Comments By Larry T.

Feb 1st will be 30 months for me. I've always been interested in Walmart private fleet since I was in school and was sort of my goal.

Been with Schneider on the Dollar General account for 29 months. Would seem like the perfect transition for me. I love the little down time and always on the move.

Since this site has helped me from my start I'd give you a referral Turtle. I was going to give it to 20 plus trucking on youtube but im sure he gets he s fair share since he s on youtube.

Was coming to a red light and noticed my trailer was jumping and then a big puff of smoke. I didn't notice any air loss. Trailer tires all moved when I took off and then pulled over. Was done with all my stores and maybe 500-1000 pounds on trailer.

Anyone have this happen before? He was able to do some welding to get trailer back to proper height, however couldn't replace with new air bag because he needed a lift to do more welding.

Was driving my 2022 Freightliner 130k miles at night. 40 mins into my trip my headlights went off twice in a fast sequence and then back on. It didn't completely freak me out since a car was coming at me, was more of what the heck was that about.

I can't remember if all lights went out or just the headlights. Anyone know what could have caused that?

Had this happen twice each time around the 65k mark. Have a tire bank 3 miles from my drop yard. I guess thats one good thing about schneider you can just show up at any tire bank without needing approval. The guy said it was an alignment issue. I guess Schneider doesnt care to do that.

Here is what has happened so far.

I was sent to the Paulsboro, NJ, TA and waited 8 hours to get in the shop. They only have one technician on duty and he only does tire changes. Got a new Goodyear tire installed. The company is routing me back to our shop to check on wheel balance and to do a three axle alignment.

Looking at the Schneider Costco reefer account. Having 2 years of experience under my belt in a few weeks, I feel better about trying something like foodservice for the 15k sign on bonus and bail quickly if need be. Of course finding something else might be hard immediately.

I consider myself a delivery driver. Just looking where I want to go when I want to become a trucker. lol.

Your issue is you have very little experience. I'd stay or look at switching accounts within Schneider to get 1 year under your belt.,

Where are you going to work at next? I just had an interview with Sysco and their hourly pay is underwhelming right now ($26/hr). They're supposed to renew the contract with the union in September and change the pay though. They told me the pay didn't change for 5 years. I guess that's a downside of being unionized. Still giving employees pre-covid pay is crazy... Most non-union companies have increased their pay several times since covid to compete for hiring and retaining employees.

Teams and trainers are the only ones that come even close to top pay.

I made 103k my first full year on the dg account with Schneider . However that was doing 9, 12 day stints and doing every unload off duty to be able to get more loads. Then the new pay structure came and I'm making way less. Going to stick it out another month to get my 80 hours of pto and Im done.

Papa was getting a crazy mid 60's a mile. He was in a great area.

I'd stick it out for a full year, or transfer to another account.

There is food service which is a lot of night unloading using a ramp and hand cart. Depending on the area of the country you live in it may pay better. I live in the south and when I was pulling dollar general i was making more than most of the guys i know that did food service. It depends on what company you work for and what area of the country you are in. And to be honest believe it or not dg is way easier than most of those jobs

How long have you been pulling and unloading at dollar general? Which company are you with? After you are established , get your technique down you should be able to pull around 2000 a week.

I can’t answer anything about owner op. Not my forte

I've been working with Schneider out of Lebec, CA for about 4 months. $.50 cpm max, $15/hr and $100 per load. The math doesn't work out that a solo driver would average $2K a week... Unless you get all one stop loads at markets off of interstates and don't wait at the DC for loads ever. I've been told that Schneider pays the most out of the 3 companies working for DG. My manager showed me a spreadsheet of the average pay of all the drivers when I started, but I figured out that every single driver around or above $2K a week was a trainer. They have a real racket going: they get all the aforementioned pay, $100 per day for each trainee (up to 2) and the trainee(s) help them unload.

Teams and trainers are the only ones that come even close to top pay.

I made 103k my first full year on the dg account with Schneider . However that was doing 9, 12 day stints and doing every unload off duty to be able to get more loads. Then the new pay structure came and I'm making way less. Going to stick it out another month to get my 80 hours of pto and Im done.

Papa was getting a crazy mid 60's a mile. He was in a great area.

I'd stick it out for a full year, or transfer to another account.

There is food service which is a lot of night unloading using a ramp and hand cart. Depending on the area of the country you live in it may pay better. I live in the south and when I was pulling dollar general i was making more than most of the guys i know that did food service. It depends on what company you work for and what area of the country you are in. And to be honest believe it or not dg is way easier than most of those jobs

How long have you been pulling and unloading at dollar general? Which company are you with? After you are established , get your technique down you should be able to pull around 2000 a week.

I can’t answer anything about owner op. Not my forte

I've been working with Schneider out of Lebec, CA for about 4 months. $.50 cpm max, $15/hr and $100 per load. The math doesn't work out that a solo driver would average $2K a week... Unless you get all one stop loads at markets off of interstates and don't wait at the DC for loads ever. I've been told that Schneider pays the most out of the 3 companies working for DG. My manager showed me a spreadsheet of the average pay of all the drivers when I started, but I figured out that every single driver around or above $2K a week was a trainer. They have a real racket going: they get all the aforementioned pay, $100 per day for each trainee (up to 2) and the trainee(s) help them unload.

I left Roehl gycdl program after 2 weeks. They agreed to charge me nothing and pay me minimum wage for my 2 weeks. My classmate failed part 2 out with trainer and they didn't charge him. However not sure if they made him downgrade his license, he drives a school bus.

I would imagine if you got your cdl through the company but failed out with trainer they'd want to be paid or at least prevent you from driving for another company for a year or paid back before they would release you.

After training if you don't pass the driving test do you have to pay the company back?

Good luck on your new adventure.

I was hoping to see you were back to slinging those rt's. lol.

I was set up for new hire orientation with McLane foodservice. However being 44 and a bigger guy, going up and down a ramp with a hand cart spooked me and I ended up balking at it.

Looks like I’m in stores for some new adventures!

I left the Werner DG account at the end of 2021 and started a training as a cdl instructor. Overall instructing was a very rewarding experience. Like any job it had it’s ups and downs with more ups than downs. I really enjoyed helping people to build the confidence and provide training and feedback to take the test and get their CDL. But the whole time I really missed actually driving a truck. I think once driving gets in your blood it’s kinda hard to let it go. So after awhile I decided to start looking around and if I found the perfect setup I would get back on the road! It took a few months and I was doing it casually at first and then I found it!I won’t say the name as yet because I’m not sure of their policies but it’s a food service company that is not Sysco, us foods, or pfg. Did a working interview and background and now have an orientation date scheduled next week.

Shuttle driver! I made sure to verify that I was in no way interested in touching freight or being a delivery driver lol! Essentially it’s running empties double from a drop yard to the dc. Picking up full ones and bringing them back so the young and strong guys can deliver. The schedule seems nice. 2pm till about 9-11pm Depending on the warehouse. I’m really excited to get back into the swing of things and will do an update after I’m on the job for a few weeks!

That's part of it. 3+ years of experience and you should be around or making more than a dollar account. So why do 100% unload when you can do drop and hook?

Dollar accounts are HELL! For starters you better LOVE doing labor. Be prepared for lazy store managers and employees. A lot consider you a nuisance, bringing them crap they don't want and have to stock. Packed back rooms, having to bring stuff to the sales floor.

Recruiters are just looking to get their commission. enough said there.

I made around 103k my first full year which ended around 15 months of experience. So you can make good coin coming out of the gate, but its pretty tough mentally and psychically, Unless you're a super hard worker and have your head on a swivel being an extremely defensive driver its probably not wise to start out on a dollar account.

The recruiters that come to my school have made it seem like the dollar accounts are hidden gems that the experienced drivers don’t want because of the manual labor. One recruiter showed us a video of a driver unloading a dollar general trailer and kept saying “doesn’t look like he’s working very hard to me” lol