Schneider or Knight (Ref.): Who would you choose to go with, and why?

Are you serious?

Check around. The industry average was something like 123% turnover a few years ago. I don't know what it is now.

 

Rebound, you make me laugh Obviously you've got some sort of grudge about SNI? I relate my experiences to other drivers as truthfully as I possibly can.

The OP asked a reasonable question, I tried to give a reasonable answer, and it wasn't all rosy. JDW had this thread in three different areas, I answered in the SNI section, and if you'd bother to, you could go there and read what a couple other guys had to say as well.

Why shouldn't the OP go to a terminal and talk to the drivers? Most drivers I know would tell you the same thing at a terminal, as they would at a TS.
Do you really think drivers would be intimidated in some way? Doesn't say much about ones outlook on other drivers.

At any rate, this isn't the thread for the two of us to go back and forth, which likely could go on for ever. Instead let's try to help a new driver out the best we can.

 

I was being serious - no need to be condescending! I guess I was half being smart and half hoping that someone would explain rather than just making an equally smart comment.

I guess it seemed logical that you couldn't have more than 100% of your employees leave in a given period of time - a simple definition.

But considering the fact that a position can turnover multiple times, then you can indeed have over a 100% turnover rate - if you have 100 drivers, and over the course of the year hire 150 new drivers, and then at the end of the year still have 100 drivers - it stands to reason it would be 150%, because some of your positions "turned over" more than once in a given period (the year).

 

I talked to several drivers while I was in school at the Pilot Truck Stop in Phoenix, AZ off Interstate 10 and 99th Ave. I think 1 out of the 10 Schneider drivers had something positive and 1 out of 6 from Knight. 4 out of 5 from Watkins and Shepard which is why I went with them. Plus on this forum I met and now have become very good friends with all the WS drivers on the forum.

 

Good for you!

I'm proud of you. You used your head.

This forum hasn't been around that long to help new and prospective drivers, but now that it is, the sky is the limit!

Those big bottom feeders will be brought down.

Tremendous thanks to Wise One, for having the determination and tenacity to start this forum.
If you haven't read Wise One's bio, go read it down at the bottom of the forums.

Spread the word, CAGE

 

statikuz, I would never be condescending to you--unless I knew you were a bottom feeder I'm kidding

100+% turnover is a reality of the trucking industry. Big companies like Schneider, Swift, JBHunt, etc., all those guys are up there in the stratosphere of turnover ratios.

I read on another thread, that CREngland has a turnover rate of over 200%. Don't know if that is true, myself.

Think a company with a turnover rate that high, might be a bad place to work?

 

Sure, huge turnover is obviously a sign of a bad place to make a career - but not necessarily a bad place to work - depending on what your goals are and what your reasons are from working there.

It's a cliche, but "everyone has to start somewhere" and unfortunately, "somewhere" for the vast majority of new drivers, is one of the huge, so-called "bottom feeder" companies. That's just the way the industry is and it works fine for some people - they get their experience in and move on. These companies might be "bad" in terms of bad pay, bad benefits, bad (anything) but they are good in that they allow you to check that box that says "6/12/24 months of recent OTR experience" on those job applications at the "good" companies.

I totally agree with the fact that the trucking industry turnover rate is > 100%, just like it is in any stereotypically bad job, i.e. fast food. I would believe that a company could have 200% turnover rate - having 3 drivers rotate through one truck in a year doesn't seem inconceivable.

And the companies can be called "bottom feeders" - not the drivers that work for them.

 

What kind of experience have you had with trucking companies? It sounds like you have retained some degree of optimism regarding the atmosphere in the industry. Is that experiential or philosophical?

 

Well thanks all for the posts, I found most of it to be very useful to me. One particular bit of advice that I think I'm gonna put to use is from Rebound. Seeing as how there is a TA Truck Stop here in town, about 4 miles away from me, I think tomorrow I'll go hit that up, and see if I can't find some Knight and Schneider drivers to take a minute or two out of their days, and help out a new driver looking to join one of their companies in the very near future. I would go to the Schneider terminal John, and I appreciate your advice just as much, but I can't help but believe that might not be the best place for me to get straight answers from company drivers...as no doubt the whole place is under surveillance, and I'm sure there's not a lot of room to talk candidly about the company without another company employee being within an earshot distance, who might overhear anything negative. So that just kind of leaves me to believe that any drivers I might speak to, on Schneider property, might feel they have good reason to be a little bit tight-lipped. Thanks anyway though, and thanks to all for the lively discussion!