Moving On To Other Things

Sorry man...What happened to you is what's currently one of the reasons I am not immediately returning back to OTR. I have a stable job (I think) and while I long for driving and have a passion for it, I can't risk something like this happening to me at the moment. I wish you luck moving forward and if your posts caused just 1 person to rethink this (at this time) maybe it wasnt all in vain ?

-H

 

I know where yu are coming from...it difficult on me too....these pay checks leave alot to be desired.

 

You had not lost much. My Roehl pay does not look that great.... A tip for you.... I had recommended several people to Roehl who did pass RDTC but where not hired cause they failed their "test" EVO II. You need to call Roehl and explain that you tried your best, but due to insufficient training provided by Roehl you were failed your test.
Normaly they let you go witouth paying for training.
Remember there are many trucking companies out there who will hire you.

 

I know what you mean. When you try to tell people about your experience you are labeled a negative person ( as grc has called me) or somehow you are an incompetent driver. So let these people go on and they will learn for themselves. Good luck to you.

 

Roehl's backing test is a lot harder than it used to be. Before they used to give you a pretty easy spot to back into and had plenty of room to pull up. The only way you could screw it up was to not get out and look. They continue to have newer drivers backing into things at customers and truck stops. So they went to a local truck stop in Gary and measured a spot and the space in between rows. This is now the test. It isn't easy but it isn't out of the ordinary either. On the scale of 1-10 it is probably a 6 or 7 for difficulty. If you are a van driver and can't do this test, you can't do your job. A flatbedder could probably get away with it for a while. Honestly, I don't think I would have passed it when I started. This is one of the reasons I chose flats. I got by, by sleeping in rest areas and customer's parking lots. I did anything to avoid backing into a single spot in a dark truck stop. Today there is less parking out here and not always possible. Eventually I figured it out as most do. I was lucky enough not to hit anything, mainly because that truck hardly ever went in reverse. But this is the test we have now. The trainers all know how hard it is because we had to demonstrate that we could do it. Roehl actually got rid of a decent amount of trainers because they couldn't do it. So if you are a student and don't feel your backing is adequate let your trainer know before the test. If he says he doesn't have time when you know he does, let somebody know. Some dispatches are under the gun, some have plenty of time. Last week I had student who was a pretty good backer but could have used a little more work. We dropped our load in a yard about 1800. We had no other dispatch for the night. I asked him if he wanted to hook on another trailer and practice backing. He said, "No thanks, lets watch a movie". Am I supposed to make this guy practice backing? If a guy needs ands wants help and has a good attitude I will bend over backwards to help him. I would like to think that most trainers feel the same way.

 

It seems you would want to practise backing a lot since it's seems the hardest. Believe it or not practising with a toy truck still works!

 

now my friend it sounds like you have your fellings hurt and that is not a good thing, you can also tell your fairly new at this business which s not a bad thing .
remember what you say about your expeirence is read by a lot of drivers , they may not reply but the read it and some will govern therew actions by what you have said , but some wont and it is there choice.
now if you have recieved some comments that were offensive dont let it bother you it takes all kinds and you will find them on forums such as this .

when they make those kinds of comments you can tell they to are new most fresh out of school again pay no attention and try not to take those comments personaly after all they dont no you, if you let peoples mouth hurt your feelings your going to have a hard time in this business just keep a positive attitude and keep on trucking and you will do good.

i for one no about rohel and ther much like a lot of companys out here today , your just a driver and who cares what you think but thats the attitude of most companys today BUT the onlty way to get away from that is to own your own truck that is the nature of this business and all companys have bad about them some worse then others and all of them DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE DRIVER PERIOD.

remember the driver that made the remarks that offended you is just a driver and he probably does not no as much as you.

so cheer up my friend better days are comming and you will do just fine and remember the only time you lose is when you quit. and i dont think you are going to do that.

best of luck to you .-----southernpride

 

When I first started out I dreaded backing and many times would get frustrated and panic because I felt I was holding up other drivers. When I was in Evo I my trainer gave me very little opportunities to back. When I would have to back he would just bark commands... do this, go up there, turn but would never explain why. Thankfully when I had to test out it was in the Gary yard between the two flatbeds that are there near the practice yard. I was able to set up like we were taught in RDTC and got right in.