Multiple rollovers @ Roehl

This poor guy got killed as a result:
http://www.carmitimes.com/newsnow/x1841756655/Truck-driver-identified

Another one happened just outside of the Pilot in Gary IN.


I left Roehl not quite a year ago, and even then, I thought the training process they have there was going downhill fast. I turned down a position as a trainer there due to their policies on training. The length of time a trainee stays with a trainer dropped drastically from the time I originally hired on there & the dispatchers have a habit of bullying the newbs into sticking with very questionable routes just to save a few miles, regardless of circumstances.

Just a few years back, Their training program was actually pretty decent. Sad to see it fall so far so fast, and even sadder that people end up losing their lives over it.

 

The loads you're referring to are tall (around 8') eye-to-the-sky aluminum coils. Roehl has been puling those for quite a while, and without any real problems for the most part. In the last year or so, the incidents involving bad securement increased dramatically.

The second rollover I was referring to was NOT an aluminum coil out of Russelville, but a steel coil out of Gary.

As far as your comment about not blaming it on training yet... Half the problem with the coils out of Russellville is the fact that all they pound into the rookies' heads about eye-to-the-sky coils is "X + 1" straps to be "safe & compliant". So these guys go in, lay 3 straps in an "X + 1" configuration over these big-### coils & think they're doing it right, when they really need at least 5 straps to do it right. I've seen it happen a dozen times at least.

 

I agree with you on the CB thing. I never understood why they would tell guys in orientation that a CB wasn't really needed. At least half the places I went to while employed at Roehl handled receiving & delivery traffic via CB. Without one, you either got skipped over, or just made it so everyone in line behind you had to wait till you finally got the message.

Roehl seems to have a constantly evolving policy on how long someone needs to be there before they can be a trainer. I was originally told 90 days then I could train, but supposedly, that was only because I had so much verified experience. Then I started seeing guys who had about 60 days in becoming trainers.

Regardless of the amount of time Roehl makes them wait, the quality of the trainers is a real toss-up. I personally know a few active trainers there right now, and I know them to be very conscientious professionals, who take the end result of their training very seriously.

I've also met a few that scared the living hell out of me. One guy I saw had a flatbed with 11 slinkys (coiled rebar or steel rod) secured with a total of 8 straps. The front & rear coils were bouncing right off the coil bunks because they weren't even strapped down flat to the deck, only through-&-through'ed to the adjacent coil. Sad part is, three other trainers & myself brought it to his attention & his only reaction was "ehhh, this was a preload... I wasn't the one who did it"