Comments By Larry T.

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

Nothing disqualifying. Weight, blood pressure around 138/87, and a small hernia. I couldn't get myself to lose weight with the expiration coming up. Maybe a 6 month card will get me motivated.

I'm just paranoid they'll find some reason to not give me one, would suck since I'm still working for current company, and doing a pre hire dot exam.

Larry, what makes you think you might not pass? Even if you only get a 6 month card, it still gives you time to work on the issues that concern the examiner.

I got a 90 day card several years ago because I had a blood clot that kept me grounded for 3 months and then I could only get that 90 day card because the examiner wanted me to get re-evaluated sooner rather than later. Now I have a one year card and that’s the longest I’ll ever get.

For a top Dollar account driver.. lol.

I'm sort of an anomaly. Everything is good except my weight and I'm a smoker.

I found that comment very funny! Most of the truckers I know fit that description. You are no anomaly.

By the way, tens of thousands of truck drivers sleep with a C-PAP. Most of them have improved their health by it.

I'm sort of an anomaly. Everything is good except my weight and I'm a smoker. I managed to get lucky and had a extremely trucker friendly NP that gave me a 2 year card.

I changed it to her however I just found out this place doesn't do them anymore so I had them change them back to the original.

I went to this place twice and each time she only gave me a 6 month card because she wanted a sleep apnea test. Trucker friendly NP was really ****ed that she did that. She was preachy about my weight and being a smoker which I didn't like.

This is a new hire screen. If for some reason she fails me, does that void current med card and I can't drive a semi?

How did you get your position? Seems like a tough gig to get. The shuttle guys on my account are either senior citizens or young guys who couldn't handle it as a delivery driver.

There are drop and hook positions in food service 😉

After rereading the original post though I thought that is what he was referring to and its what I currently do but I believe I misread it. Still though, food service companies employ more than just delivery drivers, like our shuttle team who operates similar to linehaul. Doesn’t seem like the OP is going to respond but curious if that’s the type of position he was talking about, if so I would highly recommend it… the job not the two week trial.

Hey Bobcat, that's a good and legitimate response. I probably was not clear in my meaning.

My concerns are that there seems a lack of commitment to what it is he wants to switch into. He seems to want to go try something new for two weeks and then decide whether to stay or jump ship. That doesn't seem a good approach to me.

Local work is great and takes as big a commitment as any OTR driver has. When I see someone who doesn't seem to make much distinction between a drop & hook job versus a food service job, I start to wonder what it is they really want out of trucking. I always think it best to know what you want and then go for it. That involves commitment.

It would be solo. Foodservice with trailers shuttled from Milwaukee.

I guess Northfield DC is grocery.

They have a 2 day 2 a week Fargo run. That peaked my interest.

When I first started I was able to keep my amazon warehouse job for 2 month's on leave. I just like to have as many back up options as possible.

My old manager would have taken me back in a heartbeat, however with them losing the states I was always in, not confident they would take me back.

I'm leaning to jumping into the deep end and see what happens.

With McLane are you team driving?

In my area they shuttle 53 footers from the DC in Northfield MN down to Ankeny IA (Des Moines). Routes are scheduled to be out 18 to 24 hours if I remember correctly every route is teamed in sleeper cabs. Upon arrival back to the drop yard they grab another and go back out. Out of this yard though they also service all of Iowa with their main customer being Kum & Go gas stations so it may be different for you. My brother in law drove for them out of the Denver area and said it was also sleepers and teams out there. Just something to make you know what youre signing up for. Where I'm currently working we have a few guys that came over from McLane. They all agreed it was tough labor but they made over 110k a year. Another guy that did almost strictly shuttle runs said the management out of Northfield DC wasn't very understanding about a driver shutting down for weather. Obviously you're protected by FMCSA to do so, but I personally wouldn't want to work for someone that may try to force me to go out when I don't feel safe doing so.