Gonna get into trucking soon, I hope. I have an interview with Schneider this Monday. My bro. got his CDL there 5yrs ago, and stepdad is signed up to go soon. I have yet to hear anything negative about Schneider co. or school, but haven't asked u guys about them yet. Can u give this newbee some advice? :wink:

Here is a schnider message board
http://www.pumpkindriver.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

I went in the Summer of 2000 at their Charlotte facility. The instructors where all pretty good, the Hotel was nice, and they fed you for lunch and dinner at the Schneider facility. All in all not bad. A lot of stuff crammed into under 2 weeks.

My lovely classmates where not so nice. They had a bet going that I wouldn't make it. I was the only woman in class, and I am pretty outspoken. Who knows why, but several of the guys where not exactly gentlemen. Oh well, I made, but not all of them did.

As a woman though, I believe Schneider treated me very professional, and even though I never actually worked for them, I believe they are a good beginners company.

One thing I didn't like was the fact that the weaker person of the two people per instructor gets a lot more driving time. And while I am not sure that I was all that great, compared the the skizzoid freak I got paired with I was supertrucker Sabine from day one. I was scared of dying with him driving, and after a week I finally asked to be let out of the truck with him, which wound up not being necessary, since he got recycled, but I thanked God he didn't kill us every day, while I only got to drive a couple of hours, he spend hours trying to crash the truck.

If You are going to Green bay to train be aware that they move at the speed of light for the 2 weeks you are there and about 25-30 students of the 80 they take in a week will get sent home. It really depends on how fast you can pick everything up and what kind of trainer you end up with.

I went to Green Bay in the middle of 06 and stayed the whole 2 weeks but did not pass the final driving test. I came back to Ohio and got my CDL through a good truck driving school and went back to Green Bay a 2nd time and did fine. You have 8 days (about 2 hrs each of the 8 days) to learn shifting and backing and driving in general. You will be in a truck with 3 students each driving about 2 hours each of the 8 days. You are there a total of 14 days.

In 2006 they started bringing in 80 students a week (about 3 students to 1 trainer)!! The amount of time you spend behind the wheel is limited.

I now work for the Pumpkin, just a little over 90 days and it has been a pretty good experience but I must say that many people do get screwed over in the 2 week training and get stuck oweing Schneider $$.

'preciate the feed back. I passed all my testes the first time except for the combo. test, that was only because i didn't finish reading the whole chapter. :x Pissed me off cause I had to wait another week til I could retake it. But I passed and got my permit. I'll b goin this saturday for my first day. They've promised me a dedicated route for Proctor and Gamble. Wonder if this will stick??

Kimberly

[/url]

Any of you Schneider guys know how much different/more intense training for the bulk/tanker division is compared to the van fleet? I'm fresh out of a CDL school here in Pittsburgh with tanker & hazmat endorsements and I'm ready to put those to use. Will Schneider really let a newbie like me haul around hazmat tankers from the get go or will I get food grade tankers to start?

Have you already applied?


Vegas, sni doesn't do food grade from my understanding. As long as you get certed and have the endorsement (cert is open book test at sni training) you can haul hazmat. They're closed now, but this is the number to the operating center in Pittsburg (coraopolis). They're open 8-5 EDT mon-fri. Bulk training is the same time frame as van, with two extra days added in for the tank specific stuff. On the road training is a little longer, but shouldn't be more than a month from the get go. Since you already have your cdl, they will give you a road test to see if they can fast track you through their initial training. If you fail then you go through the same two weeks in class as everyone else. I did fine. I had never driven a stick before going to the class in Dallas and I was hired on straight to tanks.


If you're from the PA area, your initial training will be in Carlisle, Pa and the two day bulk portion and all the over the road training should be out of Coraopolis,PA . If you need anything specific pm me, and I can hook you up.

I filled out an application today for the Schneider bulk division @ my schools placement office, so hopefully I'll be hearing from them sooner than later. I have no doubt I'll pass their preliminary road test, my CDL school uses the exact same Freightliners that Schneider bulk does. I'm sure a tanker with fluid sloshing around it is an entirely different driving experience from the 48' van I got my CDL in but I think I'm up for the task.