Schneider chat room - Closed see new thread linked in the last post

I tried to buy a truck through a second party and SNI would have let me do it, the only problem is that since I have less than 2 years of experience, I couldn't get financed......or, actually, I should say that the financing offered was, um, unattractive (40% down on a $45k truck and 25% interest.....really).
The trucks SNI financing has can be found here:
https://www.sfitrucks.com/Forms/sw20300_AllEquipment.aspx
and the inventory changes every day. You need to know that many times the trucks they post for sale / lease may not exactly available at that moment. They bring these used trucks in and totally refurbish them from stem to stern and because of that, it can take 4-8 weeks before the truck is actually ready to roll out the door. But that's not necessarily a bad thing because my experience has been that it takes about that long to get everything sorted out and get on board. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one good source to tell you what the process is, so I'll do my best to get you pointed in the right direction.

First, go here and read all you can. There are several links and videos and whatnot, look at them all:
http://www.schneiderjobs.com/owner-operators

Next, see if they have an opening for O/O's in your area. If they do, you have to apply for the job. Hopefully, most of your information will have been saved from when you originally applied to Schneider. All you will need to do is update and submit.
http://www.schneiderjobs.com/owner-operators/search-and-apply-for-job

Next, fill out a credit application here:
https://www.sfitrucks.com/Prod/Forms/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/Prod/Forms/sw20501_AppGrid.aspx

Give it a day or two and they will contact you. You need to know that SNI Finance and the Choice Program recruiting are 2 separate entities. So you will be working with SNI Finance to get you a truck, (they WILL NOT finance anything other than their own equipment), and then the Choice recruiter to get you into the program. My recruiter is Glen Remington.....he's a really super guy and will help you a lot and will give you great advice.

There is some paperwork and forms and government stuff to fill out and send in, so the process, in my case anyway, took about 2 months. As far as 'junk' equipment goes.....I got a '09 Freighliner Cascadia......really sweet ride, and like I said, has been totally refirbished and gone through from top to bottom. They are NOT and will NOT sell you or finance one of the beat up orange fleet trucks......they don't have them in their inventory. Most of the used stuff they're selling is well spec'ed out equipment with APU's and stuff....nice stuff, really. Or you can go new with a 1 year walk away lease.

You need 6 months with the company, and no false logs (not logging fueling) in the last 3.

I've got 2 more weeks with fleet, one week at the beach, and go to Choice orientation on the 24th. Wish me luck, and good luck to you.

 

You need to go away.....that'll show 'em....

 

Since their recent change to the CBT's AND following their directions to work around their self imposed problem. I can NO LONGER do this training from the comfort of my home and at my convenience.

IT even stated that Firefox worked best. Before they messed it up.

 

That's freakin funny.

 

With cascadias truck stops need wider parking stales. Dam those door open wide.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

 

Who did you try buying the truck from? Looking at some of the rigs of SNI finance, do alot of them DPF filters to make them CARB compliant in CA?

 

It was a dealer in Atlanta.....doesn't matter who the dealer is, what matters is the companies that provide financing for big trucks.
As to your second question, you'll probably need to go with a new truck. Call the folks at SNI Finance and they can tell you more.

 

Its pretty cool that you're buying your own truck, Dipschitt! It seems like you're running in the Bulk division, is that correct? What are the primary reasons you're going this route of O/O vs Company? What are the primary factors/considerations that give you enough confidence to take this risk? Does Schneider give better runs/different runs to its Owner Operators, than it does to its Company drivers? As an example of earnings, in Houston as a Tanker Driver Owner/Operator, I see earnings of $1.05/mile plus fuel surcharge, and only an average of 1900 miles per week. There's so much I don't know! How are you confident that you're gonna come out of this okay, trusting Schneider to provide you more revenue...? Is there a rough percentage increase in income over being a company driver that you think you'll be able to generate, and that you feel comfortable sharing with us?

Can you share how many miles the Cascadia has on it now and what you paid for it, and how many years of service you hope to reliably get out of the truck? I did look through the link you provided of the list of trucks available through Schneider Finance. Sure, it'd be nice to drive a KW or a decked out Cascadia, but personally, that '07 Columbia with less than 400k miles and $54,000 seems attractive to me due to seemingly less overall risk, hopefully. How did you decide between buying a lower mileage truck for more $ or a higher mileage truck for less $? How many miles does a truck generally last, assuming its well taken care of and doesn't get wrecked badly? Can a truck's driveline/suspension/... components be rebuilt/replaced over and over once a truck is up over 1 Million miles, or at what point would it be more cost effective and safe to purchase a lower mileage truck (I'd think increased time in the shop would be a major factor in "its time to replace that beast!")? And in how many years will it be paid off? Once that happens, if it still has useable life left in it, I'd think you'd really increase your income till its just plain worn out!

I'm sure some of these answers are available in an O/O thread. I'll go looking there too.

I've asked some very personal financial questions here: no worries if you don't want to answer...

Good luck, Dip!

 

Just finished my first month solo with SNI. It's had plenty of ups and downs, I'm getting my feet under me slowly and my ETA's got a lot better the last 2 weeks. I'm enjoying my time here so far and it seems SNI has a lot of really good people driving for them (there's a bad apple in every bunch) but so far all of the drivers I have met have been helpful and willing to give advice to a noob that is just getting his feet wet. Sure I have a few complaints (like getting sent a pre assingment accepting it and then getting to the shipper only to find out that the load was already picked up earlier that morning) but I've been pretty happy with my decision coming to the Pumpkin Patch (so is my wife since I got onto the home run program).

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth here. Stay safe out there everyone!

 

Congrats!

See ya around out here!