Swift Vs Schneider For A Rookie?

I've been busy and haven't had time to comment much. If you have already been through orientation, you should have a terminal to work out of. This industry really only will take those that are self motivated problem solvers. There's a lot down the road that will require you to do that, often many times a day.

Problem solving isn't going to another company. What it means is doing recon, finding out who is in the chain of command and pursuing getting a trainer from them. How many times have you called or gone down to your terminal? Have you relaxed your standards? If it's that important, have you tried thinking outside the box? Asked if there are trainers available in other divisions, IE ports, flatbed, reefer , etc?

What kind of choices will you make when you're on the road and you have crucial decisions to make on the load, schedule, your clocks, etc if you can't even negotiate getting a trainer.

You can not take our advice if you choose to, but just about all other companies that train will not touch you because it will appear as though you failed training. Your CDL will become stale and it will be almost impossible for you to get hired. Everyone else will require experience, of which you have none.

Do yourself a favor, start thinking about how to become valuable enough, eager enough, and polite enough that your terminal sees to securing you a trainer. It's up to you to make it work.

Aside from the fact, the sooner, they get you out on the road with a trainer, the sooner they start to recoup their investment in you!!

Don't pay much attention to what you may read online. A LOT is posted by negative nellies, or those who couldn't accept the fact, yes, there "may" be some wait time, but not always!

Hell I went with CRST back in 2019, when the industry was in way better shape. The VERY day, I got my license, I was sent out in a rental car from Cali, to meet up with my trainer in NM. Other guy went on to OKC, and punk quit, before the 2nd week out........ lol

You may be surprised, and not have to wait long for your trainer after all, who knows....

Matt has heard:

They wanted to go to Schneider simply because they said they'd put us in a hotel.

You can't get the OTR experience starting in hotels. I can't believe any trucking company will spend $100 +/- night for your training.

My mentor set a rule: when he closes the sleeper curtain, act like he's not there - I'm on my own except for emergencies.

So not to worry about "that other guy" or privacy. I was satisfied with how it all worked out.

Also you may hear that Swift is a crappy company - they screw their drivers, etc. They didn't get to be one of the largest trucking companies by doing that.

Another thing: you mentioned an auto restriction. Again, not to worry. There's a recent topic here taking about auto vs manual. The big companies jumped on to auto shift as soon as it was practical. It saves then money and is actually safer.

I completely agree with everything you said. Some other people in my class had the "ew, sharing a cab with someone?!" mentality. I have no problem with it, and I may even consider team driving at some point if the money is right. To be fair, one of those classmates was a younger lady and may have thought that she would have to share living quarters with a man. The rest were grown men, though, and some of them didn’t seem like the types who would last in this industry very long.

I also found it strange that they’d foot the expense for a hotel, etc., but I’m pretty sure that’s what they told us. It seems like a waste of money for someone who may very well leave your company within the next 6-12 months. But back to your point: that really isn’t OTR driving, so I wouldn’t be getting OTR training.

I agree with you about Swift, too. A company that size is obviously going to have incidents just based on pure odds and statistics. Someone in my class even looked up their safety score online and found that it was pretty much the same as any other mega carrier. Towards the end of our final days in class, our teacher would show some YouTube trucking videos just for fun. We saw quite a few that seemed to purely bash Swift and its drivers. I thought it seemed unfair. If they were that unsafe of a company, I don’t imagine they’d still be in business and thriving. Like you said, "They didn't get to be one of the largest trucking companies by doing that."

I’m happy to hear about the auto restriction, and that’s what I’ve gathered from snooping around online. I also looked up CDL jobs on Indeed around my area, and out of the first 105 ads shown, I could only find about eight that were manual-only. On top of that, a few of those eight jobs didn’t even pay all that well. You’d think that knowing and driving manual would net you some more cash, but that doesn’t always seem to be the case. Most truckers seem to agree that manual is on its way out, except for a few niche roles where it is an advantage. The parent of one of my classmates is a driver and apparently hauls double tankers in an automatic. All I know is, it sure felt safer for me when I took my road exam in the automatic instead of the manual.

Thanks for all your help.

I second your opinion

Matt I’m reading this thread as I am parked in Pheonix at swift headquarters. I am a flatbed mentor based out of South Carolina. Yes you have seen stories of people waiting weeks… that is very rare and usually because the student is picky on mentor preference ie. Male, non smoker, vegetarian, only likes country music….. Not sure what terminal you did orientation, but they will get you matched up and moving. Sometimes you may hitch a ride with another driver to meet up with your mentor at a different terminal. Have patience. Depending on your mentor and comfort/ confidence level you may not start team driving till later in your time on the truck. I personally hardly ever team drive with my students. My thought pattern is there is always something to learn and you don’t learn if I’m asleep.