Let me first note that I am writing this for my husband. Last year my husband and I got pregnant with our first (my third) child. We were newly wed and had just moved in together. I encountered some health problems while pregnant and knew that I would not be able to work after my seventh month. We had also, decided for me to stay at home because of daycare cost. There was no way we could live off of his construction job's pay because of the declining housing economy. HE decided to get his CDL and start as a truck driver.
At first he contacted a college and was going to go through them. The college must have some ties with trucking companies because we got several calls from them. My husband spoke with a Schneider recruiter whom told him his first lie 1. Schneider is family oriented, which was important to us. Then preceeded to tell him a few more lies; 2. You will be home several times a week on the dedicated account. 3. The pay is good. 4. We have excellent and AFFORDABLE benefits and 5. There wouldn't be a problem with my husband coming home in case of an emergency.
My husband went up to Green Bay for the training. This was really hard on me because I was not used to being away from him, and I still am not used to him being away. He was gone for the 3 weeks and then was ALLOWED to come home for two days. When he was with his trainer he was home often and I really didn't see a problem. Boy was I wrong.
He has been working there for nearly a year. We have had two emergencies involving the children which he was told he could not come home for. He almost missed the birth of his son because they were not going to let him come home and would not set his perimeter so that it would be a possibility. They have restricted all the employees to signing in and out when they leave the DC when leaving for any reason other than work purposes. This is to assure that they are only taking their assigned number of hours off. Which means if my husband doesn't have a load on Monday at 2 and decides to come home (which is an hour and a half away) he has to be home the middle of the evening the next day. Which means that the kids and I don't get to see him for a full day. He is NEVER at the DC for his ten hour breaks. So he does not get to come home during the week except for his DAY off. If they are so family oriented then why (after he has requested) do they keep sending him on loads that keep him out when there are plenty of drivers who are willing to do the out all night loads? He has missed the first six months of his son's life!
Now on to the pay. After I left my job and he was the only one working he was only bringing home $300 a week. Which was not paying all of our bills. He was on a 5 day on 2 day off schedule. So he went to his manager who told him if he wanted to make more money he should try the 6 day on 1 day off schedule. So that bumped him up $100-$200 a week. Which is still not paying the bills. When he did this his manager told him that often he could come home over the 34 hours. What a lie.
Next is the benefits. We did not receive benefit information until after he had been working for three months. When I looked over the paper I was astonished to see that a family of our size is going to cost nearly $350 a month. Off of his income??? That is nearly half of our lease! Not too mention the $5,000 deductible! So now my children are on state assistance and my husband and I don't have any.
One more thing I'd like to mention is the COMDATA card. Which is basically like a check advance-credit card. They take the money out of that week's check that he uses while out on the road. Let's add that up; he needs $30 in gas in the car to get home and to work for his one day, $30 for his bad habit (smoking which he is reduced to smoking the most generic brand there is -not that I condone it-), about $50-$75 to eat for the week and about $20 a week for other things. So that is about $130-$155 a week out of his check which is only $400-$600. Not too mention the FEES! The card has for taking money out $1-$3 every time!
Now we are faced with the delima of trying to find a place that is closer to live to the DC because our marraige depends on him being able to come home more often. I know we can't afford the $2100 that he owes on his tuition. So him quitting is not an option. I just wished Schneider would have been honest in the beginning.
I do know one thing... WE have both decided once his tuition is low enough Schneider can kiss our BEHINDS!!!
With deep remorse,
Amanda G.
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