Profile For Christian T.

I love the tone of elitism you express as a truck driver: you’re a truck driver. You’re a loser, probably overweight, and a slave. Trying to condescend me is laughable. Ooooo I’m not good enough for Schneider oh I’m so ashamed of myself because my measure of self worth is my ability to drive a truck and be someone’s *****. If this endeavor doesn’t work, I’ll do something else with my life. I don’t put up with bull**** and follow stupid rules. Maybe you do and if you live your life that way that’s fine! Good for you. I don’t.

Another classic reaction! I love calling someone out and then watching them have a meltdown because they're embarrassed how easily you were able to see through their entire charade. Classic. It must be hard realizing you're not as clever as you thought you were.

You're not even smart enough to realize that your reaction just totally gave you away, not that I believed much of anything you said to begin with.

you’re a truck driver. You’re a loser, probably overweight, and a slave.

Wow, are you ever right about anything???

I'm not a truck driver anymore and I'm certainly not a loser. I'm a retired truck driver who had a fantastically fun and safe and successful 15 year career and now I'm a very successful business owner. I'm certainly not a slave, whatever that means in 2019. I'm also in fantastic shape.

Trying to condescend me is laughable

Actually it was easy......

Ooooo I’m not good enough for Schneider oh I’m so ashamed of myself because my measure of self worth is my ability to drive a truck and be someone’s *****

Says the guy who was just booted to the curb and is on his way back to his mom's basement and his video games.

If this endeavor doesn’t work, I’ll do something else with my life

I've got news for you. It's already not working, and it's not going to. You can't see that yet, but I've been watching this same story play out for 25 years. It always ends the same way.

Well, I guess that wraps up this mystery. Great job, Christian. You've made a monumental ass out of yourself. I knew you would accidentally reveal your true nature and the essence of what really happened if we let you keep talking.

Man, that was fun.

Next!

Sounds like you took that personally, mission accomplished. Lol. Was hoping you’d ban me as a moderator I’ve been banned from like 10 forums. It’s an art form. One of us takes themselves too seriously and it’s not me.

I did tell my DBL to “go **** himself” so do you think I should send him a card or something? But i’m Not an ass kisser and that’s no way to get ahead in life. It’s about being able to live with yourself at the end of the day. Once you give that up you have nothing. On the company driver side of things, it’s about sucking up, taking your lashings, not questioning authority, and allowing yourself to be stepped all over and taken advantage of. Humility has nothing to do with it.

If this is their new “standard” for safety, I am willing to concede that I am too “unsafe” to drive their new trucks. If Schneider insists on operating in this manner, I simply don’t want to drive for them.

I agree - you're not safe enough to drive their trucks and the fact that they put you on a bus home tells me they really aren't interested in having you drive for them any longer. I don't think it's your choice, and I don't believe they're extending an olive branch to bring you back. I think it's your way of trying to convince us you were right and they were wrong, but of course conveniently you won't accept their offer to continue driving for them. I think a lot of this story is just propaganda. I'm confident that if we heard Schneider's side of the story it would be shockingly different than what we've been told thus far.

I love the tone of elitism you express as a truck driver: you’re a truck driver. You’re a loser, probably overweight, and a slave. Trying to condescend me is laughable. Ooooo I’m not good enough for Schneider oh I’m so ashamed of myself because my measure of self worth is my ability to drive a truck and be someone’s *****. If this endeavor doesn’t work, I’ll do something else with my life. I don’t put up with bull**** and follow stupid rules. Maybe you do and if you live your life that way that’s fine! Good for you. I don’t.

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.

I know. I literally went into the office and looked at several critical stability events that were bogus, with my DBL, who confirmed that he couldn’t say how the event was triggered, yet they turn around and insist that no they are all valid.

This is what makes no sense to me. I have 5 stability events to my knowledge that occurred on straight aways, and then you hear that they were reviewed and they are legitimate. you can believe me or not, but I’ve been driving for 6 months with recording only one event. The simple fact is the company and the truck are wrong, which is why I will not be willing to come back. If this is their new “standard” for safety, I am willing to concede that I am too “unsafe” to drive their new trucks. If Schneider insists on operating in this manner, I simply don’t want to drive for them.

What I get from reading this series of events,

if I was you Christian, the 6 months with 1st truck and no events, I'd use that. Explaining in calm and relaxed fashion, that most if not all of those critical events (26?) between you, and your co-driver have to be related somehow to the New truck's system ! Since it "sounds" like all your troubles started with the new truck Because it seems you both racked up way too many so quick, to not have been told something, by someone,way before this all transpired!

Funny, how your 1st DBL quit/left while you were on home time?? Not knowing how you and he got along or not, or if ya'll had some bad blood for some reason?

All I know is,if it was me and my lively hood at stake, I'd try like hell to remedy the problem, and not just ''go away'' so easily.........But I don't know as much yet ,since am not driving yet ....

Yes the problem is that they are confirming that 100% it is the new truck’s system and saying that as a driver It shouldn’t make a difference and that we shouldn’t be getting them regardless because they are flagrant safety violations, which is absolutely nonsense. They have nothing to do with safety. It’s About playing a game now and trying to figure out what makes the system trigger those critical events, and I apparently suck at this game.

The sensors are crazy, and have given me weird critical events as well. Some of them don't even get back to my DBL for some reason. I just had a stability control the other day turning into traffic. I was going 6 mph and hit a bump. I think when the wheel is turned, these things are super sensitive. I also had training on the new truck after two critical events. A stability control event, and a hard braking. The difference is as soon as I saw how sensitive the new truck is, these things would not have triggered my old truck, I asked for more training. Now I talk to myself every time I turn. It has been working mostly. I did have a critical event recently where it actually said I crashed the truck. Never triggered to the company. I was driving in a construction zone and it got wonky because a sign was ahead and it lightly put on the brakes and flashed red. Then I turned because the road turned and it triggered a collision critical event. With this said, I can't believe Schneider terminated you. They very much try not to. I'm not sure if you had an attitude, or something else happened. Good luck.

This my issue with this whole thing, where my DBL was trying to misrepresent my attitude toward safety. I DO endorse safe driving practices, but when you drive in a certain manner and have NO stability issues, and then are given a new truck and have stability issues for the same driving behaviors...how can you hold your drivers accountable without proper retraining or allowing for a transition? how can a company count those critical events against you? And then furthermore, it’s not even an actual safety issue, because they don’t care about safety-they just care about the critical events. They don’t care what the ramifications are, or what these things actually mean, or how they actually work, just that you are beholden to them under the false pretense of “safety.” They won’t even acknowledge that the collision monitoring system can just be plain dangerous for drivers. They won’t even acknowledge that the stability events are triggered when there is no loss of stability, just that you don’t get them, without further analyzing the technology. And frankly, if this is the direction the industry is going in, I’m not sure I want to be part of it. And good luck finding or keeping drivers if you’re going to throw them to the curb over things like this.

The sensors are crazy, and have given me weird critical events as well. Some of them don't even get back to my DBL for some reason. I just had a stability control the other day turning into traffic. I was going 6 mph and hit a bump. I think when the wheel is turned, these things are super sensitive. I also had training on the new truck after two critical events. A stability control event, and a hard braking. The difference is as soon as I saw how sensitive the new truck is, these things would not have triggered my old truck, I asked for more training. Now I talk to myself every time I turn. It has been working mostly. I did have a critical event recently where it actually said I crashed the truck. Never triggered to the company. I was driving in a construction zone and it got wonky because a sign was ahead and it lightly put on the brakes and flashed red. Then I turned because the road turned and it triggered a collision critical event. With this said, I can't believe Schneider terminated you. They very much try not to. I'm not sure if you had an attitude, or something else happened. Good luck.

JuSt an update...

This situation is wrong on so many levels. Apparently was not terminated? The word came from my DBL to get off the truck and sent me packing, but his manager reported to me today that no action was officially taken. Yet here I am, on a 64 hr greyhound without being able to use my CPAP machine, without all my belongings, on my way home.

The company is standing by the critical events, saying they are all valid, when they are literally all completely nonsense, but as everything was explained as I explained it in this post...the company is extending an olive branch and saying that this was handled improperly. Due process was not given to me, and there was a misunderstanding of the situation on both sides that lead to this point. But this whole thing has been such a grievance to me, that I feel philosophically opposed to given this another chance and just resigning in good faith right now and moving on with my career at another company.

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.

I left the kingpin lock on the truck with my teammate, who is a close acquaintance.

Was your teammate also terminated? Based on the above, seems like he is still on the truck.

Yes. Teammate has not been terminated. Teammate is not on good terms with company at this point however.

I have triggered events on my truck, never heard anything about them so far as they are all reviewed.

We also have a policy where if you are terminated you have 30 days to protest in writing. If you do you are given a chance to state your case on a conference call and they then decide based on that if the termination is upheld or if you are reinstated. Does Schinder have something similar?

I don’t know I will have to pursue it.

I don’t know if The events were individually reviewed, and I don’t know what Schneider’s criteria is for evaluating those events, but crucially, never once has the truck’s stability been compromised since I’ve been driving. Which is really all that matters and what makes no sense about this. There are no actual real stability issues that I’ve encountered, yet I have all these events and my teammate has experienced similar. If Schneider was looking at them, they would know or either they do not care. I take safety seriously, We all do, I would hope. But when you are turning left from a stop at a light and register a critical event, or are driving on a straightaway and register a critical event, as a driver you cannot take that seriously and there is nothing you can reasonably do. And this fell on deaf ears apparently. I mean, when you are creeping towards a fire hydrant and your truck registers a forward collision event and hard breaks your truck to a full stop, which has also happened to me, what am I supposed to make of that?

No DBL at Schneider has the authority to fire a driver. That decision has to come from higher up in management. That info came straight from my DBL. Now the DBL may be the one who delivers the bad news, but they are only the messenger.

Schneider has a written grievance policy and procedure. It's available to all employees and drivers. In that policy, it explains what to do and how to do it. It also explains what the company will do and what the time frame is. Christian should pursue this process if he feels he's been thrown under the semi. Christian can probably initiate this process online when he gets home.

Christian, I have one question. If they are sending you home on the bus, are you able to take all your truck stuff with you? Most drivers carry way more stuff than they can get to the bus station and get loaded. Just by itself, the driver's kingpin lock is heavy and bulky and is the driver's property. How are you managing this?

I will initiate this process just to hopefully clear my name and be able to move on from this debacle.

I left the kingpin lock on the truck with my teammate, who is a close acquaintance. my DBL refused to route me up north although I made this appeal to him that sending me home on a bus was impractical, but he said that was not possible. I actually had driving for 5 days after the last critical event for which I was technically terminated, which was something else that made no sense to me.