Life After Roehl

It hasn't worn off for me, starting with Roehl and then being with my company now I love being able to do the speed limit

 

When I saw what slowing down did for my bottom line, I now have Roehl company trucks passing me. I have the speed when I need it, but otherwise I'll stay to the right and everyone else can just go around me.

 

But having the power/speed when you need it is important. I get in trouble for the MPG all the time. I also drive as fast as the truck will go all the time. I tell the let me have control of when I need to go fast or not and I will change my driving, until then, I get paid by the mile so I will get as many as I can as fast as I can. They stopped bothering me about it.

 

When I have moved and start adding trucks, I think what I will do is offer a realistic mpg goal with a cold hard cash bonus. You save me money and I'll make it worth your while. Just saving 30 gallons of fuel a week translates to over $100. That's $400 a month. If you fuel three times a week, that is just using 10 gallons less per tank. I wouldn't mind giving a driver $100 of that savings. Over the course of a year that could be an extra $1200. Would a pay increase of $1200 a year be worth cutting your fuel consumption by 10 gallons every 900 miles?

 

Yes. That makes sense. But for me to save Roehl fuel at the cost of less miles and smaller checks is not incentive ya know. With the current leadership it's quickly abandoning the "drivers company" Mr. Roehl built

 

There are some things I am noticing and have found out that make me wonder about the future of this company. If someone doesn't wake up and start minding the store this company may go the way of Central, and Southern among many others. There is plenty of freight available, but Roehl is not doing a very good job of getting it. At some point you need to understand drivers are the lifeblood of a trucking company. If as a dispatch department you are more interested in flexing your muscle than making sure drivers have everything they need to be successful, you are on your way to failure. It can be very easy to forget what a company is about, but it's really simple. Book loads, pick up loads, safely deliver loads, get the next load. That doesn't happen without trucks and trucks don't move without drivers.

 

I work for a small company and we have all direct contracts. No brokers no bs. We always have new offers coming in. Right now we dont have near the trucks to be able to say yes all the time.

But being a small company he has to be very carefull adding trucks. My boss built a reputation of getting the job done no matter what. Our customers dont argue our rate. They know its higher than most, but they know we will get it done.

 

I don't know why more companies don't copy the Landstar and Schneider Choice business model. It is a high profit, low risk system and attracts the drivers with the greatest business sense and desire for success. If you want to cut costs this would be the way to go since you eliminate most of your office staff. In Landstar's case they have approved drivers and approved brokers then the 2 of them work out the details on the load. If as a broker you don't measure up then you don't get to post your loads anymore.

 

Somebody had a bad day

 

Mordor either attacked or...
A mountain did???