Questions About Schneider Family Dollar

Steve, do you still enjoy driving for Schneider after two years? My step dad had a cousin who spent 20 years with them, he loved them. And I've not heard anyone who works there complain about their company yet.

I drive OTR for Schneider (almost two years now) and everything the recruiter promised is what I've experienced.

Also, I went through orientation with some Dollar General guys and they got what was promised also.

Just my 2 cents. Why don't you call the terminal manager if your DM is not doing anything to get you a truck? What terminal are you out of? Also your comment about all these people with Schneider are happy is quite laughable because no matter what company it is there is plenty of people that hate it there. This is what changed my view as a whole on the company thing. Not trying to say Swift works for everyone because that is a lie however my performance is on me and not what logo is on the side of my truck.

As a side note your DM probably just sends a message to the truck assignment people and thats it. He/she has a millions things to do and a lot of drivers to take care of that sometimes you need to be proactive. I have had to do that when people were taking to long to get stuff for me done. You have to take initiative and get **** done!

Proactive? Yeah. I recall people on this site being mad at me for being proactive. Then being proactive about my DM getting me a truck when he shouldn't have pulled me out of the truck I was already in? Dude, every time you comment on my posts, you're pro company office personnel, and anti-driver. That's how you keep coming off. How am I suppose to be proactive other than calling my DM? Of course, you tell me to go over his head, but from military experience, you don't skip chain of command to be "proactive". You let your supervisor do his job.

So when I called Monday, he told me he would take care of it. Am I to assume he won't do his job? No. So I call him Wednesday, and that's when he finally does his job and then I'm just waiting to hear back. Now, had I not heard anything back on Wednesday afternoon, I would have definitely talked with him about it again Thursday, and then would have made mention of my intentions of going over his head. That would have been a more professional approach.

Just my 2 cents. Why don't you call the terminal manager if your DM is not doing anything to get you a truck? What terminal are you out of? Also your comment about all these people with Schneider are happy is quite laughable because no matter what company it is there is plenty of people that hate it there. This is what changed my view as a whole on the company thing. Not trying to say Swift works for everyone because that is a lie however my performance is on me and not what logo is on the side of my truck.

As a side note your DM probably just sends a message to the truck assignment people and thats it. He/she has a millions things to do and a lot of drivers to take care of that sometimes you need to be proactive. I have had to do that when people were taking to long to get stuff for me done. You have to take initiative and get **** done!

CJ sez to Devan:

Dude, every time you comment on my posts, you're pro company office personnel, and anti-driver. That's how you keep coming off.

Hold on, CJ. Devan is trying to explain for you how Swift (or any company) works. How can Devan be "anti driver" if he's just getting started in the business himself?

CJ you've had some attitude issues of your own. Your DM is not your servant. I can't believe he would take in the added responsibility of finding you a truck. Swift has an office at each terminal that handles that. Have you talked to that person? You get in touch with him/her yourself to solve your problem.

It's true there may be no trucks available, if they find one you may have to go get it, but don't bug your DM about something that's not really part of their job.

Also, twice you have mentioned service failures. In a way these are a "threat" on every driver, but there's no worries if a driver's doing their job right.

No one on this forum is "anti driver". Nearly all the contributors simply want to help each other out to get and do the best that can in this industry.

Here is a real truth, and it's not just about trucking: your attitude goes with you. If your think Swift is doing you wrong, you will find that any other company will treat you the same.

CJ, we've always shot straight with you. Unfortunately, you have systematically ignored our advice. We warned you about all the problems with teaming. You thought you had it all figured out, and even tried to show us how you were going to make it all work, while making some good money.

These very helpful Swift drivers here try to point out to you how you don't even seem to understand how to get things done at Swift, and you act superior because you do things "professionally," the way you learned to do things in the military. Then you blame Swift for "jerking you around," when you're not even bothering to try and learn the process you should go through to make things happen for you.

Now you want to go to a trucking job that is fraught with problems and difficulties, but you're sure it will be great because it says Schneider on the door of the truck. Well, I'm fairly certain that you will find once again that this "anti driver" web site was correct in it's assertions, but go ahead and give it a whirl. Just don't come back in here after two weeks telling us how great it is like you tried to do with your teaming experiment. We already knew it wouldn't work, and warned you.

You seem to know way more than most of us, so we will wait for about four or five months to hear from you about your next foray into chasing your latest trucking rainbow.

Just trying to help. I mean I am not a vet by any means, but I am finding certain things help when trying to get things done. I don't know where you getting this anti driver thing from, with the bs I dealt with when finishing the academy, when upgrading to get my truck, when trying to get home time, and this month with low miles I should be saying how bad it is, but the reality of it is, that it's all how I deal with it.

You can do the "professional" thing at all these places and continue to have a bad experience or make the effort to get it done. You have already tried with your DM so now it is time to ask someone else. Most the time they will be glad you took it upon yourself. My dm was lagging at getting me set up for hometime, so I called the planners and did it myself. You think my dm was mad cause I went above him? No, he was glad because it was one less thing he had to worry about. Chain of command is important, but if the first person is wasting your time go up the chain.

Really we are just trying to help. I am still figuring this thing out as well and am figuring little things out that save a lot of time. I'll leave it at that. Good luck with your future trucking endeavors!

My 2 cents: if you change jobs, do it because you really want the other job over your current one, not because you're upset about the truck thing.

CJ I wrote this to you 3 weeks ago as a final reply to your rant about the incompetence of Swift personnel and more specifically the DMs. Here is what I wrote to you:

I read what Big Scott wrote. And unlike him I offer no apology and could care less if I p*** you off.

You come across like a c**kie know-it-all. That's a reflection of your attitude and is likely projected in most of your professional interactions with dispatch, the DMs, planners and customers. I call 'em like I see them and you my friend are not fooling anyone.

You have trashed Swift and Swift personnel in at least two other threads today and have elevated yourself above all of them. Really bad form rook, unprofessional. Fact is none of them got to where they are by being stupid and most of them were drivers and possibly still are. They already know how to do your job, yet you barely have a clue how they do theirs.

Like I already said to you; "humble-up". Bite the hand that feeds you enough times and you start to go hungry.

Imagine my surprise when you never responded to this. Huh. There is however a common theme here;...you have zero clue how this business works. Didn't three weeks ago and you don't now. This job would be so dang easy if it weren't for the people. Right? No other drivers, your DM would focus entirely on you and the whole fam-dang supply-chain world would revolve around the truck driving needs of CJ. Life would be grand. Re-read the last sentence above, the highlighted one. That might have something to do with your current situation. You have pushed them to the point of forgetting you and you have made it very easy.

In the simplest of terms, considering you are retired military; in my wee-itty-bitty mind this is like a Navy Sailor requesting a transfer to the Coast Guard because he dislikes boats. You don't have an issue with Swift, you have an issue with People and Basic Communication. Doesn't Schneider have people? Yup, lots of them, only they have orange trucks instead of white ones. Moving from Swift to Schneider is nothing more than going to the same circus only with different clowns. There isn't that much difference between the operations aspect of the two companies. They both move freight, are very good at it, and they do it with drivers who are available to drive. And like it or not, they tend to favor drivers with the best attitudes and yes a minor consideration, those that are actually assigned to a truck. You are currently off the grid, and actually put yourself there.

As follows you wrote:

So, to squash any troubles that may arise with this, I offered my truck to the teammate, through my DM.

Not only did you offer this, but you insisted on giving it up after your DM told you (three times) that he wanted you to stay in the truck. You willingly offered to give up your truck multiple times without a set plan to quickly get into another one. Who does that? Unknowingly this sends a message to the DM that you would rather not work. You basically got exactly what you asked for and now it's Swift's fault because after 4.5 days you sit, without a truck. Wake up. It's not your DMs priority to find you a set of new wheels. Their priority is to move freight, and do so with the drivers who are available, with trucks! There are so many things you should have and could have done to change the outcome of this.

For starters, do not offer to give up your truck unless you have a documented plan from your DM, TM, or FM of how, when and where you will be getting a new one. That was your first mistake and most everything else cascaded down hill from there. Do not willingly give up your truck,...you are a truck driver, you cannot fish without a pole.

Secondly, you need to document conversations of importance through the Qualcomm , either freeform message or in-messaging directly to an individual. You then have a history, a record of what happened. This is essential when some sort of action is required by someone else. If it's not in writing, it never happened.

Understand the priorities of your DM, how it affects you, and realize you are one of up to 100 drivers they are responsible for. They cannot and will not drop what they are doing to service an exception like yours CJ. Not gonna happen...

You have two months of experience, barely scratched the surface and you believe the grass will be greener on the other side and that you know way more than me, Old School, Errol, Brett and Devon? Welcome to the island of CJ. Sure, Schneider will take you. So when two months go by, and something else happens to get you all worked up, are you going to leave Schneider too?

Here is my suggestion; go to Schneider, have a ball parking, unloading the "Five and Dime" trailer in the sweltering heat (if it's 90 outside the trailer, it's 110 on the inside), get back in your truck soaked with sweat, dead tired, and drive to the nearest truck stop. That's if there is one within 50 miles of your location. These stores many time are miles away from the the sanctuary of the Interstate System, in the middle of "where the he** am I" USA. Fryin' pan into the fire. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Make no mistake, until you learn to effectively/professionally communicate with driver management and adjust your attitude, you will be faced with a similar situation again, and again, and again regardless if your truck is orange, blue, white or black.

Ok, maybe I come off on this website as a complete idiot. I apologize. Devan, I apologize for the way I've read your comments. G-town, I did reply to that comment from three weeks ago, telling you I've taken your advice.

Now, the entire reason I waited on my DM , is that my DM is the one who said to me that he would get me a truck. How was I to know that he was lying?

You didn't think I would like teaming from the beginning, you were right. If my teammate had actually learned how to do his job, just as I was trained to do, and wasn't as lazy as he was, I might have liked it. But I've told you all my reasons for going solo already.

Yes, I did offer my codriver the truck, through my DM - before I was told to keep it three times. So when I was told to go home and give my truck to my codriver, you can bet I was a little upset. Why did I not have a truck assignment that Friday when I was suppose to go home?

When I say that my DM forced me to go on hometime, I'm not lying. "You don't know how this business works" seems to be the only thing I hear from nearly everyone. Yes, I don't know everything, and I know that I don't know everything, but why has this thread gone from its original subject to "why are you changing companies?"

This is my career. I came for insight on this job, but it's alright if you want to talk about other things.

Sure, I started with Swift in April, but I can change companies if I am able to, which is what I'm doing. If you are able to go to another company, and that company is a good fit for yoy, why not stay with that company for 20-30 years? "You need at least one year of experience." So because I leave one company, and choose another once within my first year, you think I'm going to continue doing that?

So I stay with this company six or seven months... my year of experience is achieved. And then what? More doors open if I want to switch companies, again? I don't see the problem with what I'm doing here, neither did I ask for advice on switching companies within my first year. I clearly asked about one job, and it seems that all I'm getting is hate.

I apologize to you all if I've offended you, as that is not my intention. Thank you all for the feedback and honesty, though.

CJ, no one called you an idiot.

Do I agree with what you are doing? No. I really hope you take away some useful information from all the replies, and but it to good use. It can only help to improve your game.

I actually thought of you today when I was on my first Walmart Run, I passed a tiny mall with a Dollar General. Since I was at a stop light I was able to watch as the US Express driver was trying to position his trailer for unloading. He was struggling... He did eventually make it as I could see when I rolled through an hour later.

No one wants to see you fail...remember that. Good luck no matter what you decide.