Originally Posted by fredthebob

Recruiter was telling me that better than 80% of the freight is drop/hook with the national dry van fleet. On a bad week one in five loads requires you to wait for loading and unloading.

Has that been your experience?

I agree with Roaddog, that sounds a little high. What he probably means in recruiter speak, is that its a drop/hook on one end and live load/unload on the other. With the exception of walmart loads very few are drop/hooks are both ends.

Thanks to both of you. I hadn't even thought about a load being both drop/hook and unload/load.

Don't know why not, I overthink everything. Now I feel stupid. I gotta start driving OTR.

Originally Posted by Road Dog

fredthewbob,I think that recruiter is stretching things quite a bit.I am on the 7 on 7 off fleet where they try to come up with a lot of drop and hooks,however I have had many weeks where the majority of my freight was live load and unload.I cant speak for the national fleet but that 80 % sounds way too high to me.Also on that same topic,if the customer loads or unloads you in a timely fashion,it really doesnt make that much difference,whether its live or d&h.But then there are the grocery whses,where they think nothing of taking 6 to 8 hrs.to unload you.I have had some d&hs where I had to hook up to a loaded trl.in a muddy field,and its raing cats and dogs.kinda miserable.(Georgia Pacific in Rincon,GA.)Oh yeah and in a mudhole kneedeep in muddy water.If I were you I would pin that recruiter down on that figure.

I agree with Road Dog. From what my husband tells me has more live loads that drop & hooks.

Whispers, how is train the trainer going for your husband?

Originally Posted by bucksandducks

Whispers, how is train the trainer going for your husband?

LOL He is going to call me today I will let you know.

BucksandDucks,
Thanks for all the input and info and thanks to everyone else on this forum for the constant flow of good and valuable info.
The decision to get into the field of proffessional truck driving has been a tough one and I have spent many hours doing as much research as possible in order to make the right decision and I must say that this forum and others have been outstanding! Again many thanks!

As it turns out I got a call from Rob the Roehl recruiter, who has been absolutley great by the way, and he informed me that an opening in flatbed came up and I could take it if I wanted. needless to say, I jumped at the chance and so I'll be going into the national flatbed division after CDL school and the training evolutions.

BucksandDucks, it looks as though they will do exactly what you said. If all goes well, I'll do the first evolution with a van trainer and the second with a flatbed trainer which should work out great in terms of learning both van and flatbed.

I haven't been able to find out that much info on the Roehl flatbed division.
What kind of freight do they haul typically? From where to where? I live in Champain, Illinois near I 57, I 74 & I 72 are these good freight lanes for Roehl flatbed? What kind of miles should I expect to get? What kind of equipment? I heard that Roehl may installing APUs on their trucks. Any truth to this rumor?
Any and all info would be greatly appreciated.

BucksandDucks, the resort we owned is located about 6 miles north of Nestor Falls, Ont. which is where you probably flew out of to get to Rowan Lake. The resort is located on Crow (Kakagi) lake which is real close Rowan Lake. Like Rowan, Crow lake is an outstanding Musky, lake Trout and Bass lake. The only things I am going to miss about the resort is most of the people that came up and guiding for Musky. There are some monster whitetail in the area as well. Had some guys from Vermont shoot a couple of 275 (dressed) bucks last year.

Thanks again for all the help!
Southbound MJI

Good Luck Southbound

Thanks alot Whispers!!

Good luck to your husband in the training job!!

SouthboundMJI