New IC contract. What do you think?

I've been thinking about this all day (cause I have nothing better to do), and here's what I've come up with:

If Schneider can push the O/O's and L/O's into basically paying the company for hometime, and that's exactly what this is in a nutshell, what's to stop them from doing the same thing to the company drivers as well?

Think about it. No major carrier wants their trucks sitting idle for a day or two. No matter what, they want their trucks either out turning revenue or staged in an area where they have a good customer base. Customer service is the name of the game, we all know this. So wouldn't it make more sense to keep an available truck in a customer area to grab that last minute "Oh holy crap I forgot this load was on my board!" load rather than try to get the driver home in a potentially bad customer area? Yet, drivers insist on going home! Buncha whiny pansies is what we are! Wanting to be home at least once a month when there's freight to move! And how many drivers, especially new drivers, will stay out rather than pay a $250 fine basically just to go home?

This sets a very bad, very dangerous precedent for the industry as a whole. The door to this was opened with Western Express' "Home Time is a reward that must be earned" BS. Now we are seeing the next step. Wanna go home? Pay us, your employer, for the privilege!

 

Personally what I think about this contract is like what is the case in almost all bad changes that have occurred at Schneider. A few people exploit the system to their advantage and don't perform a good faith effort at providing a service to both the customer and the company as well. In the end everyone gets punished because of the acts of a few. I'm not trying to defend Schneider here, I'm done once my lease is up now, but still, that doesn't let people that abuse the system off the hook

 

You always have recourse, its called, I signed under duress....you just signed a 3 year deal now the busines plan changed by Schneider and you have 18 months till you can by out truck...from a guy looking in...it appears Schneider and SFI are not on the same page....can you imagine how many trucks they may get back? I cant believe there isnt an IC liason board made of IC peers....Schneider should welcome that..

Be Safe Out There

Captain Dave

 

If all is fine ie the tolls dont add it to the agreement...never assume that it might not be collected...

Be Safe Out There

Captain Dave

 

Based on what's been said, I truly suspect that people will sign the new agreement, and redo their profit plan to compensate. I don't think that anything that's been said here would have a major effect on a Profit Plan to leave a trailer and fetch another (or same) on the next assigned load.

I imagine people will 1) Pay the fine, 2) Drop the trailer, or 3) find some "creative" way of logging a trailer OOS "The Luddite answer"; book a future cancellable load; or suddenly encounter equipment issues when getting to the house.

The practice of paying tolls is a little more worrisome, but not overly so. If I were a good guesser, I would say that its in direct response to states proposing new and very unpredictable tolls that the company may or may not want to compensate for; but that existing and established tolls would continue based on past practice.

No, I'm not a lawyer, and no I'm not an IC (or a trucker for that matter, yet.) Yes, I've had quite a bit of experience with contracts. Sometimes its all about looking at the underlying problems. Schneider certainly has a trailer availability problem, and an upcoming toll problem. I think they should have pro-actively worked with the ICs and the box planners to come up with a better solution.

Please be well. I am not trying to be inflammatory, or insulting.

 

They're going to have to do something with tolls for any NYC freight in particular. Approximately $80 to cross the GW bridge (not certain but that's the peak rate I'm showing) plus additional toll to cross the Whitestone bridge going out onto Long Island. The Verranzo bridge to Staten Island is expensive too if you take that way. The rates to deliver into NYC aren't even that great in the first place when they're paying for the tolls considering all of the headaches you have to deal with. No one in their right mind would deliver to NYC if we had to pay the tolls under the current load payments.

 

Most will probably sign it without reading it.

You know SNI has figured that into their equation.

 

With some of the IC's I've run into that can't even speak English, I don't think they can read, either.

 

They don't fine you simply if you go home and they don't fine you if you book over 100 miles.
It's your choice in the way to run if you allow yourself for that to happen.
If you choose to put yourself in a position where that becomes a possibility if you do the stupid trailer moves then you won't get fined. If they add wayyyy too many out of route miles you simply tell Schneider to screw themselves and to remove you off the load. However if you DO the load without doing what workflo says for the trailer moves then you open yourself up to be fined.

Now someone that lives in the middle of nowhere.. yes this really can bite them more so than anybody else.
No doubt about that because each time you go home you'd have to do stupid trailers moves or head back to the zone you left to start off again to get an empty.
That's what it appears to be from my view but I could be wrong.

What does suck for me is now if I book a load 100+ miles away I'm running the risk of tacking on MORE deadhead miles and wasting time doing silly trailer shuttles.
It's another thing, another risk and more numbers to crunch when choosing what loads to pick.
Every time we book loads now it's always something to weigh which sucks!
At the end of the day each one of us here is running a "business" with the ultimate goal obviously to be profitable.
If this change or any other change cuts massively into your bottom line then it's on YOU to choose to stay here or not. If you don't like it and find a place better with more money and less BS then go right ahead and bring to truck there. I know I would...
If my numbers suffer then I'm out of here to something better but at the moment at least for me I don't see a better option out there for myself.
If anybody out there knows where there's less BS and more money please let us know.
Most all places I looked into the pay sucks so here I remain..............

 

Once under new contract as explained by ica is if a trailer move is assigned we can't refuse without possibly being fined.

By signing contract/agreement we're agreeing to do trailer moves for a flat 25.00. If we reject then we're subject to the fine at their discretion. It will be used on repeat violations of the agreement.