Schneider newbies= lack of training

I got from a recruiter for a local home daily dedicated Ford account that i would get a free renta car to drive to Gary Indiana for 18 days of training. First week is hair and urine test, physical fit test, paper log instruction, their tablet instruction, new hire paperwork, truck simulator, videos and homework. 2nd week is local driving and going over thing for a road test. Last five days as a woman i would be assigned a woman trainer for otr. She sleeps in hotel every night while im in truck. I drive only. Then I get a road test my last day to get a pass to pick up my truck. They stay at Best Western in Hammond. You dont have to share rooms now because of covid. .34 cents a mile for no experience. .41 for experienced drivers. What you think????

 

They started me at 42cpm then got a 1 cent raise after 3 months. I did average over 2500 mi my net pay after their good Affordable insurance, taxes etc would be around $1,185 a week.

 

I think those instructors need to get coughed on by little Timmy and his Black Lung

 

Care to elaborate?

 

Back when started work for them 25 years ago as a rookie the put me through their “advanced” school since I already had my cdl and 10 weeks of training at a much better school in buffalo ny(whose instructors were all old hands with 10- 30+ years of driving under their belts), which was more of a “crash course”. Basically it re-hashed a lot of what I was taught at NTTS but with their procedures and their driving methods. The only real new thing to me was the skid pad, which years later would save my bacon a few times. The OTR part for me was 2 weeks with a trainer and 1 week with a local guy in buffalo to sharpen my city driving skills, then they had “c teaming” which was 2 trainees together, both in the cab 1 drive by and 1 observing, or so they said.. at first. They guy they had me paired with was a complete idiot... could not read at all, couldn’t read maps(which I had been doing since I was a little kid watching “trucker” movies on tv and looking at road atlases & maps my parents had), and had a habit of trying to order beer all the time at the truck stop restaurants and once I caught the moron trying to sneak beers in the truck (AT A SCHNEIDER TERMINAL OF ALL PLACES!!)which was verboten.

It’s sad to see how pathetic the driver training had gotten in this industry, and it doesn’t help that the idiots at FMCSA keep lowering the standards for CDL’s at the behest of ATA lobbyists.

 

I wonder if worried mom’s son ever made it out of training

 

Reality Mr. Truck Driver.....not Fantasy!

How many hours did you actually spend working?

How much was over 40 hours?

Why did you fail to get paid overtime at a rate equal to 1.5 time base rate?

No, never mind you earned $1185.00 when they ripped you off by not paying normally federal mandated OT because the ATA is corrupt and buys politicians to screw drivers.

 

no Touch freight only drove around 8.5hrs a day hardly ever went past 10 sometimes 11 hrs a day working on my 14. They did give ya detention after 2 hrs waiting at a dock. Anyways I’ve been long gone almost 6 months after completing my 1 year as a first time driver. Wanna talk overtime I got that at my old job as a Government Contractor even double OT after I passed 48 hrs , either way OTR no touch freight trucking can’t compare bc I knew it was different skill trade.

 

Wow and double wow huh, sad that it comes down to dollars and cents now hey or should I say Sense as in common sense? Although personally I love the idea of not having to bunk down with an instructor for weeks on end hoping that he or she will give me a good report, in my case though I already know how to drive I guess and have studied for many years at the school of hard knocks.

 

My take is that if you are gonna work local it should be on the clock, not by the mile or a trip rate. The reason is simple. When you are paid by the hour there is no scenario were you are not paid for your time.
When local jobs want to pay piece rate it is to avoid paying OT because in most trucking jobs 8hr days are hard to come by. My hourly rate as a company driver if I was paid on a piece rate would be around 89 cpm & that doesn't include OT.