Terminated By Schneider

Christian, of all the critical events registered by Schneider, how many would you say were false positives and how many would you say were your fault?

I think what is going on here is a common scenario where a rookie driver doesn't know how to handle the communications necessary to resolve their trucking related issues.

It appears the only people he ever communicated with was his DBL, and some low level shop personnel. Anyone having issues with critical events should be in immediate consultation with the company/terminal safety director.

For any experienced driver reading this it makes no sense. It appears the driver is leaving something out, or is clueless. Also when something like this gets elevated to the level of receiving notifications of it's severity, then you need to forget about phone calls and communicate with your Quallcomm. That way there's no "he said, she said." Everything said is on record.

I've only had a few minor critical events in my career, but they were always dealt with by "safety personnel." If my driver manager was involved I didn't know of it.

This is how so much trash talk ends up on the internet slandering trucking companies. It's typically new drivers who don't understand how to resolve their issues who end up laboring over which companies are good as opposed to those who are bad. We've been running this forum for years, and we've never seen anything like this situation which has convinced Christian that Schneider is a bull***t company.

Christian, whatever was going on, it just wasn't handled properly by you. As soon as I received that "CTE" you mentioned, I would have parked at a terminal , presented it to the safety manager, explained what's happening, and asked for help resolving the issue. As you've presented the facts it sounds as if your DBL was intent on removing you from his board, and did it expeditiously. The big question for us is the same one that should be bothering you... Why?

Christian, of all the critical events registered by Schneider, how many would you say were false positives and how many would you say were your fault?

That’s the conundrum. It’s impossible to determine that, really, which is essentially why they had to term me, in their words. There were simply too many, whether or not I was responsible for all or any of them. If you consider that I drove for 6 months with only one critical event...I don’t know to what extent I can even be held responsible for suddenly accumulating 17 in 2 months. Considering that I was never even at once remotely at risk of a rollover, are any my fault? I need to reiterate that these events were often being triggered on straight roads. It was impossible for to rectify my “dangerous driving behavior” when it was never established what behaviors were triggering these events.

It’s hard for anyone here to understand this situation if you have the shared traditional experience with the ESC system and how it operates, because these events are not easy to trigger, which was also my experience before I got this 2019 Freightliner. My driving habits did not change, yet I suddenly got stability controls left and right, and I couldn’t adjust my driving because it was never clear what was triggering those events. if there was a clear pattern, I could have easily learned and adapted.

I've only had a few minor critical events in my career, but they were always dealt with by "safety personnel." If my driver manager was involved I didn't know of it.

Schneider handles it a bit differently, you'll talk to your DBL about these events and they'll take your statement and after you have had a few within 30 days, they'll bring you in for extra training and that's where you'll talk to someone from safety, usually have to watch some videos and driving or backing depending on what happened.

Your DBL usually gives you some information on how to prevent them from happening again, if you didn't know what happened. but it's a pretty straight forward process and it doesn't make any sense if he went from having all these events to being fired without ever going through some type of extra training.

Stability Control events are basically the worse you can get, and to get so many so close together is either your own fault or the truck is messed up. But chances are, you were probably doing something that could have triggered it. The new trucks have 2 additional sensors then older Schneider trucks so they are must more sensitive.

I've only had a few minor critical events in my career, but they were always dealt with by "safety personnel." If my driver manager was involved I didn't know of it.

Schneider handles it a bit differently, you'll talk to your DBL about these events and they'll take your statement and after you have had a few within 30 days, they'll bring you in for extra training and that's where you'll talk to someone from safety, usually have to watch some videos and driving or backing depending on what happened.

Your DBL usually gives you some information on how to prevent them from happening again, if you didn't know what happened. but it's a pretty straight forward process and it doesn't make any sense if he went from having all these events to being fired without ever going through some type of extra training.

Stability Control events are basically the worse you can get, and to get so many so close together is either your own fault or the truck is messed up. But chances are, you were probably doing something that could have triggered it. The new trucks have 2 additional sensors then older Schneider trucks so they are must more sensitive.

this is accurate. I just wasn’t brought in for additional training, the stability control events were being treated as very serious, although nothing was happening, and my understanding from my conversation with my DBL is that my driving was deemed too risky as a result to even be eligible for retraining or taking other steps.

If what you say is true about the sensors, this is where is where I feel blind sided. I was trained and drove on a system For which I was not triggering stability control events. upon getting the new truck, I began triggering these without changing my driving habits and just was not able to adapt. I’m not sure that I was given due process and did not deal with this properly, and now will have to pay for it. That’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Christian, I for one, believe your story. There is obviously a problem with the computer system/ systems on your truck. I would very calmly and professionally take this up the Chain of Command within the Company. You may not be rehired, ( or want to continue your employment with Schneider), but, it is crucial to resolve this issue, with documentation, as to not hinder your future prospects. Hang in there. There are so many things to deal with as a rookie out here. To put this on top of an already stressful situation is tough. Whatever you do, keep calm, and don't let your emotions get in the way of resolving this.

Christian, I for one, believe your story. There is obviously a problem with the computer system/ systems on your truck. I would very calmly and professionally take this up the Chain of Command within the Company. You may not be rehired, ( or want to continue your employment with Schneider), but, it is crucial to resolve this issue, with documentation, as to not hinder your future prospects. Hang in there. There are so many things to deal with as a rookie out here. To put this on top of an already stressful situation is tough. Whatever you do, keep calm, and don't let your emotions get in the way of resolving this.

Well I appreciate that sentiment. To the best of my understanding I am accurately representing what happened. I think you have a rookie DBL and a rookie driver in myself both maybe not handling the situation properly. I did not do my part in defending myself, and although I don’t expect to work for Schneider anymore it’s just hard to accept that I might have to suffer down the road for this. I was driving safely and responsibly to the best of my knowledge and ability and I wanted to stop getting those critical events, but I just couldn’t avoid it. The cruise control did not work on the truck initially, for example, and the company did not believe us and the techs found no issue with it until Freightliner sent out a notice to Schneider about it. This could be a similar issue but I cannot confirm that.

The 17 critical events were all charged to you? How many did your teammate have?

I think he said his teammate had 9, if I understood correctly.

In my opinion, there is a serious issue with that truck. I have hit some bridge to road way transitions that should have ripped the kingpin right off of the trailer, and didn't trigger an event!