Roehl Trainers Check- in/ New Roehl Drivers Check-in

Construction for 20 years? Then flatbedding won't phase you much.

 

Only problem is Ive had pie jobs(counter sales) for over 5 years, and I've gotten soft, not as strong as I once was. But I ain't scared
Pirate Trucker XOXX

 

I've been gone from Roehl and trucking about a year and a half. Sometimes I miss some of it and looking on here is enough to scratch that itch and bring me back to reality.

 

Usually the miles from the fleets all end up being pretty close at the end of the year. At least that is the way it used to be. 2008-9 was different though, when the housing market crashed so did the building materials and flatbed freight. That was the only year out of twelve at Roehl that I had bad miles pulling a flat. My Dad and I both worked for Roehl at the same time for about seven years. He was in the van division, I was in flats for five and curtains for two. We compared our mileage at the end of every year. I always had 1000-2000 miles more than him. But I was in my early twenties and ran pretty hard. So after tarp pay, extra stop pay and everything I usually made 3-4k more than him. But I worked a lot harder. But he was always stuck on the east coast and I went everywhere. I could bring the truck home with me but he had to park his in Marshfield. Sometimes it matters where you live. There are some places that Roehl has trouble getting people home with one division but not another. They told me they couldn't get me home with a van so I went flatbed. They never used to hire anyone from FL except a few dry van drivers but that has changed. Like Lantern said, you go to be better places with a flatbed. You don't go to a big warehouse and become a new addition to it for half a day. You get to haul cool machinery instead of toilet paper and tampons. You get to go to some pretty cool job sites. But it is a lot more work. If van was always drop and hook it would be the way to go but I can't stand the sitting and not getting paid. If you start with flatbed and don't like it you can always drop down to another division. If you start with vans you have to go back and get more training to go flatbed. Tarping a full trailer is pretty easy as long as the fork lift driver puts the tarps on top of the load. The things that are a pain to tarp are the odd ball shaped pieces. Square tarps are meant to tarp square loads.

 

I wanted to thank Pirate Trucker for this thread. Very informative.

This is my first posting. Maybe it should go under a different Roehl thread?

My story: After 35+ years in the family business (last 15 as president and 50% owner), we lost our major account (due to the paper mill shutting down) representing 70% of our revenues. I decided I'd had enough. Spent the last 21 months floundering a bit before enrolling in community college earning two additional degrees this past May in Administration of Justice in both Police Science and Corrections. (Already had an Associates in Business Administration.) However, I've come to the realization that at my age, few departments are interested in hiring someone who doesn't (in their eyes) have enough time horizon left to justify the considerable expense required to bring an officer on line.

I've always enjoyed trucks and driving. (In fact, in the early days of my career, I drove an R Model Mack pulling a flatbed trailer making local deliveries. We manufactured wooden pallets & skids, so those were interesting loads...stacked & loaded to nearly 13'6" high ... very top heavy with incredible wind resistance. That was during the pre-CDL days when we only needed a Class A Chauffeurs license.)
In any event, because I was only a self-taught driver way-back-when, last month I decided to attend driving school in order to obtain my CDL. I passed my DMV examination yesterday and received my license today. (I also added endorsements for doubles/triples, tanker and hazmat.) I am representing myself to be no more than a student driver.

My wife is ready for me to get back in the workforce and is ok with me going over the road. I am somewhat attracted to flatbeds, probably because of my past association with them, but not sure at almost 56 years old that's really what I need to be doing, even though I'm in pretty good shape. (Plus who really enjoys getting dirty & sweaty before climbing into a truck for up to 11 hours?) Maybe vans are best. Then again, that last post by BucksAndDucks made a lot of sense. Maybe a recruiter can give me the straight scoop on an honest comparison. (My PreHire was signed by Cheryl.)

Last week I applied to all the usual "suspects" ... Swift, Werner, Schneider ... along with Western Express (who has a terminal 30 miles from my house), Central Refrigerated, TMC and Roehl. TMC turned me down, but living on the east side of I-95, I may be outside their hiring area. I've received PreHires from the rest. (My last traffic ticket was over 25 years ago and I've never been in an accident.)

But here's the real rub: What I find frustrating is that as one scans the blogs, you find every company who accepts students being constantly bad-mouthed. And I've come to the conclusion that this is due to how the industry operates. Theses companies seem to feed off of newbies who everyone knows will be short-timers at their initial employer ... who are therefore treated like chattel... and the cycle continues.

Roehl seems to be a cut above many of the others (but I do see even them spoken of time-to-time in a negative light). Their starting pay seems to be above many of the bottom feeders. One complaint I've read, however, is they are a low mileage company, which kinda negates any cpm advantage. In fact, even their own website says they try to get their drivers 2,300 miles per week. To me that says either there are many short distance loads (running very regional) or there's quite a bit of sitting around waiting on the next load. What is the average earnings for newbies?

If I am correct and need to approach this career as needing to invest at least one year learning and proving myself, I would at least like to stretch out and see the country (I've never seen much of the West). Is Roehl going to be the place to have at least some opportunities to do that? Or is Roehl going to be very regional? (I live right on the VA-NC line.)

Sign me, "Struggling Who To Sign On With".

 

Nottoway, to get into the industry you have to invest a year working for starter companies. Roehl basically thrives on turn-over like Werner, swift and all the other big companies.

Why? Because the more new drivers churned out the less they have to pay them. Maybe I'm wrong but thats the way it seems. You have to take the good with the bad, they are here merely for your experience. They know you will move on to higher paying jobs.

They aren't a bad company, yes I have negative thoughts about Roehl some times but they provided me a chance and I grasped it.


As for flatbedding, getting dirty & sweaty isn't to bad. I carry stuff to clean my self up with. Plus I wash my self off in the customers bathroom before getting in my truck. Its hard work, but well worth it.

As for miles... You have to take it as it is. You can have a amazing week, followed by a poor week. It depends on roehls freight and where you at.

 

Thanks Lantern. Good confirmation of how I was assessing things.

Quick question: What regions or lanes do Roehl's flatbeds operate in? How about the dry vans?

 

Hey Nottoway, welcome to the party! and thanks for the shout out. I'm still in the early stages of the hire process and like you I've asked what seems like a million questions, I don't know how much reading you've done on what is the top 3 or 4 threads, but believe me if you have the time, scan through, being new myself, It took my a few days on here to even work all the bells and whistles of the forum, everyone here is really cool, and ask away, even what your thinking might be dumb................ask it any way.

Pirate Trucker XOXX

 

Nott, Roehl would be considered "weak" West of I-35, and, they don't *like* sending newer drivers west, simply because of the lack of support (support for their freight, not you), Sometimes, you have to have a talk with your Fleet Manager, to point out that you haven't been south of I-80 in two months.

there are many posters to this forum, and I'm among them, who are former-roehl drivers. And, I think most of us would agree in saying, if you're going to learn how to do this job, Roehl is a great place to learn it. If you know what you're doing, you probably want to look elsewhere. unless you're interested in hometime.. we're great at hometime... Hell, Bucks has been semi-retired for years, pretty much the whole time he worked here.

 

Roehls hometime is the main reason I don't want to go anywhere else, but I do want to move to a company that does more heavy haul and oversized. There's a heavy haul and equipment transport company in Jax that I could choose to be home every weekend, every two weeks, or one week per month. I'm still reading up on them though. I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly I have to be 23 years old though.

Ethan