Roehl transport, the good and bad.

I started with Roehl the beginning of December, i live in Florida so they got me a bus ticket to Ellenwood for the 7 day orientation. The hotel they put us in was very nice, I was surprised actually I got along with my roomate so all was well there. the whole 7 days went as I expected, paper work, driving on the streets, backing between cones, and pretrip. My instructers were awesome, very helpful and both of them had a sense of humor so it really was a good time. We all made it past the first week, minus one who failed there hair folical test. We all got sent out with trainers fairly quickly. I left with mine 1 day later. Training at Roehl, or phase 2 is only 9-14 days long. So it did go by quickly I learned ALOT from my trainer, he was a very helpful guy, he had a bad temper but he was funny about it so it worked out well. After my 11 days with him I tested out at the Gary terminal. Again nothing to bad, pretty easy stuff the instructers want to see you pass, so you'd have to mess up pretty good to fail.

after I got my truck, and given my first load which picked up in Chicago, they sent me home. My fleet manager really is a good guy but he's new, so I don't know if having a new FM while I'm new is good, or bad. My first trip out from my house I stayed out for 4 weeks, during those weeks I never had a week below 3000 miles. Good trips, I was on time, every now and then I got a 100+ mile run but usually it got me somewhere I needed to be to get a trip with more miles. My fm would give me good loads because he knew how I ran. The beginning of my problems with Roehl started a week or 2 after my first whoppin 1 penny raise.

My my miles were dropping slowly each week, and my paychecks were refelecting that big time. I stuck it out and thought it was just a slow time, nope this continued, I talked to my FM about the problems and he assuered me that he would start giving me good miles again, btw my average then was 2300-2500. So my miles picked back up and things were great, up until the middle of May when the same problem started happening, this time my FM had a "I could careless" attitude, I used to get loads before I even made my drop, now EVERY TIME I've sat for a few hours and most the time have to remind them that I'm empty. This last trip I've averaged 1800-2200. Short runs, LOTS of sitting and my FM all the sudden could careless that I requested to be home on the 10th, so what do they do?

He he gives me a load 400 miles opposite of my house and tells me they were going to swap the trailer in route, yeah right. Well I still have the load because they couldn't get anyone to pick the load up from me. Or he was just to lazy to actually try, so the driver can be late getting home, but god forbid the load be late, I dropped the load this morning, and now I've been sitting at a truck stop for the past few hours waiting on a load home. Roehl when I first started was great, and I still think it's better than the other starter company's out there, I can't make a living off less than 400 a week, and my last 4 paychecks have been that.

Im not saying stay away from Roehl, but I've talked to a few drivers who told me that once you start making more CPM they start to cut back on your miles, it was good for the first few months but I've found a much smaller company that will hire me and will start me out 4 cents more than what I'm making now. Roehl is a good head start, I've always thought that, but once you get 6 months to a year, go somewhere better. If you like Roehl then stay, I'm just sharing what happend to me, it may be better, worse or the same for anyone thinking about coming here.

 

Thanks, I wanted to share my honest exp with Roehl, to hopefully help someone on there decision to come here or not. I don't want to come off sounding like I'm just complaining, Roehl does have there strong points, like before this trip out they did a good job making sure I was home on time, I think a lot of my problems lays with my fm, I should say FM's I was informed yesterday by my fm (the only one I thought I had, besides on the weekend) that I have another one, so I have 2, and they both do a 2 day on 2 day off, which I really do not understand if that is something new that Roehl is starting or what, anyways I feel that among other things is the reason why I'm not getting steady miles anymore. I feel like it's an insult for any OTR truck driver to receive such small paychecks. And I've got statements to prove just how small they have been the last month. I love OTR, I just think In order for me to be completly successfull at it I need to get away from Roehl and stay away from any "mega" company

 

You took about 4 months more than I could stand.

 

Exactly, I do love driving, and I love being OTR but i know making what I've been making is not worth it, there are just way too many company's out there that will pay, but with everything that is good there is bad. I don't know about 400 a week bad, that is why I'm sure in my case the grass will be greener