Hi Larry! Let's see what I can do to answer your questions. About the seats. Our personal vehicle is an 04 Suburban. The truck seat is more comfortable than our Suburban. (As long as then seat cushion is not worn down.) The seat has 3 lumbars for the back. Two arm rests and in total the seat can be put in something like 20 different positions with all the different ways it moves. Once you get the seat figured out and find the position that is comfortable for you, you can easily drive 500-600 miles and be comfortable the whole time. The only time our backs have hurt was when the truck was leaning due to a shim (see some previous posts of mine about that) being wrong.
What Schneider does as an incentive to not idle, meaning they are saving money on gas, is to give you a bonus if your idle for the quarter is under a certain percentage, something like 15% (not exactly sure). The bonus is based on how many miles you run that quarter and could be, I don't know, $400-600 maybe. Well, what my husband and I have decided, is that I give up my bonus so that we can idle. It doesn't matter which one of us gives it up since it all goes into the same bank account. When we are stopped and idle, we switch the Qualcomm over to me, so it idles under my name therefore my percentage goes up, and not his. When you spend the summer mainly hauling freight in the South from Laredo,TX to Los Angeles, CA no amount of bonus money is worth sweating your ass off at night. :) Besides, being a team, you can run a little harder one week, get in an extra run, and the money from that one run would equal the bonus money so it is easy to make up and not worth the hassle of doing without just to get it. Does that makes sense?
Keep the question coming! I love being able to help anyone looking to switch careers to driving a truck. A lot of people answered my questions when we were getting started and I know what a huge help it is in making the decision whether to take that leap or not!
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5 comments:
Hello TNet,
Thank you for your reply and your detailed answers.
I'm also interested in Larry's idling issue. I understood that SNI trucks are equipped with generators so there is no need to idle. Is this not the case?
Best wishes,
CityMouse
Heyla TNet,
My husband and I are thinking of getting into expediting in a year or so. We currently live in Phoenix, but my family is in IL, his in PA, so we would probably make our base in one of those areas.
My question is, do you think it is worth it to actually have an apartment that we may not be in for most if not all of the time, or just use one of our family's as a mail drop?
Thanks!
Vik-Thor
Tnet...as always, you are straight shooting and have the answers. You mentioned armrests and adjust ability. Is this true for both seats or only the drivers seat? And your suggestion about idling under just one of you make a lot of sense. Thanks
CityMouse, I'm sorry you were misinformed, but the SNI trucks do NOT have generators in them. (Did a recruiter tell you they did? I have heard them saying that and it just isn't true. I don't think any of the recruiters have ever even been inside a truck!) So in order to stay cool in the summer, you will have to idle so you can run the A/C. They do have the Webasto heaters that can be run for heat in the winter and those do NOT need the truck running to be operated. The Webasto heaters work extremely well also.
lirleni, we currently have our house up for sale to get out from under the payment since we are on the road so much. It just doesn't make sense to us to be paying for something we only see about 4-5 days a month. Once it sells, we will either stay with family during our time off or get a hotel for the 4-5 days. That will still be MUCH cheaper than our mortgage, even getting a room at a hotel that is all suites with a kitchen in it. Now, you will have to have an address for Schneider and tax purposes, but you could use a family members address. Just remember, what ever address you use will be the place they send you when you get your time at home each month. So make sure it is a place that you want to be. I believe once a quarter, you can take time at home some place other than where you "live" but normally they will get you a run back to that town (or close to it) when you are ready to go home for a few days. For instance, we live in the Dallas,TX area. When we sell the house, we are going to use a friends address, who also has a spare room for us when we are in town, because our kids are in this area. That is why we want to make sure and keep this our home area for now, because the kids are here. My mother lives in Albuquerque, so once a quarter we can request to take time at home in Albuquerque, and instead of getting us a load back to Dallas, they will get us a load to (or close to) Albuquerque. Make sense? Now, after that long response, I guess my answer to your question is that I think it is a waste of money to have an apt if you don't have to. Pay for a storage for your property and pocket the extra money you will save from the rent and utilities. It will amount to a nice little sum extra each month.
Larry, both the driver and passenger seat will adjust. They are identical seats so for instance if the bottom seat cusion on the drivers seat is worn down or something, it is interchangable with the passenger seat.
Thanks for the reply!
We probably wouldn't be working for Schneider...
Jos currently has his CDL, but I don't, so I'm going to have to work on getting that.
We would probably use some of the off time for SciFi or gaming conventions... Maybe visit families once a quarter or so...
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