Terminated By Schneider

This is getting a little confusing. My understanding is there were 26 events total. 17 for Christian and 9 for Mr. Co-driver.

You are correct Bruce. It was spelled out in his first couple of posts. I think too many people are jumping the gun on this post!

I think I’m the one who is confused...just trying to make some sense out of this.

Story: after 6 months of driving dedicated for Schneider, My teammate and I switched to OTR. We received a new Freightliner and shortly thereafter began registering frequent stability control critical events. Previously I had only 1 stability control event in 6 months. I registered approximately 12 in one month of driving in the new truck, during which time my DBL quit and the new DBL issued me a CTE. I registered 5 more thereafter and was just terminated, 3 weeks after the CTE was issued, without recourse. Part of me is relieved to be done with Schneider and their bull**** but my question is is there any appeal I can make to the company? And if not, how will this affect future employment prospects?

Sometimes these things are not calibrated correctly.

One tractor in particular that I would drive would record a "Stability Event" driving in the yard!! It got to the point where when it would flash "Recording Stability Event", I'd stop the truck, jump out and run in front of it waving my arms.

As mentioned, each event was reviewed by my company before even being brought to the attention of the driver so I'm sure they saw that there was a problem with this particular tractor as I never heard boo about it.

File for unemployment. Make THEM prove to the state you were at fault.

This is why i think the hype for self driving vehicles is a joke, if this system does this now how can it be relied on to operate with no human?

THIS IS WHY THEY STILL NEED US!

My trainer always said they are using us to help fine-tune these systems. WE are providing the data they need.

(Clearly they have a LOOOONNNNGGGGG WAY to go!)

Im confused as to why his co-driver was not terminated.

I think I’m the one who is confused...just trying to make some sense out of this.

Im confused as to why his co-driver was not terminated.

My guess would be that 17 critical events in 60 days is grounds for termination with Schneider, and 9 hasn't reached that threshold?

The difficulty lies with trying to solve this puzzle without knowing both sides of the story, which we will never get because Schneider is obviously not going to comment. Perhaps if it's decided in Christian's favor, he will let us know. I hope he gets a fair review of the matter.

I believe you. These new trucks are extremely sensitive. When I first got my new truck, the first couple of weeks were awful. I got my truck with under 20 miles on it. My maiden run, I was practically in tears as it slammed on the brakes at every overpass having me going 35 in a 70 on the interstate. At least it was in the middle of the night so wasn't much traffic. As soon as my dispatcher and our shop manager came in that morning, you can bet I was on the phone with both of them raising bloody hell. My truck was taken to freightliner to have the sensors recalibrated. It was determined my truck had been towed "nose up" from Mexico, someone had left the key on and the sensors had gotten all out of wack as they'll develop a memory of sorts. After it was recalibrated it got marginally better and continued to drastically improved over the next 15k miles.

That said, I frequently get collision avoidance (and a couple time a stability event) alarms when having to buttonhook a really tight turn in older large cities, narrow tight cloverleaf ramps with guardrails, and even a plastic bag/trash blowing across the road. However, I've never been questioned about any of it. Only tenured experienced drivers at my company are given new trucks.. we earn the right to drive them based on seniority, safety, and running them productively. As bad as the sensors were out of wack, I don't believe I've ever had that many but I've not been counting.. mostly it was the adaptive cruise and collision avoidance system slowing down the truck substantially (not hard brakes) where I KNEW I was a road hazard, hence the meltdown calls before I'd even driven it 1k miles lol. Despite all that, it was simply mostly basic alarms that would quickly clear and go away and not the critical event thingy that pops up on the Qualcomm.

These new trucks safety systems are something else but at my company, I wasn't the only one complaining. Over time, we're getting more accustomed to them and learning how to not fight the darn things so much and just let the truck do it's thing.

I've been in a loaner for 2 weeks (an older manual without all that stuff) and I almost hate to admit it but I kind of miss the collision avoidance system in my new truck lol. The system does fantastic at pacing leading vehicles and maintaining a safety cushion in front of the truck. I actually miss the @$!% lane departure system. That's super handy in heavy fog and rain when there's lower visibility. Even with glare from daytime rain where it can be difficult to see worn out lines the radar still "sees" them. Anyway my new truck is repaired now as of last Friday, but I'll have to get this loaner back to iowa and get a ride back to jeffersonville Indiana before I can get back in it since they want the loaner back in Cedar Rapids.

I also decided I'm SO HAPPY that I got my new truck before the 2020 volvos came in. I rode with another driver who has one up to Indy when I was headed north to get this loaner truck. I then got in the truck with my other half to get to Iowa. Those volvos, while nice, are absolutely crazy. You know how you know your going to need to change lanes, traffic is heavy, and there's cars beside you but you put on your signal hoping someone is going to open up room and let you over? Our volvos.. if you do that and there's a car beside you, it starts honking the horn!!! That would make me crazy having to deal with horn honking.

I agree with the others, that if you really feel like you were wrongfully terminated, to file a grievance asap with the powers in charge. If everything you're saying is factual, your sensors surely had to be out of whack.

Im confused as to why his co-driver was not terminated.

My guess would be that 17 critical events in 60 days is grounds for termination with Schneider, and 9 hasn't reached that threshold?

This is a good question, actually. It suggests that they either are reviewing the incidents and have some criteria that some of my events are more valid than his? I might also say that my DBL had reported some insubordination on my part for ignoring his alleged phone calls, which he did not have the correct number even after I provided it to him. I can’t say for sure but that may be part of it.