My Experience So Far With Schneider And Going Forward

I figured I would create a post to discuss my experiences with Schneider rather than posting random threads every time. It'll all be in one location.

Short beginning:

I graduated from Diesel driving academy in Little Rock Arkansas that was sponsored by Schneider, very grateful. I believe I finished school on 8/10/18 and starting my first day of orientation on 8/20/18.

So far my experiences with Schneider has been great. I have nothing bad to say about Schneider other than the no pet policy and not being able to talk on the phone(hands free or course) but other then that everything else is great. But I understand why. They always keep me busy and let me run as hard as I want and as often. I rarely have to wait for a load, only about three times now. I usually have a pre-assignment before I'm done with my current one.

Everyone I've talked to from Schneider has been very friendly and professional, regarding my DBL, safety team, etc.

I didn't always have a smooth run, I excelled during school and orientation but once I got my own truck I ran into a few problems and I believe choosing Schneider over a smaller company has helped me not lose my job honestly.

I developed some bad habits early on and spiraling out of control you could say. Now I always did my pre-trip and stuff, but I wasn't always the safest person in the beginning. I'll list the violations below.

Within my first month and a half I had a number of critical events those include one hard braking, multiple stability controls, following distances and I had a small incident at the end of my first week while backing at a loves on NJ I hit a rock piller and cracked my bumper.

Now I took full responsibility everytime I messed up, I didn't call them up making any excuses. I told them what I did, why it happened and what I would do differently so it doesn't happen in the future. Over all I was brought back in for training 3-4 times now, which helped out a lot. But it wasn't until I was brought in for my 30-45 day evaluation that Schneider does to all new drivers that I really snapped out of it and focued hard on improving.

I talked to the Lady who was doing my evaluation, we went over my logs, all my critical events and talked about everything in general. She asked if I liked my job, of course I do and she followed it with "well you won't have it long if you keep up". She also mentioned how all of this is leading up to a major accident.

I honestly don't know what it was about that specific day, but afterwards I've tremendously improved on everything from backing, logging, paper work, you name it. And I strive to keep improving everyday.

I honestly believe my career would have been over of it wasn't for me being at one of the "mega carries". I'll post any other problems I had but forgot while creating this.

I plan to keep posting in this topic going forward so it might help someone looking to join Schneider one day.

Typed this up on my phone so sorry if it's worded badly.

Now I haven't included all my backing problems yet! Or that one time I got in a fist fight with another driver!!! Joking about that second part.

I forgot to add, it's been over a month now since I had a critical event and my logs have been 100% legal in the month of November before I was making small errors here and there and forgetting to put remarks on certain things.

I forgot to add, it's been over a month now since I had a critical event and my logs have been 100% legal in the month of November before I was making small errors here and there and forgetting to put remarks on certain things.

Jamie...in my opinion. Schneider should be proud to have you aboard.

Hey Jamie, looking forward to reading your posts here. Really appreciate your taking the time. It's very helpful. I have been reading as much as I can here on TT and find it all to be invaluable.

It's interesting, I was just thinking it would be nice to see a sort of chronicle over a period of time from some of the regulars on here. It could just be over a week's time on the road or a month, etc. I love the training diaries, but find I'm interested as well in getting a better feel for the day to day life as a professional driver. I think it would add a great deal to the amazing info, stores, posts and Brett's book which are here already.

Be safe and keep up the good work!

I was just thinking it would be nice to see a sort of chronicle over a period of time from some of the regulars on here.

Okay, here's a few flat bedding chronicles...

A Week In The Life Of A Flat Bed Driver

Another Daughter Rides Along

Driving Miss Abigail

I was just thinking it would be nice to see a sort of chronicle over a period of time from some of the regulars on here. It could just be over a week's time on the road or a month, etc.

Old schools posts are great because even though he's busting his tail he shows how he still finds time to enjoy himself on the road.

Daniel B was nice enough to do atleast 2 posts about his experiences. Adventures of daniel b and A month with daniel b

I too enjoy reading the experiences of OTR drivers.

Thanks for the Links OS & Rob T! Just what the Dr. ordered! Maybe these and others could live in their own forum?

Sorry Jamie! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Well my 1200 mile trip will be coming to an end tonight, it was great while it lasted! Hopefully I get some more long runs soon, of course I will be on time unless something comes up between now and tonight (after my 10 hour break).

Backing at truck stops has been going amazing, I haven't had to many problems like before. Then again I only park at the large truck stops where you get a lot of room to setup, so that really helps as well!

I also reached out to my DBL since they are looking for 5-6 drivers to temp team to run loads for FedEx for the holidays, I doubt I'll be one of the 5-6 drivers but it was worth a shot as it'll be extra money.

Another trip on the books, I finished my 1200 mile trip this morning. I was hoping to get a pre-planned before I delivered but it didn't happen. I was about two hours away when they messaged me to "make sure my NAT and hours were set correctly", which they were... So I got to the customer and I still didn't have a pre-plan, so I decided to take my 10 hour break so I wouldn't get one at the last moment while low on hours. But it worked out.

I talked to guy I know who is also a trucker, he suggested I try "Redline" for those days where get little sleep and need help staying up. So I bought some at the pilot and boy does it work amazing... I only got about 4 hours of sleep by the time I went to bed, and I drank half a bottle like it suggests when I got up and I have felt wide awake ever since than.

I'm currently at a shipper over here in Louisville, KY not far from where I dropped the other load at. I'm getting live loaded, it didn't sound good when I got here. The lady I talked to said "they probably haven't even started the order yet" followed by "Youre probably going to be here a long time".. I was waiting around for about two hours when she called and I got a dock door assigned. I'm currently in the dock waiting for them to finish the order and load me up, hopefully soon. It's not going far, only 295 miles to Joliet, IL.