Profile For Klutch

Now that I'm an employee again I can see some truth to the hourly pay. I am working a dedicated account and I would be grateful to receive pay while spending so much time waiting to be docked and unloaded. I may only drive 6 hours a day ut spend hours on the docks.

- Dean

How about detention pay? Are you on top of that?

Each division/account is different but I believe that is one accessorial we lost for VTL. It’s the one negative I’ve found for me personally so far. Detention didn’t start until after the two hour mark but you got it even when being logged off duty. Now if you want to get paid while delayed for loading/unloading you have to stay on duty for the hourly pay which obviously eats up more of your 70.

Overall happy with the changes but the loss of detention time kinda sucks.

I would push them to help you out on transportation to get your truck. I’ve had to pick up two so far and they rented me cars for both.

Did you ask your DBL about parking closer to home? My first DBL let me park the truck at my house. When I transferred I had to start parking at a local truck stop because I didn’t have room at home for the trailer but it’s still only about 20m from home.

I thought most of the Walmart dedicated guys slip seat?

So it’s been meantioned after May 15th Schneider will go to hourly pay. I can see he on their website a mention of 25 an hour. The next question is what will count towards that and how will overtime work. Will OTR drivers who drive their 70 hours really get 30 hours of overtime pay? If so At 25 an hour with Overtime pay and 70 hours that’s looking like a 2k week paycheck for what otherwise might of been 1200-1500 if paid cpm. Anyone over there can confirm the details of this change that’s supposed to shake up the industry?

For OVR as an example, I’ll still get my regular cpm. The hourly component is going to be for anything logged on-duty not driving. So we are going to get an hourly wage now for fueling, spending time at customers etc.

It’s not replacing the current pay structure, just an addition.

I wouldn’t have let him hook up to my truck and try to pull it out himself #1.

The minute I saw how someone else left the truck I would have reported it. If it needed to be towed let the pros handle it.

The minute you get in that seat or make a decision to let someone try to do something off the books guess who’s on the hook?

Take some ownership.

Looks like I’m the odd man out…

My first assigned truck was a Freightliner and in training that’s all I drove but I like my current International much better. I have only driven the two makes but for me I prefer International over Freightliner.

On my third day or so solo I scraped my trailer against a sign in a busy downtown intersection.

They put it in as a preventable accident, hitting a fixed object but did not lose my job, actually wasn’t really given a hard time about it at all.

They did provide me some more training a couple days after. A Trainer took me to a bunch of really tight areas and turns, was actually pretty helpful as I did not experience any of these situations in my original training.

He also stated he had never seen anyone make that turn expect for a few with pups, in the report he wrote it up as an “impossible” turn.

It wasn’t impossible… once the pole was off the corner 😜 jk jk

Just learn from the mistakes, be extra careful and move on from it.

Schneider paid us $80.00 per day during our training. Length of training depends on your experience and the account/job you apply for. If you go into it with just your permit it is 5 weeks unless your account specifically requires special training. They also pay for your transportation to the training facility, any minor expenses liked checked luggage, your lodging, 2 meals a day plus the free breakfast at the hotel. OC has a free laundry facility.

When your out on the road for 1-2 weeks with the training engineer you have to fend for yourself for meals.

No the training pay was not great but with all the other expenses they covered and the fact you leave with your CDL and a guaranteed job… I thought it was a great deal. The contract is also one of the shorter, only 9 months and is valued just above 2k if you do not fulfill your contract and have to pay it back.

Everyone’s financial situation is different but you should be able to find a way to make it through a month of training, give or take. Like you mention in your OP I used what I needed out of my savings but it really was not much.

Also, they are willing to get you rolling asap once training is complete so you should not have much of a gap there for earning. I was home for 6 days after training before I was headed to pickup my truck and that was during Christmas and New Years. I imagine without the holidays I could have been rolling quicker.

How does a company determine if it’s an accident or incident?

I had scraped against a road sign with my trailer a couple days after going solo and Schneider put it in as a preventable accident, non dot but still.

Klutch and Davy it took me years to develop the relationship with Swift planners. It’s a marathon...

Yeah it would definitely be something over the long term but I did not have plans on staying OVR. I took the paid training/contract with plans of getting back close to home when it was over. I still have good relationships at a couple of the LTL companies I worked for and that’s more what I was looking to do after getting some experience under my belt. Right now I’m out for 25, home for 5 and it’s a bit too much time away from the family.

I am very interested to see the details on Schneider’s pay changes however. For OVR drivers we are supposed to start getting paid for anything logged on-duty not driving starting in June. They did not release any numbers so no idea what the hourly rate will be and they did say it will replace some of the current accessorial pay. My immediate thought was detention pay. Right now we get detention pay even when logging off duty while we wait. That would force us to burn more of our 70 when sitting at docks but again, will just have to wait on the details.

Anyway I won’t derail further, I just never saw this as a long term position and therefore have put little to no thought into building a long term relationship with the people there. Unfortunately I live in a very remote area and OVR is all that Schneider has available.

Klutch wrote:

...these planners do not seem to have any respect for the drivers or their time

I don’t think thats necessarily true. They don’t typically understand our jobs and how their decisions can adversely effect their drivers. It’s not for lack of respect or care. Their primary mission is to get the freight moved, thus customer service. Without customers, we don’t have jobs. Different perspective.

Do you know your planners on a first name basis? Do you have a relationship with them? If possible you might want to work on that. It’s give and take... pick your spots.

Schneider’s setup is not like the LTL industry that I had previous experience in. There is no building a relationship with dispatch or the planners, not in a traditional sense anyway.

There are multiple planners on each shift for each region. When your available for a new assignment, a planner for the current region your in works on it.

My contact is my DBL, or his office since he’s usually on another line… all the DBLs in my home OC take the calls. So when an issue does arise I have to call in to my DBLs team and they contact the planners and if needed customer service. I have no direct communication with the planners or customer service.

If it was like the LTL terminals I used to work at I would be much more focused on building up a good relationship with dispatch.

Being at a mega with thousands of drivers and having different planners all the time that I will never have any one on one communication with… it’s definitely a different situation.

I don’t doubt your right about some of the planners not intentionally disrespecting the drivers time, but whether the intention is there or not… they are. Regardless of job title, people are people and there’s going to be a mix of good and bad in every department.

I have worked dispatch for years, I have ran both inbound and outbound shifts as an ops manager and was a terminal manager for a regional LTL company. I know the office side of the business pretty well.

I don’t expect every assignment to be amazing and have done my fair share of short haul work but I will not take an assignment like the ones I described previously.

They know I’m not lazy, I run my ass off for them. I have no issue running out my hours every day. But ask me to sit for an extended period of time without pay and I just won’t do it. I’ll stay parked before I take one of those runs. When you figure out an hourly rate for some of the extreme assignments like I was referring to and it’s less than minimum wage, not happening.

Not once have I received any push back when refusing one of these assignments (discipline wise), I explain why and leave it in their hands. So far I have always had the assignment in question removed and replaced with something much better 🥳

My contract is up in like 3 months so hopefully they put up with me a bit longer.

It’s my biggest complaint with Schneider.

Sometimes you just have to say no. If I had done what the planner wanted today for instance I would have sat in the shop half the day while a loaded relay trailer was repaired and only drove 158 miles for the delivery. The trailer had open work orders, was oos and was still assigned to me and of coarse they wanted me to sit at the shop with it until it was repaired. Instead I red tagged it, dropped it back in the yard, called in and spoke with my DBLs office and even though I did have to argue a bit I got the assignment removed and received a new one for just about 1100 miles.

I’m not recommending to anyone to refuse work or be insubordinate but definitely to stick up for yourself… these planners do not seem to have any respect for the drivers or their time.

The worst assignment I have received was to take a relay from one of our drop lots a total of 13 miles away for a live unload with an average unload time of 180 minutes… yeah that was a hard pass too. They have daily rate regional drivers they can give that **** to 👍🏻

That's the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, I-64 between Hampton and Norfolk, VA.

There are sensors leading up to the tunnel portion that warn if a rig is over height.

I crossed the Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnel…. Not going to lie, it definitely made me nervous.

It was pouring and windy, and I was empty. Guess I should have done a more thorough trip plan, had no idea what I was driving in to.

I don’t care for bridges to begin with so 😂

Keep your eye on the steam deck as well

I have a small bed/couch desk that’s just large enough for my gaming laptop and mouse. Legs fold up so it’s easy to store.

I also have a Nintendo switch lite, can’t ask for a better system for on the road. Quick and easy to grab and mess around on while waiting on shippers etc.

We are not allowed to split our sleeper at Schneider but yes the obvious answer is you should not have started your 14 and instead pushed back your start time.

What I would have done or normally do is recognized this would be an issue when doing my trip plan and immediately contact my DBL. I have never had to sit like that because they either have me take it to one of our drop lots or they are able to get an earlier appointment time but that’s with me calling in before even accepting the assignment. Communication at least at my company can alleviate these problems all together.

You should have been aware of this issue right off when figuring out your eta/nat.

I was talking with a couple owner ops in Dallas who were contemplating shutting down. They said it wasn’t worth running atm, making around dollar per mile after expenses. Not sure if that holds weight or if they were just frustrated and exaggerating.

I always take my breaks/resets at these chains but I make sure I am shutting down early enough. I like to start between 2-3am so the latest I am usually parking is 4-5pm, finding spots… even at the busiest truck stops has been pretty easy so far (minus Jackson MS). If I need to start later due to appointment times or weather I still shut down early for that day and get back on schedule the following day. I know that’s not an option for everyone but it has alleviated a pretty stressful part of the job for me as a newbie.

You should still have a copy of your contract in your email. I went through the CAT program in Indy as well in Nov/Dec. If you read what you signed it’s very cut and dry unfortunately. That was one of my main concerns with going into the CAT program, I hated the fact that I could be kicked out and still have to pay. The contract was crystal clear though. I had two people in my class in the same boat, failed the company road test (not CDL) and both are going through the same thing. One from my class that was just fired recently after being solo on the road for a bit is also required to pay it back.

Strongly recommend you go back and read what you signed.

I went through the sponsored training at Schneider and even though it was not perfect I believe it was a really good deal. Training was only 5 weeks (took 6 because they were behind on TEs), they covered 2 meals per day in addition to breakfast at the hotel, the hotel, transportation to and from training (flew my from NY to Indy), paid us 80 bucks a day and the contract is only 9 months. That was the CAT program for students who only has their permits and absolutely no experience.