basically saying I knew he didn't have the balls to answer. Then I told my DBL he didn't answer. She calls me and transfers me to him. He asks me to wait till 1800 now for this load. I said no I'm not interested. I explained to him that my sister drove from FL to my house to stay Thur and Friday night. Leaving for MO on Sat morning. I hadn't seen her in 3 years. Nor her 4 kids. I've already missed last night and most of today. I also explained that this happened to me on Thanksgiving as well. And that the reason this TAH was set for 4 days and guaranteed was because of me not getting my 48 hours back then. He didn't seem to care. I told him that as far as I'm concerned that Schneider wouldn't make another dime off of me. He said he didn't appreciate my condescending attitude towards him. I advised him to look up the meaning for the word because I mean every bit of what I say. I then asked him if they prefer I leave the truck or bring it back to the OC. He said to leave it there. I asked him to send me a message stating that I would not be charged nor noted for abandoning the load due to this being his request to leave the truck. He did so and I have a picture of it in my phone. I did also explain to him that I knew that leaving would negate my bonus and the match of my 401k. Essentially knowing that I was walking from about $1500 or so was worth it because I just can't take the extreme lack and pure neglect of proper communication being labeled as simple miscommunications. It's just horrible. I did however boast about my DBL. I truly believe that she had my back and if all of Schneider was more like her it would be a much better place.

I will say this in conclusion. SCHNEIDER is a great company to learn from. You just have to have thick skin to deal with a lot of garbage. Simply, I'm not cut out for it. I get absolutely frustrated at gross negligence. I had been noticing that as I was driving I was grinding my teeth constantly. I would stop as I noticed it but minutes later I would be at it again. For me, it's just horrible to deal with that. I just couldn't do it anymore.

 

I would say you showed alot of patience
MERRY CHRISTMAS BUDDY

 

I'm not patient at all lol. My worst quality is patience. And maybe verbally abusive lol. It's a tie. My wife on the other hand is the most patient person I know. So when she was on board with pulling the plug I knew that it was time. She knows every detail almost of my dealings with them. I haven't put most of them on here. It really was much worse than what you read here. However, I never had an issue with miles. I was averaging well above 2500 a week. The last 2 weeks were 2900 and 3100. If worked right it's easy to get miles there. Only one week towards the end was below $400. That was thanksgiving week. I got crap miles that week. I did get them to pay me for detention though on those days. You just have to fight for it.