Finally Got A Date

Well after much hoops and flames to jump through. I finally got a date for orientation. I am scheduled to start orientation with Schneider Bulk on the 14th of December. I had to get a waiver and approval from 2 Dr's, and a physical therapist. I had to obtain a full medical chart 2x on BOTH of my left knee surgeries. I had to get approval for my patella stabilizing knee brace and support (which I did not), or get the Dr. to give me one without any kind of metal in it. All in all, I had to spend over $350.00 for all of this. Why so much? I do not have medical insurance and it was all out of pocket.

I faxed everything in and got my approval last Monday the 4th of December. I took my physical and DOT drug test and respiratory test. THEY SHAVED MY ARMPITS for a hair follicle test. She gave me razor burn, and then said "I bet you wont make fun of women shaving their under arms again huh?" I have never made fun of women shaving their underarms!!!! But I passed it all. I'm now trying to hunt down all my military issued cold-weather gear for when I go to Coraopolis PA.

I'm excited and a little nervous about this now. David Galkin aka ThinksTooMuch has been extremely helpful with answering all my questions. He truly is a valuable resource to TruckingTruth.com Brett. I will keep y'all posted as the events unfold on the start of a wonderful and lustrous career with Schneider.

Chris/Deweykid

Congratulations!

It's been a tough way to get in the driver's seat, but you made it! Schneider is a great place to get your self started.

Hey that's awesome man! Congrats! You're the second TruckingTruth guy to get on with Schneider Bulk recently. Pretty cool! Definitely looking forward to hearing some stories from ya once you get started with the training. Should be fun!

Hey Chris. That is great news. Congratulations. Are you still going to Coraopolis? I am finishing up there now. I should be gone by the time you get here. There is another guy from Charleston here. Dress warm. There have been some cold days here and you spend a fair amount of time outdoors. The training is very good. All of the instructors are very knowledgeable and professional. There is a lot of information to absorb in a short period of time but they will give you books to take with you that has everything discussed in class so you can refer to them any time you need to. There aren't many flat roads around here so you are going to get practice driving in some of worst conditions you will encounter. That will give you a head start over the guys that train in Houston. Good luck.

Richard

Very glad to hear everything got sorted Chris. You have to be persistent in trucking. Sometimes the left arm of these big companies doesn't know what the right arm is doing; I've found that to be true of pretty much every large corporation, I guess that kind of thing just happens with size.

Like Richard said... dress warm. The instructors at Cory are great. They will give you everything you need to succeed and if they don't have the tools or answers necessary, they will get someone or something that can help you.

Orientation is NOT a test at Schneider. No one in my orientation class was kicked out (except one gentleman, for attitude issues). All the drivers I've talked to told me the same, orientation is designed to TRAIN you, it is not designed to send you home.

You may run into Richard or Greg from TT if they come back to Cory for their SQT.

Good luck! Keep us updated.

Proud for ya Chris. Sorry we couldn't get together during hometime. My DM just sends me whenever I'm close so planning has not been there. Matter of fact he sent me home Sat AM, unexpected and I'm just waiting for my run that'll start my next outbound tour. Dress warm, I just got back from the PA area and it was colder than an old Low Country Animal cares for and only gonna get colder. Learn well and most of all enjoy. Great career, you had to jump through some hoops but I think you made a great choice. I've not heard anything but good about Schneider other than the normal stuff with every really big company. Just part of life. Some folks just like to gripe so I kinda took it w/ a grain of salt. All their drivers I talked to were happy w/ them. They are who I was going to go with until these guys offered to give me credit for all my experience - even the pre-gap experience which put me at the top of the pay scale so that pretty much tipped the scale for me over Schneider's dedicated deal they have in our area. I went with more money but less frequent hometime. WiFi at truck stops has been too slow for me to bother paying for and I've been running UPS hot shot all night runs so I've been out of pocket for a bit but I'll try and stay in touch as I go up to the PA area a lot. Congrats again Dude. Look forward to seeing the big Orange rig down in the Low Country. I'll park my big Crimson one next to it. It'll look like the Carolina Clemson thing. LOL. Best of luck and be safe.