At a crossroads.

I hope the best for your father. And he makes a good point. Paralysis by analysis can be just as bad as making a less than optimal decision.

If you cannot wait much longer, my best suggestion is to physically write down what you are looking for in your new employer. Rank the qualities from most important to least. Discuss the matter with your wife. Then go with whomever you two agree on.

Life will be difficult regardless who you work for.

Keep the long-term goal in mind - which is to gain experience and work history to qualify for a better job - and it'll make it easier to stay the course.

 

Seems like both those job offers are ok, considering the home time.

 

HHG miles, or zip to zip, is the shortest route from the zip code you're leaving from to the zip code you're going to, and I'm not sure but my understanding is that it's figured from zip code centers, meaning if a zip is lets say 20 miles long and you're going to the far end of it you just drove 10 miles (at least) thru that zip code for free.

Practical miles, the best way I could explain that (and I could be totally wrong in this, but this is how it works in my brain) would be to enter a destination into a GPS that pops out 2 or more routes for you to compare yourself and then lets you choose the one you want. Whichever of those routes is the shortest mile wise will be the practical mile route. Practical is better then HHG but not perfect by any means as it could route in a way where you drive less miles but it takes you longer to do so. An example would be coming from say Northern Ohio going to Eastern Wisconsin. The practical miles route would probably route you along 80/90 and up 94 right thru Chicago, which in theory is the shortest route, but time was it's better to take 294 instead of 94 in terms of time it takes to get there.

Hub miles you'll never get, at least I don't know of anyone paying off the hub anyway. The sad truth of it is we live in a world where if someone did pay off the hub their would guy clogging up the DCs diving in circles around the lot for 3 hours so they could get extra pay.

I don't know if any of it would be applicable to you since it would a dedicated account for you with Schneider but I may not have packed up my notes from when I talked to their recruiter back in early December. If you want I can look for them and see if there's any particulars they haven't answered for you that maybe I have jotted down, but it won't be very recent and I was asking about OTR dry van and tanker when I talked to the guy. If there is something let me know and I'll look. In the middle of moving so just give me a little time.

I haven't talked to many recruiters, but the thing you got with "if you have questions give me a call" seems more common then not. The only people I have talked to that answered all my questions in email form so far were Millis.

Overall, you won't get any better advice then what @EatYourVeggies and @G13Tomcat have given, they nailed it as far as I'm concerned.

 

I'm not in the trucking world yet (soon but not yet); however, I've been intereviewing and and interviewer for over 25 years and I think I can help with the "interview as a favor".

These are never good. Ever. It's a way of politely backing out of the job offer with you to give it to another guy. I hate to be brutally honest but that's what it has been 100% of the time I've heard it (or even said it). The other guy is most likely less qualified but because it's a "favor", that carries a lot of weight and will make up for many of his shortcomings. Put yourself in the interviewers shoes... you get asked to give a friend an interview as a favor. Do you think that's all he wants? Just an interview? Nah, he expects you to hire his friend as a favor. If you do the "favor interview" and then tell your friend you went with someone else, how do you think that will go over? Exactly. In your case, this would move the beer job down the list of considerations.

Hell, at my current employer we just hired some snot nosed kid because he's dating the boss's daughter. We've been laying people off and yours truly has been told he's on the short list. Yet, we just hired the boss's daughter's boyfriend to a full time position. Oh and he got transferred to a contract that isn't in jeopardy. Nice. Once again proving that "as a favor" carries weight. Remember, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Regarding McElroy and SNI... there's no time in my life that I wouldn't take more training over less. I always choose more training. How can it hurt?

At SNI, you get your truck after four days and then... good luck? How much can you really absorb in just four days? Versus McElroy where you'll get weeks. That gives you time to learn something, forget it, be corrected, relearn, rinse and repeat until things get beat into your head.

Overall, my two cents are to go with the most training you can get and strongly consider the "favor interview" as not in your "favor".

 

@EatYourVeggies and @Suspect Zero ... you two have been totally thorough, and admirable, in your advice to Dave. (sometimes I might know the right person to drag into a thread, LoL!)
Just as EYV .... i have my own "aversion" to SNI. Can't really put a finger on it; just a bad taste.
They're quicker to fire than hire..... as even @Thull shared. I don't even think "all" the megas are bad; I just drove for a few of the smaller ones.
The opportunity to get your own rig in 4 days, does not put money in your pocket.
Me, I'd go with MAC. The two mentioned above have covered this to the nines, and should be in a textbook somewhere ... for new drivers. More training = more money and miles, in the long run, so it appears.
All up to you, man. Take a knee and ask for extra help.
Please let us know, and may the force be with you~!!!

ps: the info from @Lord Pablo was spot-on. Yeah, that was neat that he took the time to chime in, bro. You've got a few of us in your corner. (again, why not looking at Freymiller? i must have missed that!)

Tom

 

Even for their "recover your CDL program" ? well... that's misleading. THOSE two... wow.. the power of youth, admirable professional youth. I'm gonna print this thread when I get a new cartridge. (memo to self: expensive lexus printer/scanner/fax machine that I don't need = too much money for ink!) LoL.

Wishing you the best... and thanks again to @Mike2633 my buckeye buddy, for the input re: the beer route being CDL-A comparable~~!!

 

Yes sir it counts because no matter what you are a CDL driver performing a DOT safety function. The DOT only sees things one way and that's this:
Does it have a fifth wheel? If answer is yes then proceed to question 2.
Does it pull a trailer weighing more then 10,000lbs
If the answer is yes then congratulations you have a CDL A vehicle Class 7, Class 8 makes no difference to the DOT. It's all the same in there eyes. A 16 bay beer side loader is no different then a regular highway truck, they both have to go through the same weigh stations and follow the same HOS if being operated out of town.

Now granted a beer side loader is more of a delivery truck like a smaller tender engine on the island of Sodor like Edward here:

Small tender engine used for heavy switching and short hauls and heavier local delivery work.

Beer trucks are the same there used for heavy delivery to customers that are not truck load quantity receivers and generally do not have loading docks for trucks.