Starting at Roehl after some time off.

Background is I got my CDL through another national carrier. I left due to my recruiter giving me false information about a policy. He just said, do not worry about it, no one will care. Well, it turned out they cared, so I left. I did not know of problem until I went to pick up my truck and was told I was not going to have a pet on the vehicle due to size. Since my pup was my best friend, I did not come back.

My first choice was Roehl but they have a no pet policy, that is why I went with another company. Sadly, my boy passed and that allowed me to look into it again. I went through the same process as before. Contacting multiple companies, asking questions and using my previous experience to ask the right questions. What ever answer I got I always asked the recruiter to email me the answers they gave. I eliminated 90% of the companies because I could not get them to put it in email form.

I had Swift and Roehl who were willing to put it in an email. I did not feel Swift was a good fit, so I went back to Roehl. My recruiter (kim) was open, honest and would follow up right away with emails. So I decided to go with them.

I was told I was going to Marshfield for training. I have been out of trucking for 2+ years so I would have to go through their program. She called about 10 days before class started and told me Appleton, WI had an opening and I could leave earlier, no issue there, just wanted to get started.

Appleton, WI is not Roehl, it is a community college truck driving school that Roehl contracts through. I was not told this but after arriving and sitting in the class, then driving, they had their crap together. The company that I went through before used their own drivers to train. This college uses instructors who have no affiliation to a company.

I am through my first week. I have about 20,000 otr driving through the other company. Being out 2+ years I was very rusty but it came back quickly. The instructors are smart, patient and have a sense of humor. Even if a student screws up they may yell to get the point across in a dangerous situation but they always back down and discuss (not yell) about the past events.

I have trained in the Military, other private companies and I have to say this school is a blast while learning again.

So far I have nothing bad to say about Roehl.

 

Thanks for the information. So far I have had nothing but positive interaction with Roehl.

 

Met up with a couple of employee's of Roehl at their local terminal. It was more of a meet and greet, again, very positive experience. My group seems to get the same old international each day to drive. It is a pain but also a positive. Drive this and you get in a newer truck and the shifting is so much easier.

I really have untrained myself from the other company I got my CDL from. Just driving day to day and talking with the instructors they just kind of look at me and say really. They just could not believe they trained people that way and they know the previous company and cannot believe they are doing it this way.

New group in this Monday as they do a week by week schedule so the classroom changes +/- 6 or 7.

 

Home now. Had a random drug test before I left so I was delayed 1 day driving home. Still waiting on fleet manager to call me to set up the trainer.