Schneider Vs Us Xpress

Yeah it is the dollar store account but they do offer more starting pay and a 5k signing bonus

Don't walk away from that opportunity. RUN!!!!!!

Thanks for the input guys I really appreciate it. I hope I made the right decision though one last question. A friend of mine who trucks said I may be better off with swift due to them being a larger company if I did my first 3mo over the road I could switch to a dedicated account and said swift had better training. He said that going otr first would help me develop skills that dedicated would not do?

Jared, Schneider does a very abbreviated but thorough training. Swift's training will be longer. You may need to decide which of those is more important to you. We always recommend going OTR first. I generally recommend you stay with that for one full year. The things you'll learn will be really valuable to you on any dedicated account.

You're obviously second guessing yourself. Get that decision made and stick with it.

I suggest you go back through this whole conversation and read it thoughtfully and carefully. I think that will help you.

I agree. Don’t do the Dollar job. I’m with Schneider and I haven’t delivered to a dollar store, but one of the Big Lots I went to had a terrible dock. Had to pull into a neighboring parking lot between the cars to back in. That’s what Dollar stores have to do. I only had a month driving at the time, so it was very nerve racking.

That bonus will most likely spread out throughout the year. And as far as offering higher starting pay. I wasn't making more than an entry level otr driver. Keep in mind you can only move as fast as the stores unload you. Which normally took hours at a time. Also, it's regional so miles are short. Example all of my runs were Joilet, Il to no farther east than Ohio and no farther west than Missouri.

I have experience with transferring to a dollar account when I was new. I really liked it, got paid what I believed to be great money, and enjoyed the exercise.

Later I wasn’t paid so well and suffered a knee issue on the job only to be thrown under the bus by my company. I fought my work comp case and won out in the end but the process was not pretty.

My knee has been getting better but I stick to no touch freight now. Just keep in mind an injury can really mess up any future potential to earn income AND negatively affect quality of life in general.

If my body didn’t give out and they continued to pay me well, I would have stayed on the account until I accumulated enough savings to buy my house cash.

I’ve enjoyed working at Schneider, great DL’s and such. To me, the people I interact with on the job are as important if not more so than pay. I’m planning on going back to them soon but I’m open to trying smaller companies as well. Can’t speak much for U.S Xpress.

As others have also mentioned. The backs were more difficult but I rather enjoyed learning and apparently got good enough that some store managers complimented me. One manager actually really disliked me at first but I grew on him as I got better at the job. The worse back I ever had was actually on an intermodal account for what it’s worth if I remember correctly. Some stores are slow and while that didn’t bother me much, it affects your checks. The entrance/exit into stores can get dicey but I always called the store if it wasn’t obvious where I enter after checking google maps and ran turns/shutdown locations through my head ahead or time.

I believe the first 2 unloads I did for the dollar account, I actually threw up multiple times in my mouth. It got easier after the 3rd or so and at some point close to that I told them I’m in. I used to unload trailers for Walmart retail but as it turns out, that me was not the me I had when I did the dollar account. Take care mate.

Unity thank you very much for that detailed response. Most experienced drivers know to stay clear of those accounts but to new drivers considering it they're able to get a much more detailed idea of what its about from someone who has actually done the job. Too often people see the $$ talked about and don't think of the long term effects on the body. I did food service for about a year and a half and now i have aches and pains I didnt have before beginning it. Let's me honest, we all know how to properly lift but doing things properly with every case the load will never get unloaded. I'm sorry to hear you were injured but glad to hear things are improving for you.