My experience with Roehl so far

I went through Roehl's school in october of 2009 and am currently a van driver for them. I started with a local trainer for evo 1 for a few days. Just doing local work like moving trailers from one place to another. After that I went out with a flatbed trainer who ran regional. I didn't learn anything from him.
After that for the rest of evo 1 and evo 2 I went out with a national van driver who was very good at being a trainer.
I got my own truck in the beginning of December of 2009. It was an International with a 9 speed and no APU. Unfortunately the transmission decided to go out on I-65 in Indiana and start some oil lines on fire in the process. I got stuck in Lafayette,IN while they had a shop down there try to fix it. When they realized that it needed more work they told me they were having another driver come by and pick me up to take me to Gary to get a different truck. I told them I would rent a car on my own money cause there was no way I was fitting all my stuff in someone's truck and I wasn't about to leave it behind. I got another International in Gary. Same as the one before, but this one has more miles. Still don't have an APU though. I got stuck pulling a reefer around for about a week once. Wasn't too bad except for having to go to grocery warehouses if you go with reefer. I went to two. One in New Jersey that had very unfriendly people except for the guards. The second one was in Connecticut. That one was nice and the people were nice too. Everything has been good so far. I seem to average about 2500 miles per week. Although I did get yelled at for not going to pick up a load when I told them it wasn't doable. They said it was and I said "Fine I'll go pick it up" Well what do you know. It cancelled, but I got a load out of the same place that had more miles. I also got told to slow it down cause I'm driving 62mph everywhere and my mpg for march was 5.93 and my idle time was 19%. They said "we plan your trips at 50 mph" well if one goes 50mph that doesn't leave any time for breaks. I will not go slower that what I am now. So I guess even though the trucks are governed at 62 or 63 or whatever they tell you that is still too fast. I'm hoping I can make it here for awhile. If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them.

 

I know we are suppose to average 50 mph, but if you go 55mph it uses up more driving time. I drive 62 mph to get my driving over with for the day and it uses less driving time. Depending on how I feel is what determines how long my breaks are. Yesterday I drove 453 miles and stopped once for 15 minutes. Now on some days I might stop two or three times. I guess it depends on when I have to go to the bathroom. haha.

 

My driving time was 7.50 hours.

 

I picked this load up in Raphine, Va on Friday it delivers here in Appleton,WI tomorrow at 2pm. I could have been here Saturday if I wanted too. So no I really didn't have any where to be. If I would have gone 55mph my driving time would have been about 8.25 hours. Plus 11 hours at 60 mph is 660 miles. And 55 mph is 605 miles. On march 27 I drove 636 miles which wouldn't have been possible by going 55mph.