Schneider increases pay

[Ian Williams]

A while ago I heard a joke that Schneider is German for JB Hunt, I guess its becoming true.

It looks like they are just hiking pay in the midwest and northeast for all of the short runs that are the final leg of a piggyback. If you look at their pay for the South and West if still on the low side.

For longer lengths of haul its often cheaper to piggyback than have a 3000mi solo trip given how much diesel costs today.

Living here in Reno I can see 30-50 car unit trains of nothing but piggyback trailers. The vast majority are JB and Pumpkin with some Werner, Swift, UPS, Yellow/Roadway and ABF mixed in.

It seems like the van market is splitting short haul intermodal shag work for solos and more time sensitive hot freight for teams.

[dipstick]

Even at a dollar a mile, pay is poor if one does not get the miles.

In May this year, the assistant terminal manager at the Crete Wilmer terminal told me that the lenght of haul was going to drop, and I would be spending more time and more time in the Midwest, meaning more unpaid time logged on line four, and still having problems getting home when needed.

And since my home in Texas was just outside the zone, Mid South regional was out of the question.

Add to this his comment that dispatch was not required to get a driver home, only to keep them moving, I realized it was time for a change.
home daily, and know who cooks my meals.

Care to explain your statement about dispatch not being required to get drivers home? That's pure bullsh*t. And as far as avg length of haul is concerned, mine has been increasing for the last 6 months. For the month of August it was nearly 1100 miles.

Yep, that's why I quit, if they don't have a load going home , guess what, you don't go home.

[Aquarius]

so now you're a Schneider authority?

If they're offering a pay increase, that means they have to offset that expense somewhere else on the balance sheet. Ah, but where? Fuel? Nope. Can they raise prices? Best o' luck with that one in this market. So where is the money coming from to fund these payraises?

Schneider can simply afford it,they are pretty close to what JB Hunt makes(publicly traded).
Their pure profits are in the range of 350 million(yearly),on revenues of about 3.7 billion.
Even if all 15,000 drivers average a 2000$ yearly increase,that amounts to 30 million,less than a 10% hit on the bottom line,easly affordable by Schneider.

Said that,I agree with you, some of it will just be money shifting.

Just during my 2.3 years with Schneider,this company bought APS port services,two rail yards,opened logistics in Csech Republic,boght logistic firm in China,bought trucking co. in china,bought even air forwarding logistic co...and whom knows what else.

Its long due to give their drivers a more competitive wage!

[Ian Williams]

As I was saying the future of Solo Dry Van:



This was taken yesterday from WBI80 ~mm40 between Fernley and Reno NV.

Looking at the future of higher fuel prices and/or a CO2 tax piggybacking low value, non time sensitive freight will continue to grow. A handful of engineers and 2-4 4000HP Locomotives and do the work of 30-50 solo drivers.

Just my $.02