The Good, The Bad, The Honest Truth of a New Roehl Lease Operator

This is true. My miles picked up significantly when I started training. Looks better if the student sees nice long runs, with little sitting I imagine. I would take breaks from training and suddenly I'd be back to the 400 mile 1-2 day runs, then as soon as I told them I'd take a student the 700 and 800 mile 1.5 day runs would come in.

 

You also have to understand how large companies work. They don't match loads to trucks, they match trucks to loads. When dealing in volume you care about the fleet average and not individual trucks. The only way out of it is to do something like training where they have to look at an individual truck. As a business owner I don't have that luxury, I need to make every load count. A balance can be reached if you have dispatchers who understand and care about the needs of that individual. However, back when I still had Kristen she flat out said, "I don't have time to dispatch trucks individually." That statement sums up the entire problem. To Roehl I am just another company truck and they could care less if I make money as long as the fleet average stays where they want it.

Another issue is that Roehl doesn't have the freight. They barely crack into the largest 100 companies and large companies only handle about 10% of the total freight volume. You can see Roehl handles a very small percentage of freight and they also rely heavily on brokers. Yes they do have some major accounts, but as a percentage of overall volume not nearly as much as they need in order to grow. Then you have owner operators competing with company drivers and it makes it very hard to succeed here.

 

Leasing....

 

Absolutely not true. Was told from a very high ranking source that Roehl turned down 7500 loads in the last 6 months because they don't have the trucks to cover them. The freight is there, which is why you're seeing the blitz of hiring ads everywhere lately.

 

I'll stick with the advice of someone who's been doing this for several years, has shown discipline, facts, and figures with a business plan, over hearsay anytime.

 

Roehl never used to let drivers with less than five years experience become trainers. Roehl also never used to let O/Os train. Now they have a pretty new guy driving, training, and trying to run a business all at the same time. Seems like a recipe for disaster to me.

 

Preacher Man is not far off and understands what most former O/O with Roehl figure out sooner or later. I left in May due to the same low miles and no difference between a O/O and a company truck mentality. I too had Kristen as a FM. Now on Schneider choice and I have made in 3 months what took me over 6 months at Roehl because I am able to take loads that are based on my business model not a company fleet average. A truck is a truck to the planner who has no idea what the O/O needs. It is all what the company needs at the expense of the O/O. If your truck is in the area you get assigned the load. Getting rid of a FM and a planner was the best decision I made for my business. As far as the 7500 loads over 6 months works out to only 1250/month. Not really a lot of loads in the larger picture. Roehl really doesn't have the freight or they would not have lost the number of O/O they have this year. Also what 6 months was the freight in, regions and divisions? Freight and rates go up and down depending on several factors. Until you have the opportunity to really see a load board and freight distribution in areas of the country over a period of time, it is difficult to understand how to make decisions whether a load is taken. Some loads are turned down because they just don't meet Roehl's criteria (rates). All companies are looking at a "driver crunch" and advertising. Don't believe everything just because it comes from a "very high ranking" source. Not all high ranking are equal.

 

You do as you see fit Bayle and I'll do the same..

 

And yet things are going so well.. Imagine that.

 

Fair enough. I don't know why all the hate and discontent in here. My point is I don't understand why several people, including o/o's I know have all the miles they can handle, yet several others in here struggle to get them. This isn't a one week wonder thing, it's every week. Sure a bad week comes around every now and then, but miles galore for nearly all the ones I know. Oh well, no point in arguing, I'll just keep doing what's working very well for me. Hope things get better for you all.