Roehl selects ALK CoPilot Truck Navigation system

Holy Cow that's insane.

 

I met a Stevens Driver a couple of months ago that was doing something similar. He had been out 5 months and his goal was to keep trucking until he had a certain amount of money in his bank account then he was going to call it quits. He said he would sometimes to get see family during a reset but other than that he was out on the road getting it done.

 

Is it true that Roehl is or might even be considering putting cameras on their trucks to check driver habits. I just read some where on one of these sites that Melton is putting them on their equipment. I remember the first truck I got with Roehl. I was out with the trainer for 5 days and was dropped off in Atlanta. They have me a beat up piece of junk that actually had the steering column held up by duct tape. The previous driver had a dog with him that shed and pissed on everything. Even the drivers seat. When I complained about it the mechanics laughed and told me to Laos up and leave. Oh yeah, and they had a camera mounted in the middle of the windshield to keep an eye on this guy. The bumper was pushed in, both the shrouds on either side of the can were caved in from making to sharp a turn. I was making a tight left turn in Vicksburg late at night. As I was turning a car who could clearly see I needed the extra room pulled right up to the intersection. I hit the brakes and figured it would back up. Nope no this idiot she just sat there. All of a sudden this voice came on and asked what I hit. I thought I was in direct communication from God. Between hearing someone in Marshfield and this women complaining about me blocking her way, it took me 15 minutes to explain to both what was happening. After we got that squared away and I got back on the road. I took a piece of tape and covered the lens on the camera. I got a call back telling me to uncover it and was told that it only activates during an event. Well if it activates only during an event how did they know I put tape on. It. I covered it every time I stopped for a brake not wanting this gorgeous body being seen until I got to Marshfield and threatened to quit unless they took it out. I've been giving some thought to going back to flatbeding with them in the western div., but now not so sure.

 

No activity on this thread for a while so I thought I'd ask how it's going with the new routing system, cameras in trucks, etc.

 

Cameras are mostly for problem drivers. And the routing thing is not mass rolled out yet.

 

I was also approached after my first year when I was looking to switch companies. What really surprised me when I came back was seeing a trainer with only 7 months driving experience and never even been to NJ or the east coast, where they like to send all the reefer trucks. Also met a new driver instructor with only a year and a half experience.

I would like to be a trainer some day and when I'm ready I will let them know and the decision will be theirs.

 

Instead of putting navigation systems and all that safety BS in the trucks, why not increase pay?

That's one reason I left my local job.

I used to work for roehl, miles were decent but instead of spending hundreds of dollars on each truck for the safety equipment plus the Nav systems, why not just increase pay for the drivers. I'll never understand it.

Oh well

 

Always looking for ways to increase their bottom line, not ours. All that safety BS prob lowers insurance rates on a couple thousand trucks.

 

True.

I worked at PFG in Gainesville, FL. They were going to be putting cameras in the trucks, we already had a system that makes loud noise when you get close to the center or right line. We would always disable the system because we team drove and the systems would malfunction all the time. You could be in the middle of the lane and it would go off buzzing. The guy in the bunk couldn't sleep. The company had 3 rollovers within i think two months. They would run your hours crazy, even on elogs, but you'd get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep then get sent back out on a truck.


They put those systems in because the CSA score was 87% when i started, now its like in the low 70's i think. I know they did that and the cameras for insurance reasons.

 

If they need that BS they need to just not hire people that can't drive