Schneider tanker training

Wow! Thanks for the honest detailed post! What's most interesting is that I keep reading about the seemingly endemic disorganization plaguing Schneider these days, particularly the bulk tanker division. This seems really odd for a Fortune 500 freight logistics company but I've read that this phenomenon seems to have occurred and gotten progressively worse after the company went public in mid-2017 and the "bean counters" essentially took over. Somehow that last part isn't so surprising.

 

Yea billthurman and famousk was pretty spot on.
Training was excellent at least the training I received at Coraopolis and my Te not all te’s are the same and not all students pay attention.
Plus it’s only so much they can prepare you for

 

that's good money

 

those are fun

 

You must be one of those planners the dbl’s speak of lol

 

No honestly, in 2016 it was the same story, one worthless load a week to send you to the middle of nowhere, then the usual 'there is nothing coming out of there until next week'...I calculated how much I would clear if I just sat for 30 days straight getting layover pay, $65x30...I just busted out the acoustic and got comfy. They're paying for fuel, I don't gaf. Schneider has been great overall, I enjoy being a nameless bottom feeder. Almost every delivery I get compliments like 'wow, that was fast, and you didn't make a huge mess or hit anything, best delivery I've seen'... ...it repairs the self esteem damage from driving 60 all day getting cursed by all of vehicular humanity...

 

I started with Schneider, great training.

 

Schneider is an honest and respectful company. What specific questions do you have?
As a rookie, you CAN pass their tanker and driving tests after 5 weeks. Think about this a minute. How many students in your trucking school can back already? Schneider wont pass you for ####s and giggles. MOST rookies would be wise to master driving/backing with a dry van before getting into sloshing tanks and hazmat hoses. Just my 2 cents. The bulk division will hold you to a very high standard as they should
Schneider will retrain you, but i think at some point they will send you to dry box if you cant drive.

 

I blame their system. When I was there we would go to customers that they knew required us to have physical paperwork to get loaded but it would never be relayed to us drivers. Was at one customer in Houston that all 4 of us Schneider guys were on the sideline waiting for our DBLs to fax the paperwork over while every other carrier just arrived and immediately gets a rack cause of us.

A lot of times the time they gave me did not match up with what the customer asked for and also ended up having to wait for it to be rescheduled.

The large facilities with multiple gates were fun cause they will send every driver to the same entrance no matter what product we were picking up. Wasting time in a line just to be told wrong gate please turn around and go to the one on this street.

Last 2 weeks for me there was just sitting everyday. Stuck at one terminal 4 days before getting 2 short hauls then sitting at another terminal for an additional 3 days before a load to the house where I decided to call it quits. I was not the only one. At one terminal there were over 12 of us all waiting and one guy said he was there for 6 days! We all ended up getting loads at thr same place going different places and I ended up running into some of the same guys at the next terminal who were all on the phone with other carriers looking for work.

Training is very good in give them that. I've worked for them 2 times and the people in charge of the Houston terminal know me well.

Even with all the negatives I still liked my time there. Still recieve rehire letters every few months asking to come back. If it wasn't for the fact I would have to go back again for 3.5 weeks of training I would be back again cause I've learned how their system works.


Also the whole showing up with dirty tanks is on the driver. A lot of times I've picked up a tank with a washout only to find it was never touched in the first place. Most likely the employee on duty couldn't get to it but just signed off on all the work for the day in advance so it showed up as clean. If the drivers would actually look inside the tank and inspect it like we are suppose to do they would not waste anyone's time. Well depending if another tank with the same setup and compatibility is available might end up waiting a day for a clean trailer.

Also I wonder how the whole safety thing went down with drivers with the new p4 trucks. Like what I said in The rookie thread, I never had any problems till I got a p4, then started getting a rollover warning everyday and was already on my last writin warning cause safety did not like that. Simple told the p4 had a stricter safety setting and I had to adapt to it or leave. Well did end up leaving anyway due to no work but I wonder if they fixed the bugs now. From what I heard everyone on the new p4 was getting critical events and were met with the same response.

 

I can honestly say it’s a night and day difference being on a dedicated account. That and not having deal with tank washes. If you follow their rules on the road you should have no problem pulling a tanker with no experience it’s very safe. When the p4s sensors aren’t going off for something they practically drive themselves.