Comments By Jeff1000

Just an update, I finally finished Schneider’s grueling 3 week orientation/ job interview and I’m finally hired by the company after scoring 93% on the combined written and driving final tests.

It was an amazingly difficult and exhilarating 3 weeks. Many ups and downs. I call my DBL again on Monday for plans on getting assigned a truck and starting work. I’m psyched!

Jeff. Just saw a missed call from you on my phone. I'm at home... shoveling snow lol. Snowing all day over here.

I knew you'd learn a lot with your TE. It really is a rude awakening isn't it! Traffic around any major city is where you really have to focus. Make sure you and your TE exchange numbers so you can bother him when you have questions, that's if you can't reach me of course! Hah.

Good luck on the next week. During my orientation we did that stuff before going out with the TE, it was definitely the hardest part of orientation. You'll be fine though.

Good luck! Call any time.

Hey Dave, I just spoke to you before seeing this message. Nice talking to to you as always.

Yup, I got the TE’s number. He’s a really good guy and knows this trucking stuff inside and out (nine years experience).

Anyway, shoveling snow is good exercise :-). I’m working soaking up the LA sun today. A pretty warm day.

Thanks for all your help. See ya down the road.

I was glad to see some posts about company training. It is good information. Trying to decide who to go with is my biggest struggle.

Wow, I just finished my week with the TE (training engineer) out on the road. This is where reality clashes with any fantasy notions about the romance of the road in trucking. Driving for me was hard work requiring constant concentration, even and especially on the freeway. LA traffic is insane on the freeways, so my shifting ability took a quantum leap ahead. I drove from Sacramento to LA at night on I5 and needed to concentrate the whole time to keep the rig between the lines. Situations seem to pop up out of nowhere. I drove up and down 6 degree inclines and declines coming into LA and learned that the Jake brake is a driver’s best friend. At times going uphill I’d have the truck floored in 7th gear and was barely accelerating at all; 8th gear wouldn’t hold speed at all. This was with a 72k load.

Sleeping and moving around the truck with two people was a challenge; it’s kind of like camping out.

The TE bombarded me with information, tips, and tricks. He wrote on his report a great review and he feels that I could handle being solo with my own truck. I feel I could too. It was an amazing introduction life on the road trucking.

I’m back in Fontana at the Best Western getting ready for my third and final week of orientation that begins Monday. We’ll cover map reading, trip planning, Qualcomm, and final testing (road and classroom). Then it’s a matter of picking up a truck and getting to work.

Just met with the Schneider recruiter here in Atlanta. I was quite impressed! He didn't try to oversell the company. There were a couple of other guys there too, and it sounds like they're really looking for tanker drivers. One guy was certified and will probably start next week. He told me that since I'm coming from I.T. to REALLY think about it, because it's hard work and I'll get my hands dirty, BUT won't have to put up with the office stress of the corporate world. I get a LOT of personal satisfaction from hard work!

He also advised me to hold off until about the second week of school before applying. I will probably check out some other companies, but on the whole, I'm pretty set on working for Schneider (IF I make it through school and orientation!)

As I mentioned earlier Gary, I don’t think you can do better than Schneider out of the gate, or even long term. Benefits are great too. They have a profit sharing/ 401k that matches you dollar for dollar. Good luck!

Man, glad ya made it through! They love to put the pressure on ya like that to see if you can hack it or if you're gonna fold. And quite a number of people fold.

Looking forward to hearing more about it!

Hey Brett! Thanks! That was my assessment as well. This trainer was doing everything he could think of to get me to lose my cool, but I knew that game from trucking school. The outrageous things he said and the yelling I ignored; I just responded when he was being reasonable. Essentially, I didn’t lose my cool even though my entire being was telling me to express my anger and frustration. I know that when you lose your cool you lose the game, and I really want to drive for Schneider. The trainers/ instructors want to make damn sure you’re not gonna do something stupid out there and be a safety hazard, and keeping your cool is a huge part of it.

Believe me though, I almost folded, but I found my second wind and pushed through. It’s all good in the end.

I'm very interested to hear how orientation goes for you at Schneider. A friend of mine and I are close to pulling the trigger and signing up with Schneider as team drivers so I'll be watching for your updates. Best of luck with your trainer.

Thanks Scotty. You can’t do better than Schneider. We had a quite a few team drivers in our class.

I’ll try to update this thread when I can.

Wow, what a week! Talk about an emotional rollercaoster. Now I’m sitting in the hotel room waiting to get an update from my TE about when I can come onboard his truck.

First off, I gotta say that I’m really impressed with Schneider National: it’s a first-class operation. This company has trucking down to a science, and you’re not going to be able to slip anything by them. You have to perform up to a certain standard, in the classroom and behind the wheel, or you’re gonna be gone. The first two days angle backing I struggled the same as I did in trucking school, and my driving instructor said that if I didn’t have an “epiphany” by tomorrow (last Friday) I’d be gone, so the pressure was on me big time. In fact earlier that day I even scraped my trailer against another trailer and things sure were looking grim. Friday came and I decided to try not doing my hard right maneuver so soon and I was amazed that I was able to guide the trailer into the practically trailer-width hole fairly easily. A couple pull-ups and I was good. My instructor said, “Ok, now you have to show consistency” which meant doing the same thing 5 more times in a row. Each go round was three different holes to back into. I struggled on a couple but managed to get the damn things home and he passed me. So here I am in week two, but I could have easily been on my way back to Las Vegas.

Everyone I’ve met has been great, students and instructors, and all in all, despite my close call, this orientation has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. If you think you got the chops, you can’t go wrong with Schneider. It’s a great company.

What I learned is that no one was born knowing how to shift a tractor. When shifting a truck, you’re doing things you’ve never done before so it will take a little time to get the timing down and everything in sync, so be kind to yourself, and don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Even if it takes you a little longer than someone else it doesn’t mean you won’t be as good at it in the end as the person who picked it quicker.

I’ve always thought to myself, for upshifting, CLUTCH/ NEUTRAL; CLUTCH/ SHIFT. For downshifting, CLUTCH/ NEUTRAL; CLUTCH/ REV/ SHIFT. Once you get it you’ll wonder why you were having trouble because it will seem so easy to do.

That’s an interesting question. I can only relay my own actual experience. I had a physical at truck driving school and my top number was 140. The doctor told me I was borderline high blood pressure and if it was any higher I would have to be on blood pressure medication. Yesterday my top number was 138, and the doctor mentioned it but passed me because it was under the magic top number of 140.

What I took away from these two experiences is that even if you do have high blood pressure all is not lost because you can lower your blood pressure with medication and then your number will be in the proper range and you’re okay. It seems that it’s similar to eyesight in that if your glasses are able to correct your vision to the point you can read the charts you’re okay.

Glad I helped alleviate some of your concerns Jeff. You'll do fine in Fontana and soon enough you'll be on here giving advice of your own! Keep us updated.

Thanks ThinksTooMuch, appreciate the help.

I always go into situations expecting the worst and pleasantly surprised when things actually go right. At 58 I hope I gained some wisdom :-).

Michael, as I was going through the application/ conditional hire process with Schneider I was thinking about where I might apply next if this didn’t work out. One little epiphany I had awhile back is that my CDL gives me the permission to play in the trucking world, and as you said, it’s a pretty big world. Also, it seems that the most important aspects of getting hired/ prehired is a good driving record, the lack of a criminal past, and no record of drug usage (passing the drug tests). The better companies may be desperate for drivers, but that doesn’t mean they’ll take on everyone who shows an interest. I do know that Schneider hasn’t left too many stones unturned in my situation. Just my observations so far, FWIW.