Why Did You Quit Schneider?

I imagine your DBL at Schneider thought the same.

 

Only way I'd ever go back to Schneider is if I decided to go intermodal. Any reputable operation requires intermodal experience. No way I'd go to a place like JB Hunt, I know and understand Schneiders BS already to put up with it if I have to.

 

Wow it's uncanny how much of the same sentiment I share with OP about Schneider.

I don't consider myself a person that complains a lot but while I was working for Schneider I found myself having to complain a lot and I think that was the ultimate problem I had when working with them.

They will walk all over you otherwise.

I'll start on my list which I know is going to be disorganized jumble because I haven't thought about posting in awhile. I was going to post about it over in the schneider section but it seemed to me that the drivers over there lived in a different reality because their experience seems great for the most part where it was easily 50/50 for me.

I quit Schneider in February 2017. It was my first trucking job. I started in April 2016.

Biggest gripe I had starting off was the 60 mph company speed policy. I just thought it was completely retarded. Especially in congested traffic where everyone is going 65+ and you needed to sit in the middle lane to avoid people merging. I felt like I was a rock breaking a wave with cars and trucks constantly zipping around me on both sides. It's actually more dangerous to drive to drive slower than traffic around than it is to drive faster. Not to mention I felt like an ####### being in the way. Granted they changed their policy in 2017 where if you had onguard you could bump your truck speed up to 63.

Oh and I have a stupid schneider story about that.

I did the temporary teams from November-December and so I got to enjoy going 65 in my truck for a couple of months. My co-driver switched to my truck because it was newer and we both prefered manuals. Anyway after going 65 for a couple of months I knew I'd have a hard time going back to 60 but they changed the policy to 63 so I wasn't as worried about it. After the temp team ended no one mentions to me about getting it turned back down so I kept enjoying the 65 mph grace for a couple of weeks until I got a message about taking it to a shop to get it turned down. I figure they will just turn it down to 63. NOPE. They said they would only turn it back up to 63 when my PM was due. I literally just had a PM done 1 week before we were finished with the teams. I called my DBL and they basically stonewalled me saying get over it. I told them this is something I would quit over and after having a very rude exchange where I felt like I was trying to be reasonable she said she'd have the manager call me. He was a cool guy and just said I could wait till I came home and that shop would turn it 63 instead of 60.

Not that dramatic of a story but I want to use it as an example of the type of exchanges you would constantly have to have with them. I don't like being the person that has to threaten to quit over something like having to wait a month for a 3 mph difference. I was always very nice and positive when communicating with them so why can't they just cut me and break and not force me to take it to the next level? Just let me go 63 without having to ##### and moan.

Second biggest gripe is how they use the bonus to try and control you in ways that are not always beneficial to the company. Best example I can give: You only can have so many "off days" in a month before they start counting against your bonus. The metric for considering something an off day is if your log doesn't go on duty in a 24 hour period. The problem with this is when you needed to take a 34 hour OTR. This would count as an off day and as a result count against your bonus. I was the type of driver that liked to run balls out, 500+ miles a day until my hours are gone and then take a 34 hour to relax, do laundry and tidy up things in my truck. Even when the planners would get me 500+ miles a day for 5 days straight (which was rare but it did happen a few weeks) they would still be unhappy with me taking a 34 hour reset, citing that is was "not productive for the company". Saying that they would rather me run 5 hours one day, 3 hours the next and then finally getting a 12 hour recap back. It was completely asinine. They'd even go as far as to say it was my fault for "giving the planners all my hours". I mean I was told to put in what hours I had so they could plan me appropriately. And some weeks whoever was planning would automatically put time in for me to do a 34 hour restart.

Here's a side note about how they screwed me out of my temporary team bonus and arguably my regular quarterly bonus.

When we were running teams they turned the truck up to 65 and I actually think they turned it up to something like 65.8 because often enough it would just cruise at 66. Now the overspeed would only set off for cruise if you went over 70 mph. However if you had cruise control turned off the overspeed would set off anytime you went over 65, even if your speed was reading as 65 because I guess it would go 65.8. Now with the stupid onguard going 65 mph if it detected anything at 350 feet infront of you it would cut back. So anytime I'd come up on a truck that was going 62-63 and I'm on a 200+ mile stretch I would pass them and unless I wanted to be blocking up both lanes for 5 minutes I would put my foot down on the pedal to override the onguard so I would close to a more reasonable distance before changing lanes. So over a 10 hour driving period this would rack my overspeed up because I'd be going something like .5 over the limit and honestly at first I ignored it because I thought it was a computer error. Surely it's not really docking me for overspeed when I'm going 65? WRONG.

And worst yet anytime that the onguard would go out it would automatically take my cruise control with it which was a frequent problem I had been in the shop for numerous times including out as a team. So we'd be out there running hard and our cruise would go out. We'd get it fixed. It'd go out again. So a lot of the time we just went without cruise and pedaled around going 65 all the time it deciding to dock us for overspeed and whatever stupid threshold there is between 65.0-65.8. They were aware of this but it didn't matter when it came to paying up my last bonus I was supposed to get from there. #1 thing that docked my bonus was overspeed and you could clearly see on the graph where it skyrocketed when I started doing teams. No one gave a #### to work with me, even when looking and seeing that the MPG was the same.

Now where they really screwed me over with the temp team bonus. The paper that I signed said we would leave out somewhere around november 5th and we would run until thanks giving where we would be allowed at least 48 hours off time. Then we were to run straight through until Christmas where the period would end on december 24th. So we did our 48 on thanks giving went back out for 5 weeks straight through until Christmas eve. When I pulled back into the yard my NAT was automatically set for the 31st so I ASSUMED that I was getting 2 days for christmas + 5 days off because I was out for 5 weeks. (I had never done over 3 weeks before that). On tuesday the 27th I get a frantic call from my DBL of her asking me where I am and why I'm not at work and I told her the system had me set till that saturday which she said was an error or "I don't know who set that" and that she needed me to come in then. I told her there was no way I was getting back in a truck because I JUST got back in town from family christmas stuff monday and there was no way I was getting back in a truck that soon. She tells me to give her the date and we settled on that saturday. She calls me back the next day saying they are going to take my bonus because it wasn't "approved time off". I was pretty pissed about it so I went to the office to talk about it with her showing her the sheet we signed where it said we'd only get 48 hours for thanks giving and that the team period ended on on december 24th and that they are retroactively changing the conditions. She brushed it off, said it wasn't her call and that I'd have to take it up with management.

I know that's a long sidenote lol

Third biggest gripe were those stupid event alarms. I think for the most part it's a great tool for safety but I feel like they need to leave a little room for "#### happens" and not treat them all the same. I'm of the opinion that there is always that threshold at a stop light where you either stop hard (and trigger the alarm) or run the light and risk a ticket. The slower you go the smaller that threshold gets but some of those 55-60 mph highways with stop lights that don't have the PREPARE TO STOP lights will always make you run the risk of triggering that stupid alarm. Even if you are driving under the speed limit and anticipating it.

part 1

 

Now I'm just going to tell random stories about schneider being ####ty.

2 weeks after my PM my belt tensioner came off on i-64 near beckley travel plaza. Pulled over on shoulder...called SEM. They said they were getting a tow for me. It took them so long 3+ hours that state patrol showed up and called a tow for me. SEM wasn't too happy about that. Even though the tow truck's shop that was pulling me had the belt to repair it they wouldn't let them tow me there and instead towed me to a place that was already closed and would be for the entire weekend (this was friday night). So I sat in a motel basically saturday morning (3 am) to monday night (8pm) when the shop finally got to it. My DBL only wanted to give me 2 days of whopping $65 lay over pay because my off duty clock was only at 68 hours. I explained to her that I was told to stay on duty as I sat on the side of the road and if it wasn't for that it'd be over 72. She grudgingly gave it to me. Oh and when they booked the motel for me they didn't pay for it. The guy told me when they called him they specifically told him not to try and charge the card it was under because it was a fake. I get there at 3:00 am and had just been sitting in a truck for 6 hours freezing my ### off waiting for a tow so I just paid for it rather than having to deal with calling after hours people and sitting on hold. They reimbursed me in the end but not after some complaining about how I shouldn't have paid for it.

My first truck I got at schneider had issues the first 4 times I went out. I mean every single time I went out the first 4 times the def pressure sensor came on and derated my engine 25% and I took it to the shop everytime. Luckily 2 of those times I was on my way back home so they took it into the shop and 'fixed' it while I was at home. One time it got so bad the red light came on and I had to get towed to a freightliner dealership which I was sort of happy about because I thought surely they'd fix it...nope. The last time I was at the Dallas OC and complained to management and they said they'd get me another truck. Which they did and I was happy about.

Out of all the complaints I had when I first started there the one good thing I had to say about them was aslong as you put in all your information in the system correct (ETA/NAT) they would keep you rolling. They were actually so good for so long that I got complacent and lazy and stopped paying attention to my assignments because I had so much confidence in their planning. I wouldn't pay that much to the appointment times and such but after 5 months there that all changed. They changed something with how they operate or the planners because some weeks were so bad that literally every other load I would have to be calling them for something else because they were so bad. A pick up that's 24 hours out and 90 miles away...#### like that. And they'd pull stuff off of me and put something on just as bad.

The thing that pissed me off the most was when they would put in an appointment time and I'd show up and the shipper wouldn't have it on it's books until the next day. This happened enough times that it was obvious that there was a breakdown in communication because it would happen at multiple shippers. I got the feeling that they would send you somewhere knowing the shipper didn't have you scheduled but some places would just work you in or not really care.

I like to drive nights and it got to the point where I actually preferred dealing with support shift because they weren't tied to you in anyway and weren't trying to play stat games. One time with my co-driver we had been sitting for 4 hours with no load, calling every hour or so and by closing they told us there was no freight in the area and to try back in the morning. As soon as the phones switched over to support shift, we called and they immediately send us a load. Support shift always seemed more concerned with just getting you moving where it seemed like with the DBLs there was always some stat game or office politics going on.

Alright so this went on longer than I thought it would, I just have so many bad things to say about them but this one last thing is the worse and where I think they did me wrong the most.

I had a load to pick up from the Atlanta, OC going to a georgia pacific in Tennessee. I get there, find the trailer and picked up the bills. I leave, get to my destination in the morning and the loader tells me I'm at the wrong GP. He shows me on the bill an address back in GA. Okay so I'll admit a stupid rookie mistake not paying close attention to the bills. My only defense I can give there is I saw GEORGIA PACIFIC all over the bill and I noted the address and thought that was the pick up destination because it was only like 20 miles from the OC.

Now the part where I wanted schneider to take some responsibility was having the information in the system wrong. In the system I picked up the right trailer and went to the right destination. I know for a fact I picked up the right trailer because I almost backed up under another one that only had a one digit difference. Second the Quallcomm will tell you if you've picked up a trailer that is not assigned to you and asks if you want to change it. Third the gate will NOT let you out if you have a trailer that is not assigned to you, even if it is an empty. Even if you are bringing IN an empty they will tell you it's not assigned to you and you won't be able to leave with it. I actually had went through the gate 3 times that night with the trailer because I went to a pilot to get some def and came back to talk to a mechanic at the shop. Each time the gate let me through with that trailer.

I know most people would brush this off but I have this





Incase they don't render right

http://imgur.com/a/gMc9a
http://imgur.com/a/tQ8eb
http://imgur.com/a/1m8fr

So she says that and I go along my week thinking everything is fine. She calls me three days later. Says they aren't going to pay me because I made the mistake of taking the wrong trailer. Icing on the cake was when I got back to the OC I got wrote up for it because I guess I caused a service failure? I argued about it for a bit...made all the points I did above and she wouldn't budge saying stupid #### like "maybe you backed under the wrong trailer".

I got a few opinions of some other drivers and OSRs and they all told me that if the gate let me out then the trailer was assigned to me and they need to pay me. Anyway that's when I became completely apathetic about schneider and knew I wouldn't be hanging around too long because #### rolls down hill there. I feel like they just kept passing the responsibility down until they could pin it on me and my DBL did absolutely nothing to stand up for me. Like I said I'm sure I could have raised hell and gotten things straightened out with that situation but I don't like to complain. Especially when I'm supposed to be in a professional environment and that is why I absolutely hated it at schneider. You could get everything right but you just had to complain constantly.

The best weeks I had there was when I didn't have to call in and talk to anyone.

Only saving grace there is that I can say is I think where I was based out of (Atlanta, OC) was just a ####ty OC. I talked to a few drivers who lived in GA but changed to the charlotte OC because they hated the atlanta one so much. It always seemed like my experience with the personnel at the other OCs was better. They were cleaner, laid out better and some had food. And the rare times that the phones would go down in Atlanta, OC I'd get forwarded to another OC in the region and it was like calling into an entirely different company with how the DBLs engaged you. So I think it's entirely possible that Atlanta is just a really really terrible place to be based out of and that's why so many other drivers seem to like it at schneider because the OC they are based out of is so much better.

part 2

 

LOL! I thought you didn't like to post! I enjoyed your post.

 

Nuffy.....I can find nothing unbelievable in your posts. I drove company from 2007 to 2012, and while every issue you listed was an issue even back then, there is no question that they've just gotten worse over time.

I personally think the problems stem from several angles which I won't go into here because they've been covered ad nauseum. But I appreciate your thorough, well-written posts here.

I'm an IC, BTW, with about nine months to go. I long ago quit recommending the pumpkin to drivers, particularly those seeking a company gig, for the reasons you've discussed here.

Good luck to you!

 

Nope, no sir. The Driver's manual says that would constitute permanent defacement of Company property. First time in the safety lane and your employment will be terminated. Better plan: use the orange tape and tape over the "44 pride." Before pulling into an OC simply pull the tape off.

 

Sounds like horror stories I have read on here about every single mega, not just Schneider.

 

See I had a pretty good experience with JB during my time there. But that was also an OTR / regional. But just the terminals. JBs was clean, I mean clean. The one in Southgate & Phoenix. They had barbeques, clean showers, and free cars to use.
Sccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhneiders terminal in Phoenix is dirt. It's dirt. No really, it's a dirt lot. I've no doubt that D/M punk was second or maybe even third generation Scccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhnieder.