Schneider Training Is Changing

I was too busy worrying about setting up for backing at one of our terminals that I didn’t “watch my wagon” & hit a parked tractor with my trailer. So, Old School, Danielsahn, Dan S., Big Scott, et al... yes you told me so. Hitting my stride was a bad choice of words, in more ways than one.

Damn, Splitter. I hope everything is alright.

I was too busy worrying about setting up for backing at one of our terminals that I didn’t “watch my wagon” & hit a parked tractor with my trailer. So, Old School, Danielsahn, Dan S., Big Scott, et al... yes you told me so. Hitting my stride was a bad choice of words, in more ways than one.

Damn, Splitter. I hope everything is alright.

Except for the other guys truck everything is ok. I know how that feels & it feels like crap 💩 to be on that side of my ignorance. God only knows what he’s dealing with in his personal life & here I come, boneheaded rookie, & add something totally avoidable to his plate.

The only saving grace is that it happened in our terminal & the body shop is right there. How long he’s out of commission? I don’t know but it’s my fault & I have to own that. Humble pie anyone?

I know you are just getting started but how long did it take from the time you applied to go to training? How long (if you know) does it take to get paid? Hopefully my daughter will get her license which is one thing holding me up. I can not just leave her here in rural Maine with no transportation. Her birthday is next month and I am looking to go a week or so after her birthday. I am just trying to figure out how long it will be (roughly) without an income

Adam I sent you a Facebook message.

Don’t worry Old School, any non personal information will be shared here. 🙂

Adam. CDL school takes three weeks currently. If you go automatic only it's two weeks. Assuming you pass your CDL test at the end, they schedule you for orientation as soon as you get your license. Some people showed up with temporary paper licenses. The first week is withholding week. So you will get paid the following Friday and every Friday after that. Orientation pay is light. Only $80 a day, but remember they pay you on Sunday too when you are off and it's only three weeks long. After that, the pay will go up a good deal.

Take everything I mention with a grain of salt. Since I'm still technically on permit only. But I'll share a bit of my experience alongside that of a friend of mine who went to private school and just finished his 1st week at Schneider.

My buddy started at a private school on July 23rd, same day I started at Jim Palmer in house training.

My buddy got his cdl in 4 weeks or so and arrived in Dallas for Schneider training with 30 miles driving experience. He's going out with a trainer for a short stint shortly. Then will come back for evaluation.

In the meantime, I've put 12k miles or so on, bumped a few docks, all with trainers, and just got back to test out before going on the final 30k miles as a "B" seat with one of my trainers in a team environment.

I was surprised with being brought in to test Friday morning. I felt like I needed some shifting work. Especially since I had just come off an automatic. Well I aced the backing exercises with only 1 point on the 90. And scored perfect on pretrip and brake test. Then screwed the pooch on the driving test doing a emergency pullover, and while I put the splitter down for pull out, I lugged it hard because I didn't grab neutral, coasted more than a trailer length being flustered trying to recover and grab a gear. Knowing I auto failed, I told the state tester I'd like to complete the course. When we got back he said if not for the bonehead mistake, I'd pass easily. So I'll practice here for a week and retest.

But when I go back out with my cdl with my trainer, I'll be far more prepared than my buddy is with his cdl and 30 miles under his belt.

Further, after 30k miles with the trainer, when I go solo, I'll be more prepared. I will be a rookie obviously, but more prepared than my buddy who might be solo in just a few weeks.

I'm happy I went company school. I'll be just a bit safer when I go solo.

Take everything I mention with a grain of salt. Since I'm still technically on permit only. But I'll share a bit of my experience alongside that of a friend of mine who went to private school and just finished his 1st week at Schneider.

My buddy started at a private school on July 23rd, same day I started at Jim Palmer in house training.

My buddy got his cdl in 4 weeks or so and arrived in Dallas for Schneider training with 30 miles driving experience. He's going out with a trainer for a short stint shortly. Then will come back for evaluation.

In the meantime, I've put 12k miles or so on, bumped a few docks, all with trainers, and just got back to test out before going on the final 30k miles as a "B" seat with one of my trainers in a team environment.

I was surprised with being brought in to test Friday morning. I felt like I needed some shifting work. Especially since I had just come off an automatic. Well I aced the backing exercises with only 1 point on the 90. And scored perfect on pretrip and brake test. Then screwed the pooch on the driving test doing a emergency pullover, and while I put the splitter down for pull out, I lugged it hard because I didn't grab neutral, coasted more than a trailer length being flustered trying to recover and grab a gear. Knowing I auto failed, I told the state tester I'd like to complete the course. When we got back he said if not for the bonehead mistake, I'd pass easily. So I'll practice here for a week and retest.

But when I go back out with my cdl with my trainer, I'll be far more prepared than my buddy is with his cdl and 30 miles under his belt.

Further, after 30k miles with the trainer, when I go solo, I'll be more prepared. I will be a rookie obviously, but more prepared than my buddy who might be solo in just a few weeks.

I'm happy I went company school. I'll be just a bit safer when I go solo.

I'll second Clarence F, I super pleased with Jim Palmer. Even though I've had to wait around for a trainer (I'm glad I waited), I'm happy with the process. I had a lot of miles (not as many as Clarence) when I went to test and it showed.

Full disclosure, I did the same thing at the same place as Clarence, but caught it before I stalled or rolled to far.