Schneider regional tanker questions

It's not that bad now, I worked for them for 3 years. They certainly won't abuse you and I don't remember starving. To the OP, I would suggest switching to OTR. You get better pay and you really don't spend a significant amount of time on the road compared to regional.

Schneider was good to me and they fit for a lot of people. The training is good and the equipment is usually in decent shape. May not be the prettiest, but it usually works.

 

I worked for Schneider bulk OTR, and received the same quoted miles that you did from my recruiter. My experience did not match what they told me. The 1.5-1.8k miles per week was closer to 900-1100 miles per week. My largest check was less than $1300 take home (which included a $1200 bonus payout) most checks were $500-$600/week take home. The problem as I see it was mostly due to the short runs they gave me (300-600 miles) when you include live load and unload of product, you’d burn about 5 of your 14 on that. Add in (2) 15min for pre and post and (1) 30 min meal break and (1) 15 min fuel stop and it would leave only about 7:45 per day of driving. Even if you drove max speed (62mph) the entire time you’d only make $197 @ .41/mile + $25 load + $35 Unload so a theoretical max daily earning of $257. Not bad, but also not great considering that you’d work 14 hours to get it ($18.35/hr). What happened more often than not, is you’d do a live load of about 2-3 hours, drive 300-ish miles, do the unload the next day and then call your DBL to remind them you needed work, and maybe an assignment would trickle down a few hours later. It would leave you with lots of time on your 11 and not much on your 14 and a lot of unpaid time sitting on your can, staring at the space where the inverter and apu should have been installed. Also, they tended not to dispatch you with fewer than 20 hours on your 70, so you’d reset more frequently. I felt under utilized, and eventually left. I will say to their credit, the bulk training program is excellent.

 

Everybody I talk too says that Schneider has excellent bulk training, why does that not translate into a top notch job?

 

Best I can tell, I run the bulk division like it's a van division.

Use them for what they're good for, training. Get a year under your belt and move on.

 

Because they don't pay squat. You also have to deal with alot of short hauls, tons of waiting, slow dispatches, crappy trailers,crappy trucks, ect.

 

I left them to move over to TWT, needless to say my experience was less than stellar while I was there. Went through 2 trucks and into a slightly less bad truck, constant short hauls, babysitting non DOT passable trailers at the yard till they were fixed so I could get my twenty bucks empty moving them. For the day. That still burns me thinking about it. Oh well!

Side note: The bulk training was actually good.

 

Your experience level and work ethic plays a big part in how much you make. If you are coming in as a inexperienced driver like I did you got some learning to do as far as how to work the system!!!! You have a full month on training pay for class and with your te till you pass sqt’s at 80$ a day Gross. I think all bulk starts out at 45¢ per mile ,Loads and unloads all pay 35$ with detention after 2 hours. The first month is a test month they wanna see how detailed you are.. Getting all your paperwork done, calling in a reporting information such as a bad trailer, loaded with too much, how does you hos look(driving is the least of the job) once you get consistent with that and setting your Nat !!!!!!!! assignments popped up left and right for me. I’m in my 3rd month and I’ve only sat one weekend , this weekend will probably be the second but that’s cause of the Sb I’m guessing.

Also my only inconsistencies for me at least have been the truck having issues and having to wait on that and me taking extended time at home if you have any more questions you can pm me and I might be able to go into more detail
And you also gotta realize you’re starting at the bottom of the totem pole, pay wise and will get some idiotic assignments but for the most part if you’re inexperienced the experience of worth it if you’re trying to move to other companies

 

This is absolutely accurate. I don’t deny the driver that has truck problems early on, but the trucks are, by and large, pretty dependable, newer, and some guys just 6 months in, are moving into 2019 P4’s.
Your dispatcher doesn’t know how dependable you are until you’ve shown them. Some drivers don’t have the patience for trucking, and they will always fail. But give it a chance and it does get better and better. I never expected to be at Schneider as long as I have, but I’m glad I stayed.