DrtyDiesel's Experience Roehl Transport

Well, I wanted to do this for a while but wanted to wait until I had a year with them before I do.

Here it goes,

I started with Roehl Transport in November of 2011 at the Ellenwood Terminal in Georgia. Had 8 days of orientation which were pretty cool. Stayed in a great hotel and had all meals paid for. Wasn't a bad start.

I started in the Van Division, Everything went great and after I passed everything it was waiting time for a trainer. Waited 2 days then they offered to pay for a rental car for me and 3 other drivers to go home in Florida for Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving I got a call from my trainer, met up and started training. Went through a bunch of great loads and got some good northeast driving experience. After 14 days with a trainer I tested out in Ellenwood, passed and got my first truck. It was a 2012 Prostar setup for flatbed, it was just a temporary truck until mine got to Ellenwood.

Got my first load headed home delivering to Publix distro in south Florida. When I got home before I delivered I was turning my truck around in my yard and ended up putting the sleeper against a power pole. Long story short, FHP got called the next day, got a $160 ticket for improper backing, but no points on my license. Got the ticket Adjudicated after I paid the fine. Safety had to get a copy of everything and then I had to go to Marshfield, WI for close quarters training.

Got to Marshfield and passed the close quarters training. From there I went on and did perfectly fine for the next few months. Miles were good, pay was good, and things got better for me. After about 6 months of doing van I started to get tired of just sitting on my butt. So I started to think about going to Skateboarding. Luckily, Roehl having four divisons to choose from.

In June, I called my fleet manager and switched over to Flatbed, within 20 minutes of making the call I had a new fleet manager and was on my way to Gary, IN for flatbed securement training. All I gotta say was IT WAS AWESOME! Lantern and I were in the same class so it was like being in High school again lol. Except we had an awesome teacher who was laid back down to earth.

Now, fast forward to about October, I was doing great in flatbed and loving it. After pulling a 48' spread axle air ride trailer, I was NOT going back to van haha. Also, my fleet manager was awesome. Miles were better than van and I was losing weight and loving the extra work.


I made great money with tarp pay helping and was getting good miles. At the end of 2012 I made about $37k gross and just shy of $29k net. Wasn't bad for my first year







After winter hit my miles started to go down a bit. Then, in November I was home for my brothers Birthday, and unfortunately my dad passed away. After that happened everything went down hill for my personal life and I had to be home more, dealing with lawyers and a ton of paperwork.

I lived with my dad and my brother, and my brother is unemployed so I'm the only source of income. Now having to deal with a car payment, insurance, mortgage payment, and a plethora of other bills to deal with I also needed to be home more. I applied for a local driving job 20 miles from my house and after I passed the road test I gave my two weeks notice to my dispatcher.

My dispatcher tried to keep me and honestly, I loved working at Roehl but needed to be home more often. I got lucky and they paid for a bus ticket home. I got home last night and I gotta say, I will never ride the bus again lol.



I gotta say, I've never been happier with a job. I LOVE driving and plan to go back OTR in the future. OTR is just in my blood and nothing will change that. When I do go back OTR it will be with my own truck and not as a company driver.

I would recommend Roehl to new drivers, 110% all the way. My only complaints would be the planners at Roehl, they really don't know what they're doing sometimes.

 

Yeah it was definitely unexpected. It was devastating and Im just happy Roehl helped me so much. Anytime I needed to be home to meet with lawyers my dispatcher got me home ASAP

 

Thanks, He was always happy that I finally did what My dream job was. He was very proud.

Im sorry to hear that, It's always difficult to deal with something such as a death in the family.

it really isnt that bad, but I would wait till spring to switch. Folding frozen tarps sucks haha

 

I believe so, Thanks Bumpy