HI, to start a little about me, I drove for Panther II Trans. (good company) for a couple of months but left due to working for a bad owner. I currently have a CDL B and I was looking to get my CDL A and training with a company. I am looking at Roehl pretty hard due to their advertised home time 7/3, 7/4, etc. which is the number one priority on my list, and I can get trained by them. The questions I have are:

-Can anyone give me their experiences and opinions on Roehl as I have not been able to find alot of experienced info on them. Also if they live up to what they advertise for benefits such as hometime, pay, bonuses, etc.

-Is there alot of downtime waiting for loads? I know with expediting I would wait up to 3 days to get a load, is it something I could expect overall with trucking?

-What are the differences in duties between curtainside and flatbed? What types of loads are typically hauled with these setups?

-Can a new driver really make the starting "average" of 30-35000 a year?

-Can one expect to average 2200-2500 miles a week with a typical carrier? (vague question I know but I am still learning)

I have been looking over this forum for the past 2 weeks about 2 hours a day trying to learn as much as I can. I want to thank everyone who responds to questions and posts, I have learned a significant amount of information from this forum that otherwise would be difficult to obtain. So to everyone, THANK YOU!

Sorry I don't know anything about Roehl as a company......only thing I know is that it is pronouced rail I know this because this is what one of there driver's told me once. But for the curtin side trailor and flat bed I will give it a try.

Duties between a curtain side or a flatbed? I rekon you are meaning securing and tarping a load? Basicly they are the same trailor just one has a top and side to it and the other is open but also has what they call a side kit that can be carried around and used on certain loads requiring a side kit.


A curtain side trailor is used for hauling certain finished products mostly. Such as wooden cabinets, and also metal finished products like painted aluminum and steel coils for stoves, refridgerator's, and automotive. Tarping or covering the load in a curtin side trailor is simple just pull the curtin. Securing with a crtin side trailor is probably just like a flat bed just more constricted due to it having sides and a top.

A regular plain flatbed is used to haul rough lumber, Steel and aluminum Coils, flat steel, round steel, long wooden trusses, long lumber or anything that will fit on it that not necessarely needs to be protected from the weather condition's.
Securing on a flat bed is easier I think because it is open more. You use chains and straps for securing loads. Tarping a flat bed load is a pain in the #####. Especially if you don't have the right size tarp's. They make lumber tarps, and they also make coil tarps. Lumber tarps are real long and heavy. coil tarps are heavy but much shorter.

They also have what they call a covered wagon, which is a flat bed with the side kit installed usually steel and aluminum coils is the main thing they haul with a covered flat bed. Tarping one of these is simple also just pull the cover back over the bows. Securing in a covered wagon is the same as a flat bed. Chains and straps.

That is a safe number for a new driver could be a little more or a little less depending on the company.

This is kinda a general rule of thumb with all company's again it depends on the company.

Hubby just started for Roehl and as the other driver stated it is pronounced rail. They started him out at .38 cpm with 7 years experience. They have him preplanned which means little down time between loads. His fleet manager is keeping him around 3000 miles per week. They will work with the driver on his home time. They have safety bonuses plus a Christmas bonus of 1/2cpm for all miles ran that year. Plus they are driver friendly. He is happy with Roehl and hasn't had any complaints of yet.

so he would get about roughly 1500 dollar bunus at christmas

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Just a man in the world trying too find his way over the speed bumps

Sounds good! That's in additional to quarterly safety bonuses that seem obtainable.

I would guess. The guys here who drive would know. Im just getting ready for school either august or next year about august

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Just a man in the world trying too find his way over the speed bumps

Hey Whispers, what does your husband run? National, regional, van, flat, etc. I start school July 10th at Roehl so I am trying to get an idea of what to expect. I will probably run midwest flat.

Sorry for not replying to your post sooner. Hubby runs national dry van.

roehl is a honest company. just try to avoid after hours dispatch. that's the only bad thing about them.

I find that many after hour dispatchers are not as good as your assigned fleet manager. So far hubby has been with Roehl since April when we got out of our nightmare with JBH and he is happy with them. BTW Trubo JBH returned $3629.98 of the escrow monies they deducted from hubby.