Industry Leaders, Family, Friends Pay Tribute to Don Schneider During Memorial Service

Trucking industry leaders, company associates and family members paid tribute to Don Schneider, the former president and CEO of Schneider National Inc., in a memorial service attended by an estimated 700 people at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., on Feb. 15. Schneider died in January after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said Schneider was part of a “select club of truly great people.”

“He inspired associates of Schneider National to be great, and he challenged a lethargic, tradition-laden trucking industry to do the same.”

Schneider joined Schneider Transport as a manager in 1961 and succeeded his father and company founder Al Schneider as president in 1976. He piloted the company through the tumultuous post-deregulation era, turning a relatively small regional trucking company into one of the nation’s largest truckload carriers.

He was the first trucking executive to install satellite-based communications equipment in its trucks in 1988 and expanded the business to include logistics and intermodal transportation services for shippers (1-23, p. 5).

Schneider stepped down in 2002 when poor health forced him to relinquish control to Senior Vice President Christopher Lofgren.

Lofgren, now president and CEO of Schneider National Inc., described Schneider as an “optimistic discontent.”

“Don was optimistic about life, his associates, his family, the opportunity to make a difference with customers, but he was discontent with the status quo . . . . It was that discontent combined with optimism that made him an innovator,” Lofgren said.

Irwin Jacobs, founding chairman and CEO emeritus of Qualcomm Inc., recalled meeting Schneider in 1987 to offer a new mobile communications device his two-year-old company had created.

Jacobs said he “learned a lot” from Schneider about how to make technology easy for drivers to use and about the importance of incorporating technology into other information systems.

After Schneider decided to install Qualcomm’s OmniTracs terminals in 5,000 trucks, Jacobs said other companies followed suit, and Qualcomm went on to use the same technology to develop cellular networks that have since transformed Qualcomm into a global enterprise with 22,000 employees and annual revenue of $14 billion.

“Without Don, it would not have happened,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs pledged $1.5 million in Don Schneider’s name to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., to fund a fellowship to study health conditions such as the one that afflicted Schneider.

Jacobs is chairman of the Salk Institute board of directors, and Qualcomm is one of the Institute’s largest financial backers.

Steven Harmon, vice president of transportation for Kimberly-Clark Corp., Dallas, recalled how Schneider made the pitch to take over the company’s private fleet of 500 trucks and created a new model for long-term core carrier relationships with shippers.

“Don Schneider was all in,” Harmon said. “He wanted every load.”

Wayne Lubner, a retired Schneider executive and friend who has made a study of leadership, said the hallmark of Don’s stewardship was a focus on always moving forward and taking risks.

At the time of deregulation in 1980, Lubner said, Schneider staked his personal and corporate reputation on a plan that required deep cuts in pay for truck drivers and staff and completely new ways of doing business in response to market conditions where pricing was “in a free fall.”

“He took big time risk when others didn’t,” Lubner said. “I remember Don saying, ‘Deregulation is an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime. We’re not going to miss it.’”

Paul Schneider, an executive with a private equity firm and Don’s youngest son, worked for a time at Schneider National. He recalled a fierce sense of competition that permeated his father’s business and family life.

“A question he would always ask is: Are we beating J.B. Hunt?” Paul Schneider said. “He would say: If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”