The Good, The Bad, The Honest Truth of a New Roehl Lease Operator

**skyviper73** · 08.08.2012

Originally Posted by Preacher Man

Well I now have Kristen full time and everything is "5th verse, same as the first." My daily paid average miles are 366 and I am driving so little I'm going out for 17 days without any worries about needing a reset. I'm also back to a dispatcher more worried about making the planners happy than her drivers. She is going to find out that loads are going to start getting turned down, like no more 250 mile loads coming out of the house after hometime. To say I'm angry is to put it mildly.

On another note, I was talking to one of the mechanics at Appleton and he said there are only about four Cascadia's in the fleet, the rest have been put on lease/purchase. The new DD15 trucks are such a bear to change fuel filters that they won't even allow the drivers to do it. The latest with mine is that the check engine light came on and it's throwing a code. Had them check it out at Appleton and it came back that the dpf is having issues including low fuel flow. The mechanic said it should be under warranty so when I get home I'll have Freightliner take a look.

Still another issue, but not truck related, my Blue Parrot quit working so I bought another. After I opened it and I was on the road it appears the Emporia Flying J took a defective unit as a return and put it back on the shelf. The thing won't even turn on. Plus my tablet has gotten to the point it won't even access my Kindle Books. I'm going home and scream. Then heads will begin to roll!

Wow. I feel for you man. I thought I had a bad week getting home 7 days late, but I have nothing to complain about compared to your string of luck.

**TexasPhoenix** · 08.12.2012

I have Kristen also. I'm agree it is the "5th verse, same as the first". Having to take 2 weeks off to take care of some personal business. Needed a good week to carry me over the last week I worked. Got 2000 miles for the week. All loads less than 450 miles. One load was out of Marshfield up to Wausau. Paid mile was 69 miles. I have told her every week that I can't run my business on these types of miles. Will see if anything improves in the next month although I doubt it will. Sure hate to have to make another move to another company. Made moves before and they are expensive to do.

I also have the understanding the Eric W has now been moved into the position of Operations Manager for the van division. Don't know who has taken his place above Kristin.

Preacher Man...Did you buy a new Cascadia? Thought you were going to hold on to the Freightliner and pay it off. Maintenance cost got out of hand?

**stranger** · 08.12.2012

I'm not posting this to bash or mean anything negative to anyone. So here goes. Companies love this type of freight. That 69 mile load probably paid the company their minimum rate, which could be $400.00-$600.00, out of which you paid for their truck and all maintenance involved. Their trailer didn't get much wear, and they paid out about $90.00 to get their freight moved, and pocketed the rest. Very quick and easy money for them, bad paycheck for you. Loads under 300 miles are generally paying the most on a per mile basis.

They are looking at making the most while paying out the least, and when/if they get the truck back, it will have considerably less miles on it when dispatched on short miles. It's a win-win for them.

**Preacher Man** · 08.12.2012

I still have the Blue Lemon. Just put a new dpf in it and the wife found three nails in one of the drives. One is just the shaft in one of the lugs so there's no way to get it out. Pulled the other two out and the tire appears to still hold air so I'll just keep and eye on it, there really isn't anything else to do at this point. I'm at about 18 months till the lease is up and the plan is to buy the truck out at that point. If they pull the nonsense of trying to drive me out of business six months early, we should be in a good enough position to buy it out then.

The last several trips out of the house has been a load of 270 loaded miles that I took because it put me in Green Bay for the next morning. At this point I think I'll hold out for something longer. What I would like is a load out of Keystone in Bartonville going to Sherman TX. It's a nice load and only 41 back to work miles. I really don't care what Roehl makes on a load, the only thing relevant to my business is what I make on the load.

**TexasPhoenix** · 08.12.2012

Someone told me that you had traded off the Blue Lemon and had sunk into a new Cascadia. Didn't think that sounded right. Sounds like the company is wanting O/O to upgrade into the new Cascadias they had on display out at the gate. Thought possibly that you had some probems with the BL and had to make a decision.

Doesn't matter what the company does with the truck as I am a private own truck. Sure keeps my mileage low, however, it doesn't help my business at all for sure. That lovely load to Wausau was actually 49 paid mile and 107 mt (took a look at my load book). Loaded mile paid me $67.13 (including FSC). Problem is that when you get stuck in Marshfield there isn't much good freight to get you out of the area. The actual load paid 1.24/mile (loaded, MT and FSC). Paid for 156 miles. Actually drove 160 miles. Total pay for load $193.82. Not going to get ahead with loads like this. Oh and I also lost Sunday sitting in Marshfield waiting on the load that was a relay.

**Preacher Man** · 08.13.2012

That is exactly what happened to me when Scott started as a new FM. After talking with the mechanics I wouldn't want one of those new Cascadias, as much as mine is a pain those sound even worse. I would also sound another word of warning, if someone tries to sell you a "fleet maintained" truck especially with high miles run don't walk away from it. Fleets don't maintain trucks to last, they do it using band-aids till they can trade it in. While I was at Freightliner dropping off my truck they were talking about a fleet truck that they were doing an engine rebuild on. The company had set a budget and didn't care what didn't get done so long as they stayed in budget because they were getting rid of the truck. This is just the latest story I've heard about "fleet maintained" trucks.

**suds22** · 09.08.2012

I have read this entire thread and have heard Roehl is a good company from drivers I have talked to(at least company drivers).

Do any of you L/O's think Roehl will limit your freight at the end of your lease to "force" you into submission to turn the truck in early?

From a business view thats a big win for them and I have read on here other companies do it?

**molands** · 09.09.2012

I will say from what happen with me, yes they will, if they are given the chance

**Preacher Man** · 09.23.2012

Roehl just thought I was at the end of my lease and my freight got better. Of course I also went midwest regional. I know it sounds counter intuitive to limit your geographic availibility to get better loads, but I noticed I always did better when I stayed in the midwest. I really don't see how it is a win for the company to force you out of your truck, unless they already have people lined up wanting a truck. I hear that claim all the time, but the only way it could be a win is to get some uninformed sucker to sign a 5 year lease on a truck that needs a new engine in 3. I'm not saying a company wouldn't do something like this, it just doesn't make sense to me. What I'm wondering is how often does a normal downturn in the business cycle happen at the same time a lease is coming to an end? I'm not defending any particular company, just pointing out that the end of a lease and a downturn of business can come at the same time.

By the way I got the issue straightened out, my lease still has 80 weeks to go. I just need the BL to stay together till then, right now the apu is dead as in no life and that is one week after having alternator number 4 put on it. Just had a new sensor put on the dpf that cost $40 for the part and $280 for the installation. That was after $750 for a new dpf module. Soon I will need 8 new drives at a minimum of $3000, and that would be just for caps.

**Lyle** · 09.23.2012

Seems like Roehl's lease is not very promising if they want to force you out. Didnt something like that happen to roehl929. I would think a company would want its buisness partners to succeed or they are becomming to big and gonna step on anyone for profit profit profit. Hmm know anything about JCT