Profile For Old School

The company is standing by the critical events, saying they are all valid, when they are literally all completely nonsense

Christian, these kind of remarks is what makes your tale seem implausible. I noticed you also stated your DBL mentioned insubordination - that adds another twist to this crazy situation.

You describe the critical events as "complete nonsense." Schneider claims they are valid. Somebody has reviewed them and determined that.

You describe your insubordination as not answering a phone call that you never received. Can you expect anyone to believe that?

We are all drivers here. We understand the issues and frustration with the sensors. What doesn't make sense is your denials in the face of their confirmations that the triggered events are valid.

Taking personal responsibility is an important trait out here. I hope you can figure this all out, because I can't make any sense of it by hearing only your side of the story.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me. Or if you're interested in Schneider, let me know, we can both get something out of it.

We don't do Private Messaging here, and posts like this are part of the reason we had to stop it. We are here to teach people how to make it in this industry. We aren't trying to recruit drivers and collect money for our efforts.

If you can contribute to our efforts you are welcome here, but please drop the recruiting efforts.

do y'all consider our job "unskilled labor"? They call it that because you don't even need a H.S. diploma.

That's a complicated question. Our job classification as "unskilled labor" goes way back to the days when the "Teamsters" held a lot of power in the trucking business. They had it classified that way by the government because it keeps immigrants from getting work visas to become truck drivers. It was a self preservation tactic. I don't think that classification will ever be changed now that we've experienced the horrors of 9/11.

We all know it takes some special skills to be any good at this. The job classification is more a political thing than most people realize. No reason to take offense at it.

But.............you are not normally starting out in thick fog, (or shouldn't be), but driving into it at some point.

This is true, and when you consider where NeeklODN was, it is quite easy to just all of a sudden find yourself in a dense unexpected fog as you cross a low area where there's river, or sometimes a heavy fog will be on one side of a mountain while not on the other. The Ozarks are tricky like that. One of the problems with a route like 65 in Arkansas is that there is very limited places for you to pull off and take a break.

The mileage is measured as "to the truck."

What do they know that no one else seems to know?

They know that this business fluctuates wildly. The business of trucking is wildly cyclical. They know that what's down will go right back up, and they've probably been caught unprepared before. The last thing you want to do is get caught in an up-cycle without being prepared for it. This is a capital intensive business that is asset based. If you are not prepared (having the assets in place and ready) you can lose out big time when the circumstances demand action. Business is all about execution when opportunity knocks. Timing is a guessing game at best. Having skin in the game and being prepared for opportunity is prudent and smart.

NeeklODN, I run 65 often when I'm heading to one of our customers in Springfield, MO. One of my daughters lives in Branson, MO so I'll usually plan my trip so I spend the night at "Wild Bill's" truck stop on the southern side of Branson.

There's some good practice on that route for going up and down steep grades, plus they throw in some curves, and plenty of inner-city stop and go stuff too. Good for you - you survived!

If you come back through that same route there's a good BBQ restaurant in McGehee, AR on 65. It's called "Hoots BBQ" the food is good, and they have truck parking. The prices aren't cheap, but fair. You can spend the night in their lot if you need to.

I have glaucoma in my left eye.

That doesn't require a waiver. There's a lot of drivers with glaucoma. Why do you think you need a waiver? Is your peripheral vision seriously impaired in that eye?

Its been a very stressful week. Going to give it another week before deciding to pull the plug and go back to an office job.

Truckin'Steve, you cannot give up so quickly!

How long have you been reading our advice in here?

If you want this, you've got to commit to one year. If you don't want this, I'm not sure why you started in the first place. You are going to be more stressed than you are comfortable with when starting this career. We teach this stuff all the time. Where have you been? I can't believe what I'm reading! You're gonna let your first violent loop the loop on the Emotional Roller Coaster sidetrack you for good?

This career is not for the fainthearted. You strap in and hang on. It's like learning bull riding. You're going to be getting thrown around, but you should know that. You've got to resolve to master this beast. That's the way it's done. Truck drivers don't back down. They don't give up. They set a steely hard resolve and move forward with commitment to victory. Anything less is going to push you right back into your old relentlessly boring comfort zone.

Walmart is the least expensive way to do this. Or your company can advance some money to you at a truck stop through your fuel card or even a commdata check, or similar item that you'd use to pay lumpers with.

This is really bugging me, as I'm sure it also is Christian. Any triggered events have got to be reviewed, otherwise nobody learns anything from them. Is your DBL the final word on these reviews? Do you guys mean to tell me no one else looks into these matters before your Schneider DBL gives you the axe? That seems really strange, but so does this whole story.

I'm not after specific names, just trying to figure out if that will be mostly large, easy facilities or difficult small businesses.

I'm not sure why you're concerned with this. Trust me, as a new driver it's all gonna seem difficult at first. That's because it is a challenging career. All the big challenges show up at the beginning. That's because we're green.

Typically the Northeast will have the more difficult backing and parking scenarios. I pretty much make my living there. When I do go out West it just seems like wide open spaces with no traffic and abundant easily accessible truck parking.

Just make up your mind that nothing comes easy in this career, and be resolute about facing the challenges that lie ahead. It's always best to embrace the challenges and conquer them. Don't be the driver who avoids difficult challenges and never improves himself out here.

I think what is going on here is a common scenario where a rookie driver doesn't know how to handle the communications necessary to resolve their trucking related issues.

It appears the only people he ever communicated with was his DBL, and some low level shop personnel. Anyone having issues with critical events should be in immediate consultation with the company/terminal safety director.

For any experienced driver reading this it makes no sense. It appears the driver is leaving something out, or is clueless. Also when something like this gets elevated to the level of receiving notifications of it's severity, then you need to forget about phone calls and communicate with your Quallcomm. That way there's no "he said, she said." Everything said is on record.

I've only had a few minor critical events in my career, but they were always dealt with by "safety personnel." If my driver manager was involved I didn't know of it.

This is how so much trash talk ends up on the internet slandering trucking companies. It's typically new drivers who don't understand how to resolve their issues who end up laboring over which companies are good as opposed to those who are bad. We've been running this forum for years, and we've never seen anything like this situation which has convinced Christian that Schneider is a bull***t company.

Christian, whatever was going on, it just wasn't handled properly by you. As soon as I received that "CTE" you mentioned, I would have parked at a terminal, presented it to the safety manager, explained what's happening, and asked for help resolving the issue. As you've presented the facts it sounds as if your DBL was intent on removing you from his board, and did it expeditiously. The big question for us is the same one that should be bothering you... Why?

Is it a common practice with team drivers for one driver to always G.O.A.L. while the other team member is backing? Seems like this would be a no-brainer and one of the advantages to team driving.

I've only done team driving while in training. I'm certainly no authority on it, but I think a driver should do his own G.O.A.L. This not only keeps him from hitting anything but also helps him understand how the dynamics of various backing scenarios work. Getting out, looking, and assessing each step of a complicated maneuver helps get the process established in your brain.

I once watched three drivers attempt to get in the only spot available one night at a truck stop. Not one of them ever got out to look, but each of them gave up after about seven or eight minutes, and moved on elsewhere. To their credit it was a tight spot with little room for error. I tried it and managed to get it in. It took some time, and I got out something like ten times. The point is... had I not kept looking, I wouldn't be aware of exactly what I needed to do next. I don't like having a spotter. I want to see it myself and do it myself.

If I'm team driving, I want my fair share of sleep. Don't wake me up to do your job for you.

How about that , we met up again today!

Sure enough, I got to see Spaceman Spiff twice this week!

Bruce, you'd be fascinated with the process of making these extrusions. Those logs are heated up until they are cherry red, which makes them pliable enough to force through the various dies that provide the shapes to the finished product. They use huge hydraulic presses to push the aluminum through the die. I've seen hydraulic cylinders at some of the plants that look like they are 6 feet in diameter, and twenty plus feet long.

You got it Old School, we are Cali bound and have to be proper with axles closed.

We are getting sorted out right now. Luckily we found good pizza last night and made the best of it.

Okay! Well, good Pizza certainly makes up for your troubles! It was great to meet you, and I hope to do it again sometime.

Old School, just curious. When you deliver out of the SAPA plant, do they get you a return load? They don't run you back empty, do they?

Bruce, I'm a dedicated driver for that particular plant. My loads originate from there, but they try real hard to find a backhaul load that will return me somewhere close to the Delhi plant. They don't like for us to sit and wait for a backhaul though. They want us back to the plant as quickly as possible because they want us to be able to move their product. If we are going to have to sit for a day waiting, they just send us back empty. I'd estimate 90% of the time I already have a backhaul lined up before I'm finished with my current load.

Here's this week's assignment for an example. I'm dispatched from Delhi on a six stop load. Almost everything I do has multiple stops.

1st. Stop... Riverdale, NJ

2nd. Stop... Farmington, CT

3rd. Stop... Farmington, CT

4th. Stop... Bristol, CT

5th. Stop... Hamden, CT

Final... North Collins, NY

They've already set me up to pick up a backhaul load from the SAPA plant in Cressona, PA. Do you see how efficient that is? I already know where to go next. As soon as I'm empty, I can keep rolling. It took a few years to get that efficiency established. At this point, I tell them when I will be at my consignee before I ever leave the shipper, and they've had enough experience with me to know it will be a rock solid plan. That gives them the ability to pre-plan loads for me with confidence, thus allowing me to serve their needs better, while knocking down some big miles consistently.

It helps a lot that they have 25 plants across the country. No matter where they send me, I'm not too far from a SAPA plant where we can orchestrate a backhaul load. Occasionally the backhaul will be done in two stages. Here's an example: I might get a backhaul out of Cressona, PA that goes to Miami, FL. Well, that doesn't really put me close to Delhi, LA. So they will then send me to the ports near Tampa Bay where I will pick up some aluminum "logs" that have come across the ocean from Russia or Dubai and I'll deliver them to the plant in Delhi. Bingo, I'm back home for another load!

Just so you know what I'm referencing, here's a shot of some aluminum "logs." These were picked up from a SAPA plant up North. They don't normally have snow on the ground in Tampa Bay.

The pickup didn't load the weight correctly and we were over on trailer tandems by 320 lbs.

Bummer!

Spaceman, I've run loads out of that plant for almost five years now. Only once have my weights been off. I noticed you guys had quite a bit of material on your trailer. Sorry you're getting delayed like that.

Do you have to close your axles because you're bound for California? Is that the issue? Just from what I saw, I would have thought you guys would've been legal with your spread axle.

Oh it's gonna happen Millionmiler.

Spaceman and I didn't have a lot of time together, but I noticed his trainer seemed to be doing a great job with their load. There's a lot of great flat-bedders out here and it looks like Spaceman hooked up with a good trainer.

I've got to say though, I'm the lucky one. This forum has enabled me to make some very good friends out here that I would not have been able to connect with as easily or conveniently. I hope to run into Spaceman again sometime, and I also hope to meet you Mr. Millionmiler, that would be awesome.