Roehl The Good, the bad and the Ugly

1) Roehl's RDTC school (Quality of education/training and instructors).
Sufficient to prepare you for CDL and other basics of driving, cost is decent

2) Training after school (how are the trainers?, describe each evo and what requirements trainee needs to meet in each, before moving forward)
I had one really good trainer and two average trainers in my opinion. They were all decent guys to get along with. Not much difference in EVO I and II, EVO III you are on your on with a special dispatcher. I ran alot of shorter (300-400 mile) runs in EVO III than I generally do now.
3) Average amounts of miles per month, especially in Flatbed division. Are
their practical miles per PC*Miler, Rand Mcnally or who?
I am averaging a little over 11,000/month (25-26 days out)

4) Cooperation between drivers and DM (or whatever Roehl dispatchers
are called).
My dispatcher is easy to work with and keeps me moving. After hours and weekend dispatch leave alot to be desired in my opinion. I think Roehl is being way to cheap in this regard with the number of folks working in the office on the weekend.

5) How much pressure Roehl is constantly putting on a driver to try to run illegally. Always, sometimes, rarely?
I have never been asked to run illegally, if you can't make it or are going to be late just let them know and they will deal with it.

6) How are they with paying you and not constantly trying to jack you
out of your bonuses (especially tarp/untarp loads pay).
I get paid weekly on Thursday by direct deposit, always on time, I have gotten all of my extra pay with no problem

7) Do they constantly divert you away from your planned home time.
I nearly always get home when I request although I have been a day late a couple of times but that just goes with the territory.

Are they paying you the 3 mo, 6 mo, 9 mo and 1st year pay amount and
raises as currently indicated on their website, and are they finding lame excuses for not giving the raises to you. I have gotten my raises when indicated and I just received my quarterly bonus last week.

9) Do they expect you to freeze in the Winter and/or roast in the Summer
all in the name of keeping idle time down at an unrealistic level (I am talking about common sense idle time and not drivers abusing it).
My truck does not have an APU in it and I have never came close to going over the allowed idle time allotment.

 

Great responses majestyk. Any advice you can send along to a newbie headed to RDTC on November 15th? Really looking forward to getting up there and getting started. I'm going national refrigerated.

 

Let me add to Maj's comments...

 

Howdy Hindsy,

The pay increase is taken from when you begin EVO III (at least for the 3 and 9 month increases). The 12 month increase starts the first day of the month after you qualify for it. For example I started EVO on May 13; my first increase came August 13, the next will come Feb 13 and my 12 month raise will begin June 1st.

 

I am glad you guys hit on the raises as this was the only thing I didn't ask about.