A Year With Schneider-2 July 2014-1 July 2015

I am writing this Blog to show what can be done in a year as a Schneider Team Driver. I’ll start with my background and how I ended up here. I’ll finish with my numbers and how they add up and a conclusion.


I was a in The Army for 23 years as a Combat Engineer. I looked for Roadside Bombs during 42 months deployed to Iraq. I have all my fingers and toes so I guess I did okay at it at it. I am also highly decorated with Bronze Star Medals and two Valorous awards. This does nothing for you when you retire but it looks good hanging on the wall and makes for good war stories.


I had the option to work for the Government advising other teams on how to find Improvised Explosives but honestly when I was done with the military I wanted to close that chapter of my life for good. I will always be a Soldier but now I wanted something a little less stressful


For the first year after retirement I did a lot of volunteer work. This turned into a full-time job itself and was beginning to be a pain. I have always been an avid skier so as ski season approached I looked for a job at one of the ski resorts in Colorado. I took a job as a bus driver in Breckenridge Colorado and had a blast. I didn’t make any money so to speak but was able to ski 3 days a week at 6 different resorts for free. As the season ended one of the other drivers mentioned Truck Driving. It had never crossed my mind but the more I researched the more I thought it might be cool for a year to travel the road and make some cash doing it.


When the season ended I enrolled in United States Truck Driving School in Colorado Springs Colorado. I had never used my GI Bill so I used it to pay for the school. The school was 3 weeks long and is actually a good school.


After the first week of school I realized that with the Military Mentorship Program and Driver pay I could make a real good living. I had already researched companies and narrowed it down to 2 companies….Schneider and Werner. Their pay rates were similar, equipment was comparable and I didn’t see much difference. Werner’s orientation was 6 weeks long and only 60 miles from my house. Schneider’s orientation was 3 weeks long and in California. What it came down to was when I asked the Werner recruiter how often I would be home he stated “We will try and get you home once every three weeks”. The Schneider recruiter said “we will get you home once every three weeks”. Decision made!


My son, who was in college at the time, was not enjoying his college experience. He had spent four years and the USMC and being around recent High School graduates all day drove him nuts. Also the Professors were all extremely liberal which he also didn’t like much. I mentioned Teaming with him and without me even finishing explaining he said “I’m in!” and started school one week after I did.


We finished Truck Driving School, had our backgrounds completed, got all endorsements and headed off to Fontana for orientation.

Orientation-


Orientation was exactly as explained on their website and by our recruiter. 1st week is all skills. You will perform backing part of the day and drive the rest of the day. Pretty simple stuff but you would be shocked at how many people had their CDL yet couldn’t perform basic driving maneuvers. All of us that went to Sage up in Denver and USTDS in Colorado Springs were proficient in these tasks. The students that went to Community College or some cheesy CDL school struggled and some didn’t make it past the first week.


The 2nd week you go with a training engineer. You drive 90% of the time and the Engineer teaches. You become familiar with the Qualcomm and how to handle customers. In my opinion we could have used a 2nd week with the Training Engineer not for the driving portion but to learn the Qualcomm.


The 3rd week you do more skills training but the focus is more on the Qualcomm and trip planning. At the end of the 3rd week you test and if you pass the written test and diving test you finish the course. When you finish the course they introduce you to your Driver Business Leader or DBL for short.


You do get paid while in orientation and overall it isn’t a bad experience. The trainers are professional and treat you with respect.


Hitting the road-


As a Team you will get a newer truck. Ours had less than 125000 miles which is still new in the truck driving world. As a solo you usually end up with an older truck with more than 400000 miles on them. The determining factor is what’s at your home Operating Center when you finish school.


The first couple of weeks can be a nightmare. You try and do what you were taught with trip planning and figure out what works best for you. When there is an issue you don’t know what to do because you haven’t experienced the problem yet. This goes back to that 2nd week with a Training Engineer. May not solve all your problems but it couldn’t hurt. It took a good two months until we were comfortable and even then we were surprised by problems.


Weather and other delays-


We learned pretty quick to check our route and check weather when we received our pre-assignment. Until February our miles on the assignment and what we actually had to drive were always 6-10% different. Doesn’t sound like much but on a 2000 mile load a 10% difference (200 miles) can wreck your trip plan. Something happened the end on January and now the difference really is minimal. They still use Household Movers Guide (HHMG) instead of practical or hub to hub miles. By checking the route on Mapquest or some other way you might actually find it’s smarter to drive a little further to avoid weather, mountain passes or any other event that could delay your arrival.


Time At Home-


We started out going out two weeks and then home for three days. It seemed we always lost out on good loads because Colorado freight is always soft. Easy in…hard to get out. Loads out were always Beer Loads, dog food or recycled paper. Those loads are heavy and going through mountain passes with a full load can be a pain. We took 72 days off for the year.

We switched to three weeks out with 5 days home, three weeks out 4 days home and then repeat. This worked better and we were still eligible for the bonuses. You can only take 18 days off a quarter and still get full bonus.


Eating on the road-


Both my co-driver and I bring most of our food with us. Eating truck stop food will wreck your digestive system. I bring cans of soup and purchase a salad every now and then. I also buy one cup of coffee to start my day. We bring three cases of water that we buy in bulk, Cans of mixed nuts and a couple boxes of chips we get at Costco. I leave the house with $100 and usually have money left over at the end of three weeks.


Now for the numbers:


Miles driven for the Team 261,079

Number of Assignments 227

AVG Length of Haul 1155 Miles per Assignment


Now for the Amount of money made I will only use pay that I received. Most people don't talk about what they make. I am just showing what can be made


Paid Miles $42910

Layover Pay $699

Detainment Pay $203

Short haul Pay $ 360

Training Pay (Orientation) $1425

Tuition Reimbursement $1200

Sign On Bonus $2500

Referral Bonus $3500

Quarterly Bonus $3866


Total $56662


This averages out to 46 cpm.



I don’t add this into what most make but because we both qualified for the Military Apprenticeship Program we also received the following


Military Apprenticeship $11690


In conclusion- This is not an easy job but if you work hard and are decent with Time Management you can make a good living. I am not posting this so that others can question the numbers I am posting it to show the possibilities. We had plenty of “Hiccups” along the way but overall it all turned out well in the end. I have been asked what I am going to do now. I only planned on one year. My son is taking a local job probably in August so I definitely need to look at what to do next. My options are to run solo, run solo part time...two weeks out two weeks at home. I have already been approached by another driver about this one. Train another Team driver, become a Lease operator....or last but not least....Take a break and maybe come back next spring. I applied at other companies and had interviews but actually Schneider was still the best option.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Stay Safe!!!

 

I had no idea what he was doing....now I know

 

Chris is going to take a local job. He is taking his week off and I have no doubt someone will snag him up. I just posted on your page about a part time gig! I'm tired and I can tell heavy driving takes a toll on health. As a team you rarely have time to go for a walk or run....it's drive switch and repeat

 

Our week....to give you an idea.

Tomah, WI to Burnsville, MN to Portland Oregon 1859
Portand, OR to Hutchins TX 2011
Hutchins TX to Lake Park, GA 894
Lake Park, GA To Savannah GA to Portland, ME 1301
Portland, ME to Auburn, ME to West Branch, IA 1289

Total 7354 Miles