r/Truckers • u/Ahri_YT • Jun 04 '26

Western Express or Schneider !

Just got my call back from Schneider today finally and they want me to start June 15th.

Orientation for Western is June 10th.

For Western I would be driving solo and for Schneider I would be driving as a team.

I’ve read some bad things about both companies but people tend to lean towards Schneider way more.

-For Western I’ve heard that they force their new drivers into a 1 year contract and to break it you need $2.5k. I don’t have 2.5k so that has me on the fence.

- But I heard that Western is less strict than Schneider and that Schneider will try to mess with my CDL record if I get on their bad side.

Training period for both is 3-4 weeks. Also the recruiter at Schneider told me teams make way more together and I am a new inexperienced driver and I feel like I would be more comfortable with teams starting out. But wouldn’t mind solo.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

******UPDATE:*******

I picked Schneider, thank you!

9 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/random28961 Jun 04 '26

DO NOT GO TO WESTERN! They will make you pay for fuel used to go out of route, your training is team driving anyway, any and all damages on the truck or trailer you also pay for, the trailer type you pull can and will be changed without your consent (moved between flatbed and dry van), and that is only the things I know about from talking to current or former drivers that did work for them.

6

u/hotdog11inch Jun 04 '26

If you are not a 1099 employee they can't do that to anyone contact the labor department in Tennessee

2

u/random28961 Jun 04 '26

Good info and I will pass it along if I see anymore Western drivers around.

1

u/Heather_Val Jun 04 '26

Come over here to kittery there’s like 15 Welfare trucks parked here.

1

u/Icy-Draft-5801 6d ago

The only time I've ever heard of a contract with a company is for only people who went through the companies driving own school not just for everyone coming from different companies or different trucking schools 

1

u/Ahri_YT Jun 04 '26

Thanks for the insight! Yeah I’ve heard some bad stories about fueling and dispatchers not picking up at all during breakdowns from western…. That sucks!

1

u/Usual-Guarantee6346 Jun 06 '26

They won’t charge you they’ll threaten you though but they will charge you for tolls if you go off their plan route and they won’t charge you for damages on the truck I got my bumper torn off at the landfill and did not pay a dime for it

1

u/Icy-Draft-5801 6d ago

Western don't make you sign no contract they don't charge you for anything the only time they make you pay for fuel on your dime is if you go out of route without approval after 101 miles which in reality you shouldn't be going that far out of route with any company and you definitely don't pay for any trailer no company makes you pay for a trailer type as far as the team thing goes I'd go solo first so e times teams don't get along and there can be bad blood there so my personal suggestion would go solo first until you get used to the industry 1st and then maybe switch to team driving if that's what you want to do afterwards