Sorry for the rest of ya....when we saw the handwriting on the wall, we made tracks outta there. Hated like hell to do it, but when the old man died and they put a bean counter in his chair, it was pretty clear that his devotion was to the bottom line on a balance sheet, and not to the drivers who keep it in the black. Big M, the current company, offers ungoverned trucks, apu's, 2500 watt inverters, a free rider policy, and pets on board and a refrigerator installed by the company. The equipment is in good shape....all air ride trailers so far. Its a smaller company and so far we like it. It does have a few faults, but nothing that we cant live with yet. The DM is ok....definitely NOT on par with Sean Roemer, but he gives us the miles we want, and we're home doing a reset every 2 weeks. First trip outta the box this time around....Bessimer Alabama to Conneticut and no problem on getting a healthy backhaul. If/when Schnieder comes around, we might be back....the option is available. I dont see it happening for quite a while though......seems like its gonna take a mutiny for them to understand where their money comes from and fixes things to benefit the people who put it on the line every day for them so they can go home to their nice warm homes and take vacations with the wife and kids.
When you have as many trucks on the road as Schneider, you can't afford to have ungoverned trucks. Sounds very nice though. How many years of experience do you have to have? Say my name!
We have 2 and a half. Ive got 15 Class B, but I dont count since Im not behind the wheel of this gig. One of the down sides to this company is that there is some driver assist loads, but after sitting behind the wheel and getting no exercise whatsoever, its kind of refreshing to get up and get moving. Did I mention that the rider and pet policy is free? He took a friend this time but hes had his best bud Rebel Lee with him for the month preceeding this one. It was awesome. This mornings breakfast was bacon, eggs, toast and coffee, all cooked in cab. Dinner will be baked chicken and veggies....also cooked in cab. He rarely even goes into truck stops anymore.....he makes a gallon of iced tea every couple of days. Generally he keeps the speed at 65, and thats all he ever wanted to do at SNI.....he got tired of being passed by Smart Cars and Prius's.
We kind of did too, but showers c/o bonus card points, and robbing the change jar once a week, isnt too bad. Some of those OC laundry facilities were kind of sad....the same machines out of order every time we went in to do wash (mentioning no OC's by location....Houston....Laredo).
A four-cent per mile raise, practical mileage pay, and not having to fix every third trailer I hooked to made me get over those amenities quite quickly, thank you.
