We are just about a week into our new driving adventure with Schneider National Trucking.
We have a brand spanking new 2013 Freightliner Cascadia.
Some things are going to take longer to get used to than others.
Like the shifting, OK, Mostly the shifting.
It’s a 10 speed and my entire career has been on an 8 speed. An 8 speed is just a big H shifting pattern just like a car. But on a ten speed, 1st and 6th gear are over to the left and down. (Reverse is over to the left and up). I am always missing 6th gear. When I do find it I then miss 7th and go straight into 9th. Which makes the truck shimmy and shake and stutter, and Will is telling me to down shift, down shift, go back to 7th. To which I say, DUH don’t you think 7th was my goal to begin with. He keeps telling me 6th is around the horn, after 5th go around the horn??? Like when he is trying to help me back he says, now get under it, get under it.???
The paper/computer work is a little different. In orientation Will kept complaining that we did not have to do this or that with swift. I said no WE didn’t, I did. Most of it is the same, just in a different place or in a different order.
Schneider treats us more like an adult. So far, they have the attitude, you’re a competent adult, that’s why we hired you now go do your job. With swift you had to ask permission and then report what you were doing. Swift would send us a trip and we would have to get fuel, after stopping and putting in the fuel, Swift wants you to send a message saying, ‘I just put in fuel’. When arriving at a customer or anyplace really that you were going to have to back up to park, Swift wants you to send in a GOAL message. Get Out And Look. Swift has a lot of backing accidents and this is one way, they claim to reduce the accidents by making drivers aware that they were about to back. In case you forgot why you put the truck in Reverse.
Most drivers already practice GOAL. Will and many drivers never did the GOAL message. It did not seem safe to take your eyes off of the situation and traffic around you, just to send a text message to your boss telling him what you were going to do. But this way if you had a backing accident and did not send in your GOAL you could be fired for not following company policy.
You also don’t carry a spare tire. Schneider figures that tires do not just blow for no reason. If you do a good pretrip stop and check your tires, like your supposed to, you will see an issue before it becomes a problem. You just take your truck or trailer to a truck stop and get the tire replaced. (well that’s what they say anyway, I’ll let you know if it works as well in reality as it does in theory) With Swift they will run the tire until it blows. We have picked up hazmat loads with very questionable tires, taken them in to swift to be changed and they say how far are you going, whats the weight, I think it’ll be ok, Ive seen worse, those aren’t that bad, you have your spare with you right?
Oh and the HazMat pay is a lot better. Swift gave us $35 total for hauling a HazMat load, Schneider will pay us $50 each.
The navigation is set up different too. With Swift we would have to manually input the address we were going to and then stop and get fuel on the way. Schneider has all the address already in the system. When we are sent a load we click GO on the navigation and it has the fuel stops and customer addresses already and the system just takes us from here to there. Of course one time we got a message fuel solution could not be found, but I called and said we are taking a shower at a Flying J can we get fuel here, and she said go for it.
The truck has a Radar System
Which , Im sure, should really impress my dad, Retired CPO Adams Submarines,
and my baby brother, Retired Senior Chief Adams USN.
It is called On Guard, collision safety system. Kind of cool. It sees the speed of a vehicle in front of us and if the vehicle is too close or is going too slow it beeps, then it automatically reduces my speed.
It does not detect Cross Winds, Tornado's or Deer. There is probably no danger of dolphins or whales beaching themselves or birds dropping dead in front of me because of this radar system.
It does not like when cars are merging and getting close to the side of you. It beeps and slows me down, not sure that is a help at that moment. Mostly its just fun to watch shows the speed of a passing vehicle. Really doesn’t do anything we don’t do already.
The truck also has smart cruise. Predictive cruise control. It looks ahead and see a corner and will automatically decrease your speed then resume speed as you come out of the corner. It looks ahead and sees a hill judges the hill and increases your speed and when you crest the top it will reduce your speed. I used to have to get a running start at hills. But this baby does that for me.
It was not fun to have the cruise on while going up a hill empty because everyone else was going slow and the on guard system wanted me to slow down because of the slow traffic up head. I just got over one lane and everything was fine. You can turn off the cruise but you can not turn off the On Guard.
My sister thinks I should paper the truck with OSU Beaver stickers. Like I bleed Orange, Powered by Orange, Orange Crush.
I think shes right, but Will and Schneider have a different opinion.
There are a few things we still need to work out. The truck died while I was creeping along going through a scale. Will said the automatic engine shut off should only be activated when the breaks are pulled. Said there must be something in the computer that needs to be adjusted. Normally I would have heard over the CB ‘Swift move that piece of $#!& out of the way, learn how to drive’ Nobody said anything. That was a nice change.
Never a dull moment at home either.
Our son cut his hand pretty good / pretty bad, the other day. His girlfriend calls me and says,
‘ Um, Leslie does Willis have like any insurance or anything’
‘not yet, just car insurance, why, what happen’
‘well he stabbed himself and we are here in er’
“WHAT, What happen, Where’
‘ well he was trying to pry apart some frozen hamburger patties and the knife slipped and cut his hand, we have been here about an hour and they just took him back, he told me to call you’
Now at this point I was at least a little relieved to find out he ‘only stabbed’ his hand. And since he sat in the waiting room an hour seemed to me that the nurses did not think he would bleed to death or lose his hand.
But I was a little confused about why this genius engineering student could not figure out a better, safer way to separate hamburger.
(I bet he can think of a better way now)
When I talked to him later I reminded him that when I told him we were changing jobs we would have a 30 day wait before the new insurance starts, ‘so no playing with fire or running with scissors.’ He said I said nothing about juggling knives.
YUCKY ALERT
Its still too soon to tell if he will have any nerve damage or needs tendon repair surgery. The doctor thinks there might me tendon damage around his ring finger. Guess they will know more after they take the stitches out. I told him I hope this engineering thing works, since its too late for you to become a piano prodigy.
I have to take time to thank John our neighbor who drove Willy to the ER. Need to see what special treat I can find in my travels.
Well guess that’s about all I have that’s new. Just sitting here at Kimberly Clark in Jenks, Oklahoma waiting for our load to be ready. Waiting , waiting, waiting, I wonder what Schneiders detention pay policy is.
Love and miss you all
