I found a job on Craigslist, but it’s not what you think

You didn't need to negotiate anything.

You just had to do. You could have just bob tailed to the Pilot/OC for a shower without asking anyone's permission. If you got your DTL involved you could have gotten paid for the miles as well.

My first year I had a load that delivered into the Middle of No Place Arkansas, but not for two days before I could get it there. My 04 Century was struggling to keep the cab cool as I moved south from Joplin. And by struggling I mean my tea was still hot when I got to the Pilot in Russelville and said "diddle this, I'm getting a hotel room". No pre-authorization, but it was reimbursed.

 

brand new trucks are always a crapshoot. They don't get broke in till about the 300k mark. However there's a difference between trucks and junk.

 

You’re right, but I expect more out of Schneider. I didn’t have time to get back. They were running my clock out and I didn’t even finish the deliveries on a single day that whole week. It’s not like they didn’t know what would happen on that account. Horrible truck, even worse trailers. Sleeping in the same spot alone every night felt dangerous. They tried to take advantage of me. The local guy I talked to on that account said he regularly had to refuse loads and deliveries. It’s an incredible dangerous job, Schneider has no business running that. That’s on them. They just get by on numbers. So be it.

And they were blowing up my #### phone. All day long. Call after call after call. I don’t like talking on the phone. They wanted to call, emails, texts, use teams. All day long. Super annoying.

 

You're 100% correct in regards to the account being a poop show.

Sleeping in the same spot - 100% not dangerous. Particularly when it's a Home Depot lot. Uncomfortable, heck yeah - especially multiple days in a row. But there were easy ways to deal with that, which you didn't use.

If the local guy was refusing loads and deliveries - why weren't you? More importantly, what makes you think you'll stand up to the owner of this new company? Schneider has a very robust safety environment -provided the drivers activate it.

 

What you’re missing is the guy has been operating for decades but has a DOT # that’s probably less than 5 years old, that’s a huge red flag. I wish you would just listen to the simple facts that old timers are trying to give you, the picture posted of “Donovan” looks like shoe polish, the N is backwards, these are all red flags of the operation he’s running, you’ll be a target weekly if not daily. If you genuinely give a crap about the advice being given, you would do yourself good to bring all of these concerns to his attention and see where his accountability is.

 

might wanna watch out boozing in a bunkhouse. Never know when your housemate wants to cuddle in the middle of the night...

 

I did refuse one delivery and turns out I should have refused a load. I just didn't know any better.

I didn't talk to that local guy until the morning when the load came off the trailer. It was the same day I ended up quitting.

I could have fought for better treatment, but that's some petty business. I was an OTR driver living at home Depot running terrible equipment. And it was not fun. Hope you don't need a bathroom between 10-6 AM. I wanted out ASAP.

They knew I was living there, and no one suggested anything helpful. My DTL told me to go pay for a shower out of pocket.

Plus the day before I quit the home Depot lady was talking crazy to me. I had to put her in her place and then she wouldn't answer her phone anymore. But she kept calling me while I was driving. And then refused to pick up my calls. And blamed me anything she could think of to the other home Depot people.

 

I think you should just go for it. You hobo'd around Mexico for a year and survived, so that trucking company won't even be a challenge.

 

Ask him why his authority has been revoked multiple times. Ask him why his authority is registered as Expedite Las Vegas when his ad states ETON. Regardless of your attitude, having your authority revoked isn’t part of doing business.

 

Just think, if you would’ve stayed at Schneider you’d be a month closer to getting your year in and you wouldn’t be in the position of thinking about going to work for a trash carrier.