Stay away from ROEHL!!

Well heck man, do like the lizards do and just rinse off in a puddle then.

 

You haven't been a complete butthole. How are we going to be enemies? Much of what you are talking about just requires explanation. As far as being a cheerleader goes, your tone shifted through the thread. I appreciate that the last 2.5 years have been great but dude, when they found me, I wasn't living under a bridge...now, don't get mad, it was just worth a chuckle, there was a time in my life when I was digging in the seats of my car hoping to find some change so I could get something to eat.

I understand about being a business man, whole nother thing. Two things I hated were the mechanics and all the book keeping. You're home and you drive to Walmart get some wet wipes for your truck, you're supposed to write down your mileage in your four wheeler...I hated the mechanics more than anything, I just don't like it, and I've changed the clutch plate in my car, brakes, alternators...

I'm not looking for negative. I thought I had an answer to my main trucking gripe, flexible home time. Wow, a week off every three, awesome! I just needed a truck and a dispatch AND TO BE LEFT ALONE!!! This company Roehl, they pay practical miles. I immediately respect any company that pays practical miles. Practical miles are honest miles and every company not paying practical miles is lying to you before you get in the door!

Prepass and EZ pass, oh man! You don't have to dread the toll roads anymore! Roehl is great, right?

Nice, big, clean, paved terminal there in Indiana. Could use a quiet room (when you aren't in the mood for Animal Cops or Judge Judy), and fitness equipment...but man, they PROVIDE YOU WITH laundry soap and the machines are free!!! First place I've been where the mechanics are nice and don't act like they hate life and hate you, too. Clean, individual shower rooms and towels? Sleeping room? A car to use if yours isn't parked there!? How can a company that does so much right...why do they run me the way they do and refuse to make concessions when I complain. This past Thanksgiving was just IN YOUR FACE!!!

Spent 9 hours on detention, did the things you said, so then, maybe it was an oversight. I hope they aren't tossing it out because Roehl is set up for drop and hook there but hasn't left them with enough trailers. The guys with appointments were in and out. Still the same waiting for me.

I claimed an average of a little over 400 loaded miles per day. Eight hours and I already said I'm unloading and loading just about every day? In my best Jon Lovitz, 'yeah, that's the ticket'. I broke it down in the OP here:

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...161461-help-with-roehl-and-trip-planning.html

I really, really hoped there was just a problem with my unique situation because I want income and I want home time. I don't care, it doesn't have to be Roehl, but I don't know anyone in my area offering this. If I had a more stable work history maybe I'd be knocking down big bucks and getting home time with Linde, Praxair or even Sharkey, but I don't. Various reasons, most drivers aren't going to China to teach spoken English for a few years, for one...

It was my fm who told me national would be more of the same and if I didn't want to finish my 14 and go national then I should turn in my locks. Reading this thread, it appears to me that a lot of it is the culture at Roehl. I'm practically begging someone to tell me this isn't a heartless place that treats you like an automaton but what I'm hearing is 'well, you can just shower on your 10 hour break' and I even read, 'if I had waited for my load assignment I'd have had a service failure...'

Look, as we all know, people die in this business. When you are peaceful, sometimes a little something in your head will tell you something isn't right, you should check... When you are always on the fly, you've got things swirling around your head that you may not have attended to... I haven't been sent to the east coast yet. I haven't been asked to drive the wee hours of the morning yet. I haven't been sent to Canada yet. We haven't had snow yet. What happens when the party really gets started?

 

I don't know what you mean by that. I had to wait 23 hours for a load back to Gary and I'm in a motel. Like I said, what is the answer to a problem? Get a bigger hammer. I was just going to clean out the truck and hope that on Monday everything would be different. I'm told National will be the same and if I don't want it, turn in the locks.

Everything I've told you is true. This my last hurrah. When I'm out there looking for another job or working for another company, I'm not wasting my time bashing Roehl on message boards. The guy says if he waited for his load assignment he'd have been late already...this is the culture, here, right?

 

Even when I can I don't shower everyday. I don't have anyone kissing my neck out there and it's not like you actually get dirty, or something. I just haven't had a job where I couldn't pull into a fuel stop and get a shower in the way.

I had fanciful dreams about stopping by the Girard OH Petro and getting a little muscle tone back in my body at the free fitness center. At Roehl that's called "chlling out" and the good peole at Roehl don't chill out, they work hard. But then, how much does it really matter when you are racing to your 70 and a day at the truck stop, anyway... What do they say? The devil is in the details?

 

I'm glad you could take my post lighthearted. I'm thinking national may be a better fit for ya. I would watch the threats to roehl. I tried that route once and I was told I could leave if I wanted to. So that's when I leased lol. For some reason they really seem to care about me now, any time i have a problem they break their back to fix it and apologize. I wasn't homeless but when I got out of the army I didn't have anything, including money for school, they paid for mine and helped me get everything worked out. The day I got my cdl they offered me a job here and said I could go somewhere else if i wanted to. No charge or anything.

As of now the problem I have isn't going to change with me at roehl. Therefore I am working my way into another company. My 2 problems number one I HATE elogs, number 2 is the fuel discount they just changed as stated earlier on this thread. Best wishes to ya and I really hope roehl works it out for u.

 

I'm not sure what you've been told about "more of the same on national." But here is my experience. I've had slow weeks when the freight was light or I was in an area for delivery that doesn't have a lot of freight to pick up.

Not sure why you would only count loaded miles since you're paid for empty miles at the same rate as the loaded ones.

I've always been home when I asked to be and National Drivers are given the flexibility to stay out as long as they want. I usually stay out 18 and home 4 but next month I'm staying out 26 so I can be home longer over Christmas. You'll be hard pressed to find another large carrier with this generous of a home time schedule. Most other companies you only earn one day off for every 7 out. And actually Roehl makes it a point to get drivers home for Christmas. I've had a couple drivers tell me that company dead headed them 500+ miles to get home.

I rarely do a 34 hour restart and usually I'm running on recap by day 8. This requires you to know how to budget your time wisely. If you only have 12 hours over the next two days and they send you a 1200 mile load, you can't waste time.

I still don't understand why you don't want to take your shower on your 10 hour break? Do you require that much sleep? I only need about 6 hours to be refreshed and ready for a new day. It sounds like you want to be allowed to stop in the middle of your day to shower and that is just poor time management. You have a 14 hour clock ticking from the moment you go on duty. Why would you waste time that could be used for making money? How many jobs to you know of that would allow their employees to take a break long enough to shower in the middle of their shift?

It sounds to me that you want to be treated as an Owner Operator, but sorry, that is not the life of a Company Driver at a large company. My advice is to stick it out because it will all become routine and easier as you go along. Before you know it you'll have the experience and time to move onto something that allows you more flexibility.

Myself, I love the constant wheels turning. I struggle to take that stupid 30 minute break Roehl wants us to take everyday. I want to get down the road to my final and get the next load. For me its about maximizing every minute while I'm out and this translates into MONEY! Last week I had 3822 miles on my check so now my goal is to beat that milestone. Will every week be great miles? No, but its the nature of the business. However, I know that when I have low miles and complain about it they get me moving right away.

Roehl will only push you as hard as you want to work. Prove to them you want to work hard and they will deliver. Show them that you only want to drive so far and you want to stop in the middle of your days for showers and you will get low miles and poor loads.

 

You're a good guy, there's no reason for us to have any angst. I'm not an angel, either, I can get my dander up. I can be surly, yeah, I can be real surly. Generally, I'm a nice guy. I love kids and I love dogs, our dogs hit me up for a walk to the end of the cul de sac two or three times a day. We just got a terrier chihuahua mix. My only gripe is the tongue kissing.

I don't expect the company culture and the business model to change for me. Sounds like you found the "blue-haired old lady in tennis shoes" to make your experience a little more personal. Running a business is hard. Gripes about the wealth of people who give their lives to raising up businesses, honest business, they're completely out of line. Companies led by people who see their work as their calling, like the ops manager at Bynum, they can reap the financial rewards and spend their lives helping many others raise up their families with peace and satisfaction as well. But, freedom requires owners and managers can be Scrooge, too. Not saying that's Roehl, I'm just talking about the extremes.

I don't think I've ever threatened anyone. The fact is, I won't do anything or work under any conditions to keep a job. I had a spiritual assurance it was time to move on from Bynum even though I didn't know what I'd do next. It wasn't easy for me to decide I wasn't going to be happy hooking up frozen doubles in the dark at Central Transport. It's been this way all my adult life, like a bobbing apple, I'm going to surface sometime or other. What I've come to respect in recent years how long and how not fun it can be when you are under the water.

When it's done, it's done. I was told national would be the same and when I said I don't want more of the same they said turn it all in.

Jacobson offered my a job pulling Dollar General awhile back. While I definitely didn't need the extra clutter on my 10 year history, I have the experience, don't have the accidents or tickets (one minor one) and the only drug and criminal history was bad timing on 3 keys down in Key West.





jk

 

...post...

 

I got half way through your post and it is so substantive I'm going to respond bit by bit.

My complaint has been the the tight time frames, so that's what I'm led to believe national is. They couldn't even slow me down just to figure things out. Last time it was Trucker PC, this time it was MCP 200. The message I left orientation never got answered and I never figured out how to edit my log. Trucker PC it was obvious, I never figured out this one. It was calling me out by name yesterday, 'you are over your 14 and you are going to hell' I notice here they don't call them "hot loads", but they run the same way, every single load is "hot".

I don't, I just used loaded miles for comparison. Does anyone in this company ever get to get up in the morning and think, 'man, all I've got to do today is stroll up the road 600 miles listening to the Alex Jones radio show? Anyone who discounts the time and challenge of unloading and loading, particularly daily...such an one just doesn't know. So, is it just me? The 14/7 fleet? Roehl? Someone said earlier in this thread the home time fleets get last preference on the good runs. That seems to fit.

Let me say this, however, Roehl's pick ups and deliveries are much easier than the last time I was in dry vans forced dispatch. We didn't have the drop and hooks and the timely in and out like they do today. Not saying it's all peaches and cream *cough* Purina in Davenport *cough*

Too bad about Bynum, I asked the dispatcher 'give me a three day weekend every three weeks'. 'Can't do that'. That's great that Roehl is that way. I mean, it's like practical miles, credit where credit is due. My plan had been to clean out the truck and wait until this higher up got back Monday.

And, that's great. So far it hasn't bankrupted them. Great there.

1200 mile load? 1200 mile load? You mean orange juice from Winter Haven to Paw Paw Michigan- no wait, wrong company. That was my gripe, why is every load on fire and now I've got to sit all day at a truck stop or pay for a motel. IT IS THEIR OPERATING PLAN TO RUN US OUT OF HOURS- my fleet, my board.

i thought I explained it, what baffles me is why a driver doesn't understand it. When I delivered in Salem and was supposed to pick up in Salem, was I supposed to deadhead to Roanoke for a shower? You ever try to park in Roanoke when it's late? If you can go and spend the night at a shipper in Atlanta or try to commute in from the Cartersville TA in the morning, which are you going to do?

From a pencil neck in an office I'd understand this, this baffles me comng from a driver. "Time management", you disgusting, X theorist, web porn watching waste of oxygen...

Because I'm going to end up sitting around out of hours anyway? Because I stink? Because a little relaxation allows me to clear my mind and perform my work more safely- I don't give a crap about Roehl's safety ambitions- I DON'T WANT TO KILL ANYBODY, I DON'T WANT TO GO TO JAIL, I DON'T WANT TO LOSE MY CDL, I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR DAMAGE... OK, yeah, I care about their safety policies, but I have plenty of reasons to care about safety of my own accord.

I picked up a truck with 16,000 miles and dings all over it. Yeah, my best weapon against accidents is my own clear and peaceful mind, not all the social engineering and programming micro managers and pencil pushers can do in their offices.

Don't do this, man. How many people work 14 hour shifts and sleep on there jobs? Perhaps you thought I was campaigning for shower pay?

Anyone reading this can judge for himself if I'm being unreasonable. I don't have a problem if somebody thinks I am and expreses himself. I've posted a lot of particulars, not generalizations. The man said he left as soon as he got his preplan and before he got his load assignment and that, if he didn't, he'd have had a service failure. I didn't say that, another driver did. The one fellow, he makes a delivery to hell, I mean, NYC, he's there 8 minutes late and gets no credit for 6 hours detention. Again, I didn't say it.

I tried, we had good long talks BEFORE thanksgiving, my fm and her boss. They f'ed me on Thanksgiving, they rushed me on the very next run, they told me more of the same or turn in your locks. Everyone has a threshhold, I guess.

Trust me, at no time in any fashion have I ever been encouraged in any way to take a break. All I can say is, may you have 300 mile trips to your heart's content so that it is always the 14 hour rule and never the 11 hour rule that is holding you back. edit- there was a trainer who did say something like that. Hey, if you're already parked and their is no wait, you can get a shower in 30 minutes.

Get down with your bad self! Everyone not just like you, there is something wrong with them? Give me this much, I've never complained because the only thing I had to do that day was drive 600 miles.

Yeah OK, an extra trip got on one pay check and was short the next. Trust me, with a governed truck and elogs you won't be impressing me with the he-man miles you are running. For crying out loud, driving down the interstate is the easy part.

OK

From a pompous office worker straightening out those filthy, rotten truck drivers, I could understand this. Terrible, terrible truck driver, slept at Sam's club and now he thinks he deserves a shower.

 

This guy is incoherent. How did he get through orientation?