Schneider Choice Program versus Landstar?

Basically put, yes... Schneider Finance. Although the finance company and the actual trucking company don't interact with each other on a normal basis, they are obviously owned by the same people.

No one on the trucking side has any knowledge of my finance deal or anything else related to my business, and no one on the finance side has anything to do with freight.

 

Except you can't just move your truck.

 

Oh, you mean move it to another company? No. At least not without the finance company's permission. The lease states I'll run for Schneider unless I receive written permission from the finance company to move the truck elsewhere. I have no idea if they ever do that or not, I would guess probably not.

At this time, I don't have any reason to move really. Even though the freight I've seen on the load board is probably lower paying that you'd find at Landstar, there are several perks and benefits to working with Schneider:

- They have reimbursed me for all of the tolls I've paid out of pocket, with the exception of Indiana.
- They have health insurance for their contractors (basic plan is $35 per week)
- They handle all of the IFTA stuff so I don't have to mess with it.
- The truck I purchased comes with an extended factory warranty of 5 years/750,000 miles and has a bumper to bumper 15,000 mile warranty.
- I have several smaller insurance benefits like deductible reduction on accidents and cargo claims if I were to mess up
- There is a catastrophic failure protection on the truck if the engine or transmission were to fail.
- I have a big name company behind me, and I don't have to hassle with customers aside from checking in and picking up/delivering
- Lots of terminals where the shops do work for a lot cheaper than dealers and truck stops

This list can go on if I were to sit here all day and think about it. Also, this is the slow time of year for freight in general, so the $2.00 a mile freight may become more common when summer hits. I'm still very new so obviously I haven't seen everything there is out there. I know that if I were to stay in Texas where I live, there is a lot of drop and hook freight paying $7 - $10 per mile (average length 30 miles) running around the DFW metroplex and surrounding areas, and I could probably make a decent living at that running three or four of those loads per day.

I know from several O/O that I've talked to that Landstar, Farm2Fleet, etc are the best companies to sign on with for total freedom and highest paying freight. One of these days I'll probably save up enough cash to get my own truck or pay off this one and will consider that, but I also know that with those companies you are completely on your own, responsible for all paperwork, IFTA, etc etc. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Maybe after I do my 3 year lease here I'll know a lot more and can proceed from there, but for now I can't complain overall.

 

I made that mistake and bailed out soon after. They dont allow you to deadhead if you go further down than 100 miles south of the border. `Also their fuel surcharge is hit and miss. Some you'll get almost what fuel spent and others about half or less.

 

If I were you I would really be looking over that "ifta stuff" better than you are. I had a buddy that was real meticulous about that and at the end of last year discovered that SNI was waayyy over charging him on fuel taxes so that they would be in the clear in case of an audit. Im talking to the tune of almost a grand that he ended up getting back when he brought it up to them. So yea.. carelessness about your business can cost you dearly.

 

Hey, y'all know how the saying goes right? Everything that's free, AIN'T always free /// example; buy new steer tires which "come with free mounting", the guy that mounts them doesn't line the valve up correctly with rim, now your "free" mounting is costing you new steer tires in half the time! Watch out for all that free stuff, if it sounds to easy and good to be true, someone is trying to keep you just comfortable enough to get over on you.
LANDSTAR is a great company to be merged with I don't regret it one bit. I was deciding between SNI & LSTR at first, trying to weigh out the benefits of both and I think I made a great decision. I ended up finding great dedicated work paying 30%-%50 above the decent pay I was already making here ($1500-$2300 weekly net) and it's all what you make it. Nobody will hold your hand here at LSTR but corporate, the advisors, all the departments have always made an extra effort to make sure I understood their system and was catching on fast enough, which I was /// hope this was helpful

 

I would most definitely consider Landstar at some point, but right now I am way too new to the owner/operator side of things to even consider it. I'd need to educate myself on a lot of things, IFTA being one, before I could make a move like that and not put myself out of business. There are a lot of things that Schneider handles that I wouldn't have the first idea on how to do myself.

 

I understand. Learn my friend, learn on! I would def recommend at least 1-2 driving exp, at least 1 year lease operator exp, previous business/financial exp, some to intermediate mechanical know-how, a whole lot of common sense, people skills, and a great inner guidance. Hope this helps.

 

The first thing you should be doing is write down all miles and all fuel ups. Keep up with every penny you spend. I use a legal pad and write everything down. Learn the freight area, find a lane and try to stick with it. I like to be 500 mi from the house, just in case I need to get home. Far as IFTA its simple and easy. Just write down the miles on your odometer, when you cross state line, then subtract the number when you leave the state. You can file ifta online all you have to do is put in the miles you drove through states.

 

That's the plan! There's no better teacher than experience. I've been driving for a couple years now, and definitely want to have at least a year on this lease to get an idea of how things work. This lease I'm on is actually 3 years, but apparently it's a little known fact that I can actually take the truck somewhere else after being with Schneider for one year... although I don't know yet how hard I would have to fight to get that done, or if it's just as simple as asking.

I'd like to think I have common sense, and I'm pretty good with people. Not so sure about the inner guidance, because the voices in my head aren't always the best source of advice, at least according to my common sense.

I'd like to eventually take a basic diesel mechanics course of some sort. Not anything advanced really, but enough to do basic maintenance and such myself. Big stuff is obviously better left to the professionals, but it would be nice if I could change basic stuff like filters, bad sensors, etc.

Oh, I do this already. Actually, one of my talents from previous jobs is graphic and document design. I figured if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. So I designed these documents and had copies made, and they're working out really well so far. They're probably not perfect, but I modify them as I go along and get new copies when I make major changes. Guess this outs me as a computer geek though LOL.