Finished my Evo I & II, and have my own truck. Did my driving test at Gary last TH afternoon, worked on my (open book) written test at the hotel TH nite, and reviewed my test scores FR a.m. (got a 95% overall... whew! lol) and was issued my truck that morning. Had my first solo runs FR nite and SA morning... then home for a couple days R&R. Waiting to hear when I go back out (today, or maybe tomorrow???).

I did all my Evo training in one fell swoop... out for 3 weeks. Only had 2 trainers: Loren on a flatbed for 5 days (one of the 2 female trainers), and Tom on a van for the remainder. Of course, it got real old being bunkmates for 3 weeks, but it was okay. Both trainers were great... very supportive, friendly, and full of praise. Have kept in touch with both... and even called on one for some "over the phone" assistance when I was having problems getting tandems slid back at first customer! lol All in all, it was a great experience.

The tests were not difficult at all. Driving test consisted of pre-tripping truck (basically on my own... then he came out and i verbally described the last few things I was checking), hooking up to a trailer, and about a 20-min road test. Nothing to worry about... except the "tester" truck was a piece of &$^% and shifted like crap! lol I made it clear right off the bat I am normally a very smooth shifter... and that that truck was doing nothing for my confidence during testing. My tester, Jake, laughed and said he understood... it IS one of the worst trucks they have.

It was a little nervewracking, loading by myself the first time... but nowhere near as bad as I expected. I just kept repeating, "Okay... I can do this. I've done this dozens of time. I can do this." And I did. lol

So for those of you looking forward to getting out on your own... best of luck. I'm sure you've all worked really hard and will do fine. Hate to sound like a cliche, but if I can do it, YOU can do it!

Congrats are in order....:biggrin_2559 :

LOL on the road...

Alan

Congrats,
That is cool that you did I and II right after one another. Gets it over with sooner and you to the bigger checks quicker. If they give me that option, I am going to do it too.

So far, I have to say that I have been VERY disappointed with Roehl since getting me own truck. I have been solo for about three weeks and was averaging 256 dispatched miles per day up until Thursday. That was the day that I told my DSR that something had to change or I was going to have to find a new job. Since then I have been over 500 miles per day; so much that I am running out of hours for the week. If that keeps up, all will be fine, but I can't support a family when I have yet to see a paycheck over $400.

Secondly, the idling standards are a joke. They are the same for the entire fleet nationwide. If I could stay up north like I did last week, I would do OK. But in the South it won't work. Last night I tried to sleep without the truck running and woke up after three hours and my bedding was soaking wet from sweat and I had just had a shower before I went to bed. I had to idle the rest of the night just to have it cool enough to sleep. The other unfair factor is for those that have the Icom (sp?) system that starts and stops the engine for cooling/heating. Like I said - it is a total joke. If I want to be cool, I have to get out of bed everytime I want to run the truck for a bit to cool it off. It is BS that they have one idle standard that covers all situations. And in the winter, I will be WAY below their standards, but it is month to month, so it won't matter one bit.

Thirdly, for some reason they had me set up for regional when everything I have said to them and signed has been for national. I talked to my recruiter about regional, but I had decided in orientation to go National. So they have been paying me .28 cpm instead of .30 cpm even though I am running National and have been since day one. And today I was told that they would not go back and pay me what I owe, so as of right now, I am seriously considering giving a notice. It would not be much money - probably around $100 - but it is the principle of the matter that totally ticks me off.

I'll let you guys know what happens from here, but so far I have to say thumbs down to Roehl.

__________________
Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still...

Sorry that your beginning experiences are a let down. I hope you are keeping after your DSR about your miles. If you are not getting along with that person request a different DSR. Call payroll. They paid my husband regional pay instead of national in the beginning but they corrected that and reimbursement him the difference.
Idle time..well I have to agree with you there. If you don't care about the safety bonus (not trying to be sarcastic) then I would run the truck. Better to get a good sleep than to worry about the bonus. I hope things get better for you. After being with PAM, National Freight and JB Hunt, my husband is happy to Roehl....not to say he has had some issues with them.
Keep us posted.

Hey wispers and keith

I have been told with the company that I am going with about the idleing is that if you need to idle because of the hot weather all you need to do is call your osl or dm and they can change it for you if needed.
The idleing I think if you have it on the high idle then it will not cut off the engine.
I am not sure about the cut off but that is they way ours worked at school I heard that cre is really bad they will cut off no matter what.
You may want to try the high idle thing first all companies are different on the setup.
I can tell you an easy way to override the cutoff but the company would probaly frown upon it.

hi everyone. i hope you all are doing great. I just got back from the gary terminal. I was very pleased o how good roehl has been treating me so far. i arrived at gary this past thursday and they assigned me to a room at the terminal. in the morning i had my road test first and all went great. then i had my written test and i scored very high on that also. The i received my award which was getting my truck which felt so good . Its not a brand new truck but let me tell you that it is in great shape. They didnt have a load for me yet so i stayed overnight. i got up in the morning and they had a load going straight to ellenwood georgia which is my home state. Getting on the road for your first time is such an experience. You are behing the wheel of a big truck with a 53 ft trailer. Nobody there to watch over you. Let me tell you that everything went great. I am so happy with roehl. I could of went with some other truck company but im so glad i picked roehl. I am arealist. No company is perfect but as i have seen so far roehl is the best i seen so far. I am in the national fleet and this thursday i go back out again. I do have a question if someone could answer for me. how do i set the cruise control on when i am parked so i could raise the idle up so the engine wont cut off so i could run the ac on to cool the berthing area up[? i tried truning it on and raise the idle and cleck set but it doesnt work. i appreciate the feedback

It is not a matter of the truck cutting off. You will lose your bonus if you go over their standards which vary month to month.

Also, if you do not meet idle standards 9 out of the previous 12 months at one year, you do not get your 1 year mileage raise. It really sucks...

__________________
Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still...

Yea but did you ask if it can be raised in hotter areas with out affecting your bonus?

Most companies understand that if you can not get any sleep then you will be no good for the road and a danger to yourself and others without the proper rest.

The company that I am going to said there would only be x idleing allowed but they also said if it hot out there then call us and we can adjust it for you so you can sleep with the ac on.
I do not know if they have the idleing bonus or not but I said fair enough.

I will not sleep with the windows down just to save the company a few dollars.

If all else fails and becomes a issue with the company I will have to look for the idle air that no one likes.

I mean for a few dollars for 8 hours of good sleep that is not too much to pay and I can ask for reimbursment for it.

Now in winter time I can not idle the truck because it has a heater on board that heats the sleeper why they did not spend the extra to add the ac part I do not know seems like it would pay for itself.

The reason that you haven't been getting very many miles is you're new. They tend to take it easy on new guys so that you can adjust to being on your own and so they can make sure you can handle the job.

The idle percentages are not the same for the whole fleet. The guys that have the ICON system have way lower percentages than you do. Not really a problem...until your ICON doesn't work and they can't fix it. It's a common problem with the trucks, and they have been working on getting rod of them. If you happen to have a bunk heater, you winter idle goals are lower than the rest....not really a problem wither, until you have to idle the truck anyway because of the really low temps. The idle goals aren't hard to stay under, it just takes a bit time until you see what works for you. As far as summer goes, you can buy a fan, park facing away from the sun, ect. If you find your goal is a bit high for the month, ask to be routed to an area that is cooler (or warmer depending on the time of year) to get it back down.

Bottom line though...if you are too hot or cold, idle the truck!!! You're well-being is more important that an idle goal. You won't get yelled at, or written up for missing a goal. You can miss 3 in a 12 month period...you shouldn't have any problems.

If you signed a paper, you, Roehl or both should have a copy. Ask to see the paper you signed or dig it out of all the papers you signed going in. I can tell you, from experience, that if they have made a error as far as payroll goes, they will back pay it.

I hope this helps you a bit, and that things get better for you.