Just Talked to a Recruiter for Schneider Dedicated Account

with schneider you apply for a specific job. its a big big big account. we pull home depot, JC penney's among others. Walmart drivers and schneider drivers have thier own lane into the gates at the DC's. all other trucks in the other lane. Usually have a maint shack onsite too.

 

....it's live unload at the stores. The stores/clubs are supposed to be timed and there are some channels to spur them if they are dragging b/c the entire walmart perishable goods operation tends to hinge on stores keeping the trucks/trailers on schedule...so in that regard you're a leg above the other vendors dealing with walmart DC's, clubs, and stores.

positives: you're usually in familiar territory at night (so you avoid a lot of traffic and navigation problems), you're almost always at a walmart (so you have the ability to remain supplied and have a built-in place to park if needed), pretty consistent paychecks. Finding walmarts is usually not a challenge...particularly at night with the huge parking lot lighting systems they have. It is nice to be able to see your stop coming from 2 miles away (not always, but often) Walmart trailers have been in great shape. I rarely pick one up with a bad tire or bad lights or reefer problems or really any problems. Freight is on pallets, you can help things along during unloading or sit back. I do both depending on mood. Sometimes I'm really helpful and get right in there, sometimes not. You scale every load before departure from the DC, so you don't have to hassle with a lot of scaling at truck stops (except for the occasional backhaul) and you have some piece of mind knowing what you're dealing with before you ever get on a public road. You have to clear the walmart security at the gate, which is a blessing in disguise sometimes if they catch something you missed, such as a bad marker light or...heck I don't know...say some ####### truck driver who looks exactly like you picked up trailer 201352 instead of 102352....the gate will catch that stuff and you don't have to eat 200 miles of driving or a ticket.

negatives: slip seating in older, ratty, smelly, small-sleeper trucks. Running mostly at night. 34 hour resets every week. Spending a lot of time around the night staff at walmarts...these are not nice, high-functioning people who make you feel good about where you are in life. Pretty much every night you're going in and standing/working together with freak show midnight-shift walmart employees. It can wear a person down... For a dedicated account, there's no predictability as far as scheduling. Days, nights, 600 mile round trip, 80 mile round trip etc etc.
What I say is that you're living an OTR life: 4 days off a month, living out of a truck away from home....but slip seating with gross small-sleeper trucks....so it's the worst of both. You're spending a lot of time in the truck but you don't get to really move into it. I think a lot of people like the idea of being close to home even if they're not home so they could get home quickly if need be. For me, I can't justify paying rent for a place I see once a week, and it doesn't matter to me if I'm spending 22 hours a day in a truck 50 miles from "home" or 5000. In a truck is in a truck....if I were shut in a truck in my back yard with the curtain closed it would be the same as being shut in my truck in Barrow Alaska. You get the point. I would probably get "home" more if I had a home close to the DC. It's my view that the guys at my DC who drive nice new assigned trucks, mostly days, 5 days a week, live near the DC, and have been around for years upping their pay rate...pretty much have a much much much better and almost totally different job than the new driver with no home nearby driving rotten old trucks 6 nights a week for less than $10/hr. So if you want to stick it out and like living near one of the DC's you could put the time in and be doing very well after a few years I would reckon.

My $.02....overall: a new driver could do a whole lot worse.