Roehl Transportation

Thanks! I will not be going with Roehl!

 

As far as beer goes in the entire time I was there I hauled beer once. Beer is not a commodity Roehl really gets into it actually doesnt fit well with the business model.

Heres the good:

1. The equipment. Roehl sells equipment at about 300K. As far a maintenance was concerned they do it right. I never had issues with maintenance and you could schedule an appointment and normally get your issues resolved in a timely manner.

2. The terminals. The terminals definitely catered to the drivers as far as amenities. Some of them arent as nice but they do have all the stuff you would want with few minor exceptions.

3. The hometime is very generous. The only place I know where you can be OTR stay out 11 days and get 72 hours home.

The ugly:

1. The pay plan is atrocious. In theory you could work there 5 years and never see a pay raise. When I started they only offered one pay plan but now offer two. The pay is all based off of performance and things you have ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER. For example, I had one quarter in which I drove 37K miles but still didnt get a pay raise because I had to many deadhead miles. That is something we dont control and deadhead miles dont help your performance. A huge portion is also based on fuel. Most of the time I could make the goal no problem while others youd get enough heavy loads through PA and WV than no matter what you did you weren't going to make it.

3. Roehl requires a contract unless you have experience. So even if you got your CDL on your own you still have a contract although not at 120,000 miles. I also want to point out that its 120K or bust. That means you leave at 119,999 you still owe them 7,000 or whatever your contract was worth

4. The communication is atrocious. The planners might as well run the company. I would sometimes stay out as much as 60 days and wouldn't be allowed to do a reset because the planner said I couldn't. Keep in mind Roehl loves people that go home after 11 days. Now this is all subjective to what division your on as well but for the most part it's still all controlled by the planners.

5. Another thing they were notorious for doing was telling the driver one appointment and the customer giving them another. Sometimes let's say you were told your appointment was at 0700. The customer might've confirmed that appointment at 0600 but guess who never gets word? Correct YOU. So now you show up and your late and guess who gets penalized on their scorecard? The DRIVER! Or even worse you show up and Roehl never bothered to make an appointment at all which happened all the time. This goes back to the planners not knowing crap about their customers. I had one a few weeks ago (I pull reefers now with Shaffer) where I showed up to Nestle in Indiana. A Roehl reefer driver had been sitting there almost 8 hours and they still hadn't touched him. I got a dock and loaded in 30 minutes. Why was he sitting there because they sent him to go pick up a load that was picked up two weeks ago and were scrambling to book something else. This happened to me a few times thankfully but this should never happen.

6. The planners the planners the planners.

7. On Dryvan the frieghtlanes suck. Roehls average length of haul is less than 300 miles. Roehls business model is smart though. I serviced places no other company would touch. I've seen more of Wisconsin and Chicago than I ever care to see in my life

 

They also have a Dairyland fleet. They run mostly WI and MN only and it's usually drivers that want to get home several times a week. The Kraft reefer division is practically gone. Roehl has experienced a mass exodus the last couple months due to losing or on the verge of losing contracts and the inability to keep anyone moving

 

Keep in mind even if you paid out of pocket for your CDL Roehl makes ALL NEW DRIVERS SIGN A CONTRACT. That is enough reason to not go there. Its one things to go through the GYCDL like I did but when you pay out of pocket you cant tell me the value of a trainer is over 3 grand. There are I'm sure much better companies that will take you with your ticket. I can tell you this much Roehl DOES NOT play around with safety. If I had to do it all over I would've gotten my CDL myself and started at Crete/Shaffer from the beginning

 

Also the turn over in the operations department is just as bad if not even worse than the driver turn over. Thankfully I was blessed to have solid FMs but they have ones they get trained and they are gone. This happens so often that some drivers have a new FM every month.

 

I thought Roehl might have been a good place to work part time.
They still offer 7 out/ 7 off?
Also, they were advertising 61cpm to start for experienced drivers,
I was thinking I could work part time and make at least $40k
...no?

 

You should be able to tolerate a lot for a work schedule like that, if that suits your wants and needs.

 

@dogtrucker
This company has a 4x4 program, which is 4 on and 4 off.
Transportation Company Jobs | Drive For Dot | Dot ...
https://drivefordot.com
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4 Days On, 4 Days Off Schedule
Dot offers a variety of scheduling options outside of a “traditional” schedule. The four days on, four days off schedule is exactly what it sounds like—you get four days on the road and then four days at home. The best part about this schedule is that you will know which days you are working and which days you will be home for the entire year!

 

Yes, they still offer an7/7 and 14/ fleet

 

61 CPM sounds too good to be true. I know top pay on Kraft was 55 CPM so I would definitely get that in writing. I know the 7 on 7 off drivers a lot of them are retired from other careers and they do it as a retirement gig. I actually had a retired doctor that I trained. He had a nice pension coming in but was getting bored so he went into trucking. Very nice guy and it was kind of nice training someone with a PHd