I have just completed school and gotten my CDL, and have gotten a pre-hire letter from Roehl ( along with some others ). I've pretty much decided on Roehl, and was wondering if it is true that they have orientation at their Ellenwood, Ga. location? I live about 50 miles from there, so that would be great.

My orientation was there last November. It's a good co. Congratulations!!!

Thanks Rocks. How Has training been?

I didn’t finish training. Now I am looking for another co. My training with them lasted 19 days total. Evo I is supposed to last between 10 to 13 days. Then you go home and wait for your next trainer to finish you up on Evo II. That is supposed to last 10 to 13 days also. But depending on the trainee's needs, it may last just a little longer. After training you will take a written test and road test at Marshfield. Once you pass those, they will assign you a truck and your first load assignment. I had 3 different trainers, one before Thanksgiving, another after and a third one during Evo II. We drove in 20 or so states in the US and went to Canada once. We always shut down the truck to go to bed, no team driving and my trainers were almost always sitting by my side. During Evo I, the trainee is not supposed to drive more than 250 miles a day but you can drive more if you want so and they agree. The trainers were very respectful, very professional, patient, knowledgeable, experienced, and friendly (except my last one). I am a female. Roehl is very respectful of female trainees and don’t tolerate any king of harassment. All male trainers who choose to train females must be married, must have their wives permission and must go through some “gender sensitivity” training, and are paid a little bit more to train females. Also, Roehl gives the female trainees a 800 “support” # and encourages them to call everyday for a daily report. My last trainer and I did have conflicts. Instead of calling my supervisor and requesting another trainer I tried to put up with the situation so that I could finish training before the holidays but I couldn’t and ended up losing my opportunity of employment with that fine co. I wish all the best to you.

Rocks, if you don't mind. What happened at Roehl?

First of all, I want to say that although my time there was very limited, I think that Roehl is a good co., compared to what I hear about these big ones. During my orientation, there were only 8 candidates, as compared to 50 or 70 at these other co’s. The trainers that I had were very professional, and didn’t do anything illegal. My first two trainers were males and we didn’t have any problem at all. I wish my second trainer had finished me up, but as he told me when we first met, I would be his last trainee of the year cause he was going home for the holidays. So, I started Evolution II on Dec/12 and my trainer was a homosexual female, flatbed driver. My first impression of her was that she was rude, cold, unfriendly, sarcastic, she reminded me of a Nazi officer. But that was ok, I was going to be nice, do my best and hang in there all the way to end. Unfortunately, the tensions between us became so unbearable that I was sent home on my third day. It was a HUGE mistake of mine not to call my supervisor, the 800 # on my FIRST day and explain the situation and ask for another trainer. I’m sure they would send me home and I would wait, maybe until January to finish my training. That would have been better than loose my opportunity with them. Without going into much detail, my last trainer was verbally abusive, constantly impatient, angry and irritated, overly criticizing everything I did, giving me orders that were in conflict with what I had learned from previous Roehl trainers. There was a lot of miscommunication or lack thereof, as she would not be available at times and not answer my questions, and then she would scream and curse at me for not doing what she wanted. In order to avoid discussion, specially when I was driving, I tried to follow her commands and never argued with her but it seemed that no matter what I did she would never be satisfied, much on the contraire… It came to a point that I was too nervous and afraid to drive with that person by my side. When I got home, on a Saturday, I called the co. – her dispatcher, the training program manager and my supervisor - and left messages, not very happy messages. THAT was my second silly mistake. My trainer’s dispatcher called me on Monday and told me that I was terminated according to what she had told him. Although she told them lies, they decided to believe her and didn’t give me another trainer to finish my training. Since there was no proof of what she was saying, it was her word against mine and I never did anything wrong in the truck, I was able to reverse that termination to a resignation and they sent me my DAC report which is clean, it has no negative marks.

Rocks,

You have already outlined what you think could have happened so I won't dwell on it here (too much).

The lesson learned form this is that any student that is subjected to what Rocks went through has the right, no obligation, to get upper levels involved ASAP. To stop the training and get upper levels involved in resolving the situation.

Unfortunately, there are trainers that aren't a fit for some students just as there are some students that aren't a fit for trainers.

Trainers are run through a course that is supposed to help them identify the type of learning environment that suits a student best. Unfortuantely, some trainers aren't very skilled at this and/or the student is unresponsive. Leads to major problems on both ends.

ROEHL has a tendency to take the side of the trainer but not all the time. Early reporting and correctioin does help identify trainers with problems and also students that are having issues.

In my own experiences as a trainer, I always told that student that when training stops, we stop right then and work out what the problem seemed to be. It seemed to work and I am glad to say that some of my students are still out there driving and keeping in contact.

On the other hand, I have lost some students because they just felt that I tended to demand more than they could give. *Sigh!*

Training a new driver is a pressure cooker and part of the job is to apply increasing amounts of stress to evaluate the students' decision making process.

Unfortunately for both, there are outside stress factors that can shutdown either one or both people in the truck and then training doesn't happen.

Time to stop the truck and walk away from it for a little while.

Rocks, sorry that it didn't work out this go around with ROEHL but hopefully, you'll still keep the dream alive. Not of coming to ROEHL necessarily, but of getting with a good company and enjoying the open road.. Good luck to you!!

Rocks
Was any of your trainers names loren?? That was the name of mine she is the spitting image of what you said. Got to orientation monday kinda got the impression that the guy william(bill)smith didnt like me to much.He was the orientation instructor at ellenwood. After my 2 days in the classroom I was assigned this woman. From the begining she scared me!!!Her hair was long and greasy and her appearence was very manly,she wasnt a big girl but I could tell that she will be soon. Knew from that point it wouldnt work out between me and her. (you see i was promised a male trainer and i have it in writing but wanted to give her the benefit of doubt) So I get on her truck and the first thing she does is yell at me for no seat belt, all I did was move the truck 5 feet!!!Then to make matters worse she yelled at me for not having both hands on the wheel durning that time.Which made me start to cry since I dont like people yelling at me for no good reason. After telling her I couldnt take it and wanted a male trainer she took me inside for a chat with bill. He asked me in his own way if "I would be able to handle this job" I replied yes since I have been doing it for 9 months now. He said ok and had a male trainer for me the following week, but until then I would be with a local driver. Which was good with me.
I gathered almost all my stuff out of her truck while she was still chatting with bill and when I got back to the terminal with my stuff she left. after that I was told to make a phone call to one laura miller.She told me that I couldnt be an employee since I got aggrevated with another employee.Whats funny about this is if you ask any of my friends they would just laugh at you. I asked her mulitple questions about her statement and all she could say was "its not my problem anymore" pretty much.So then they put me on a bus to St Augustine Fl with a layover of 6 hours in savannah ga. A 4-6 hr drive took over a day, lucky for me my boy came and got me at 2 in the morning from savannah. I called up my recrutor on the matter and she had her boss look into it. She got back to me and said that laura told her boss "from hear say" that I was ranting,cutting up and cussing. She still couldnt give me any names. I still like roehl think its a good company but they need to hear both sides not just the trainers.Im going to fight this somehow since now they gave me a bad rep and thats just not me...................

I’m very sorry you got her. Very, very sorry. They have good trainers, like the first two that I had. But my experience with her was traumatic. REALLY. I still think that I should have handled the situation in a different way, I mean, I could have called my supervisor (the same one you had) on my very first day and asked for another trainer. But I didn’t. Instead, I was nice, I did all that I could to hang in there and take it and take it... the yelling, the cursing, the nasty sarcastic comments about me, the constant negative criticism, the confusion and stress she put me through… anyway. There’s much more to this story, but I don’t like to dwell on it, cause it brings many bad feelings. I am thankful that HR people let me resign and gave me a clean DAC report. I’m going to orientation this Monday with another co.. Feel free to contact me, if you wish. I think you need to do what is best for you. Don’t let this upset you or discourage you. Let me know if I can offer you any support.

Unka_D,

You seem to be a very nice person and a great trainer. Thank you for your input and good wishes. I understand what you wrote and totally agree with you. Early identification of a problem with a trainer and reporting of such problem is crucial. What else can a trainee do to prevent possible termination/ dismissal because of a mean lying revengeful trainer? Well, hopefully I will not encounter another one like her. I’m leaving home today and going to orientation on Monday with another co. Unfortunately, will not have internet access to stay in contact with you all for a while. But will enjoy the thrill of the roads out there. Stay safe you all!!