does sni hire student grads?

How do you know they are better than SNI, if you have never drove for them??

 

im not getting into this again. This site is here for a reason. If you'd like to ignore facts and think it wont happen to you...go for it. You arent hurting my paycheck just yours.,,





American Trucker

 

I'm not hurting my paycheck, last one was $898 net....one before that was only 350 but I had home time.

This site is here for a reason, but most people that complain about a company is because they got fired for their own darn stupidity.

Nothing on this site is "fact" when it comes to stories about companies, it is hearsay.

If I say SNI is the greatest company since the beginning of time does that make it "fact" because it was on this forum??

Nope, hence my point.

I use to work for a company that every year was voted one of fortune 500 best companies to work for....I left for a reason....

You get my point.

 

There are a lot of different reasons to choose a company. One persons wants and needs can be totally different than anothers. Granted there are some companies that I would not drive for but someone else may want or even need to. I checked this site out for over a year and in the end Schneider was the best fit for me. I might think differently in a year, but for now that's my story and I'm stickin to it.

 

I trained with Swift and found their training to be very comprehensive. Now having said that, I know that Jim Allen, my "Mentor", had trained 200 students before my time with him. He and I followed the Swift training system to the letter. We ran safe and legal at all times. In addition, as he worked as a company driver for 6 years, a company lease operator for 4 years, and as an owner operator contracted with them for a half dozen years, he brought a wealth of knowledge to bear in my training. I not only became familiar with life as a truck driver, but gained valuable knowledge needed to manage a successful truck. One of the most important lessons I learned from Jim is that truck drivers, regardless of whether they own the truck, lease the truck, or are a company driver, are a business manager. If you run the trucks business properly you will be successful. A company driver that runs his trucks business haphazardly will have problems, suffer financially, and will likely have a short lived career.

With all the positives I have to say about Swifts training while a newbie, it is nothing compared to my time at Schneider. I simply loved Schneider.

My truck was beat to death by its previous driver; that would have turned off MANY new drivers. I did not let it deter me from having a good experience. Instead, I knit picked the truck to death in an inspection and the shop in Obetz repaired everything on the list except cosmetic items. I took care of all cosmetic items myself and in the end had one of the best looking Schneider rigs around. Every mech that saw it referred to it as a "Dinosaur" due to its age, but they did whatever I asked to help me set the truck up for me. Schneider has started replacing its oldest trucks with new trucks and gliders; nothing wrong with those at all.

Schneider is a place to be part of a team. I ALWAYS was made to feel like family at the OCs and shops. In addition, a majority of other drivers were willing to help ANYTIME AND ANY PLACE; very important when you are on the road.

This does not mean that every driver is happy there; a portion of the drivers are not. I can only relay my experience and observations.

For example:

I ran into a SNI driver at 9 West distribution center just off 295 at the next exit north of Paulsboro NJ T/A; he was... unique. He had been working for SNI since leaving his previous employment with a furniture manufacturer. He claimed to have never had an accident prior to working at SNI; his truck had tons of fresh damage every where and was quite possibly the dirtiest truck I have ever seen...PERIOD. He looked and smelled like he had not showered in weeks. Curious about his appearance, I asked where he had been fueling. As most of you are aware, if you have a card for Pilot and fill there you can shower for no cost. Also, most SNI OCs have showers. He indicated he filled at Pilot and I asked if he had a card for showers; he laughed. He said, "I f#@king will shower when I get home next week." I asked how long he had been out, he said, "A week and a half." After a little more conversation I asked where all the damage came from and he said, "I had to get into a dock the other day and a post was in my way." I asked what SNI said about it and he said, "I ain't f#@king telling them". A few minutes later his qualcomm goes off and he gets up in the truck, looks at the qualcomm and says, "I'm not calling that SOB DBL, he is asking for a mac 18/29, f#@k him, he should be able to figure it out." As the next hour passes he did nothing but complain about the lack of respect he gets from shippers and receivers, four wheelers, and not as many miles as he would like. As my load is completed and we are parting ways he says "This is the worst company in the world, when I get home I am quitting, not a single account is worth a s#!t." As I was getting my BOL from shipping office, very professional but a little short staffed that day, shipper looks at my black SNI shirt, looks me up and down and says, "Why is that other driver such a dirt bag, you need to straighten him out, he stinks." I pulled into 9 West after the other driver, they were loading 9,000 lbs on him, they loaded 12,000 on me. He was there an hour before I got there and was still there when I left.

Now the reason I am telling this story is because these kind of stories happen all the time. If you are professional you will most likely do well where ever you go and what ever company you drive for. Not every driver is right for every company, not every company is right for every driver.

My advise to students is to find a training company to drive for on your own. Have a positive attitude where ever you drive and before you worry which company is "Right for you", figure out if truck driving is right for you and if you are right for truck driving.

I believe any new student would be fortunate to drive for Swift or Schneider as they will TEACH YOU A LOT.

 

Thanks for the advise Skip1965. I start with Schneider on Jan. 11th. I will be out of Portland, OR oc. Start with running 11 western states. I have had a great experience just going thru the hiring stage. I turned down several other carriers that were recruiting me to work for them. I did alot of homework as to who I wanted to start my new career with and Schneider seemed to have the most to offer me. I have all endorsements and hope to move into tankers soon. I am new to driving and just felt the were the best fit for me. Time will tell. The grass may be greener elsewhere but I think I will just water my Schneider lawn and see how much it grows.

 

LOL, I'm at the Columbus OC and just tried to pull up the Schneider jobs website for the heck of it. Their system blocks their own website from pulling up??? The internet sucks here, pretty much every site you can think of seems to be blocked.

 

I was looking at Schneider as well. my reasons are:

Tuition Rembursement, Apprentice program so us Vets get our GI Bill payments, and they allow riders that are not family members.
If anyone knows any companies that offer those benifits as well, please list them..

Thanks..

 

I take it that you are looking at coming on as a company driver? They do not have such a rider program that I'm aware of. Of course as an O/O the rules are more lax, but as a company driver I was under the impression (and I'm positive actually) that only immediate family can ride along. And that doesn't mean you can have a girlfriend ride, she has to be your wife. Not even sure if they allow your children over 10, but they might.

Also, you need tenure in the truck before you qualify for the rider program. Need to show them that you are a safe driver before it's permitted. Plus you have to pay some sort of rider fee, which seemed like it was really cheap. You might want to look into this further because I know I've heard this before somewhere but haven't delved too much into the details since it's a non issue for me at this point.

 

And the troll of the year award goes to...................