Experiencing the Power of Red...avoid like the plague!!! Part 1

Hyweighman · May 4, 2016

Clausland, I remember those days. The new drivers have know clue.

Lonesome · May 4, 2016

Quite the story, Cap'n. I've never had the pleasure of working for a mega OTR carrier, but it doesn't look like I've missed much.

Good luck with your present endeavor!

Derailed · May 4, 2016

Great write up. Makes me glad I got that phase out of the way back in 93 when companies still treated you like a human being for the most part. Only thing that is the same today are the wages. I couldn't go through all that without a major anxiety attack on day 1 now.

Zigzag777 · May 4, 2016

I hope that tanker you're now driving isn't filled with some nasty HazMat or gasoline. Giving the finger to someone, who cut you off is a sign of an immature hot head. The cameras worked perfectly for catching that. Cars cutting you off is an everyday event in trucking, be prepared at all times for that to happen. It's called defensive driving, please don't try to defend yourself here, it's something we all have to deal with constantly. Putting signs in your windows, ditto!

As for your chiropractor appointments, you should have never mentioned why you needed to be home on Saturday, it was none of their business. Many people volunteer too much information. I could go on and on, but I'll stop here.

How do I know this stuff I'm saying? Because I used to be just like you! And it never served me well, and it doesn't take long to get labeled, and once you are labeled it's almost impossible to lose it. Most of the time we are our own worst enemies. Good chance the answer is in the mirror.

Glad you're making a fresh start. I don't think OTR was a good fit for you, but it probably helped you get the local gig.

Tenn I See Trucker · May 4, 2016

Roehl sucks and is a bureaucrat8c nightmare,went into their reefer division with 15 years experience just after they started it what a Flippin mess,I went in the Marshfield office and told them when it comes to running reefers they didn't know their #$$ from a hole in the ground,I mean it is strange when they bought out Blume Farms they fired everyone that knew anything about reefers,I mean who the hell orders reefers that t he unit shuts off when you open the doors,with no override? Try loading at a chicken plant without the unit running,I could go on and on but the OP covered it very well.Roehl is a driver mill and that's about it,I have had a CDL since 1993 and this is the worst com0any I had ever driven for,If you are mind number puppet robot have at it

mjd4277 · May 4, 2016

The sad part is Roehl was supposedly one of the better megas but as the saying goes,things change...

Tenn I See Trucker · May 4, 2016

XZRF4 said: ↑

Wow that's quite the story OP, sorry you had to go through that abuse here's a bit of my own two cents
Positives at Roehl is that they have some decent freight never had to sit anymore than half a day before I'm planned out and ready to roll. The hometime is one of the best Ive seen with multiple fleets at choice. Huge terminals with showers, gyms, computer rooms, restaurant, bunks, lounges and truck washes, basically the works.

Negatives are how planning was more of a miss than a hit and at times almost incompetent with the use of driver hours. Yet we were getting almost daily fleetwide messages on how we were constantly late and losing customers. Fellow drivers said how they were planned with loads already late and when brought up to dispatch it was the same story it seems "just run with it we'll relay it to another driver".
Then you had what seemed to be a revolving door of fleet managers I was assigned 10 total. We also got an all new system instead of the usual macros. That system is very anti driver for every command you have multiple unnecessary time wasting steps. Start the load, verify, confirm, accept, and start rolling just a plain waste of time. You would find yourself calling up dispatch to fix it for you while wasting time waiting for it to stop beeping at you not to move. Just shows the incompetance and how out of touch the higher ups are to "fix" something that wasn't broken. I had only two decent FM's who did a good job the rest seemed like programmed robots.
If you could put up with a constant micromanagement nightmare from every angle go for it, but my advice would be get your experience and move if not to greener pastures then to bluer skies.
Click to expand...

Yep they baffle you with bullshot and showers and gyms etc etc so you don't question authority, they did that in the Soviet Union too...

tinytim · May 4, 2016

Zigzag777 said: ↑

Giving the finger to someone, who cut you off is a sign of an immature hot head.
Click to expand...

True, but I'm sure we've all done it once or twice.

Captain Fluffy · May 4, 2016

Zigzag777 said: ↑

I hope that tanker you're now driving isn't filled with some nasty HazMat or gasoline. Giving the finger to someone, who cut you off is a sign of an immature hot head. The cameras worked perfectly for catching that. Cars cutting you off is an everyday event in trucking, be prepared at all times for that to happen. It's called defensive driving, please don't try to defend yourself here, it's something we all have to deal with constantly. Putting signs in your windows, ditto!

As for your chiropractor appointments, you should have never mentioned why you needed to be home on Saturday, it was none of their business. Many people volunteer too much information. I could go on and on, but I'll stop here.

How do I know this stuff I'm saying? Because I used to be just like you! And it never served me well, and it doesn't take long to get labeled, and once you are labeled it's almost impossible to lose it. Most of the time we are our own worst enemies. Good chance the answer is in the mirror.

Glad you're making a fresh start. I don't think OTR was a good fit for you, but it probably helped you get the local gig.
Click to expand...

It is filled with 'nasty HazMat' and gasoline. It's also filled with Diesel, Jet Fuel, Av Gas, Bio Diesel or Ethanol on any given day.

I don't know if I would say it's a matter of being a hot head, more a matter of being angry that some moron has just put your life, their life, and everyone else around you in jeopardy. How some 4 wheeler can weave in and out of lanes, cutting not only you off in the 80,000 lb rolling death machine, but everyone else around you, just so they can what...get to their destination a few seconds sooner? Now that i'm hauling freight that has the potential to explode and kill not only myself but other innocent people, even the pope would be mad that someone would have such a disregard for human life as some of these 4 wheelers can get. So that's my defense for that matter.

You must also understand that they eventually started to ask me why I needed to be home on the weekends. I don't like to lie so I figure what would telling the truth hurt?

OTR did work for me, it obviously wouldn't have been my first choice, but hey, we all have to cut our teeth somewhere and I did make it work. Obviously I prefer to sleep in my own bed at night, but i'm still proud of where i've come from, and please don't confuse my actions with being a prideful douche nostril, I never meant in anyway, shape or form to step on any toes, or not do what I was told as an employee. I did the job, and swallowed whatever rant I was willing to unleash on either of my 3 incompetent FM's. Especially when they A. tell me to break the law, B. personally insult me and threaten me, and C. tell me that if I run out of time in downtown Chicago on 90, that if I would just call in, then she could find me a truck stop or a safe haven to stop when the old Sears tower is right next to me, or to take a 70+ ft long semi around an airport terminal to drop me off. I'd say i've done pretty good so far. My diatribe in the beginning was everything that I had to vent about, that I couldn't say to any of my FM's for fear of being fired and then having to pay back my debt. Which in the end, I could've left and then sued them and won, so my fault for not reading the contract thoroughly, but their fault if they ever choose to pursue any further collection activity.

Coolbreeze100 · May 4, 2016

Some decaf might help, possibly.

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