Roehl Don't believe the Hype

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by chrisf1, Aug 20, 2007.

  1. Tip

    Tip Tipster

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    Mar 18, 2006
    ON STRIKE
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    I know when I started driving, it took a little while for the shock to wear off. What was the shock? The shock was getting hit in rapid succession with people who were just plain dishonest or unethical. At least this is how I saw it. I realize now that it wasn't that bad, and if I'd only held out and not let it bother me so much..........Unfortunately, factoring the human out of the equation is impossible, so you will have to live with what trucking throws your way. I wish I would have learned this in my first week. I would have been a lot better off.

    While you're sitting at home now wondering to do next, you will be sitting much longer than you ever would have been while a driver for Roehl. And you're making a lot less money now to boot.
     
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  3. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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    Sep 19, 2005
    Baltimore, MD
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    The policy where I work is if the terminal you are leaving with a load does have an operable scale, than you are resposible for a ticket if you get one.

    An empty set of doubles behind a tandem axle daycab here weighs about 37k empty. My single axle is about 5000 lbs lighter than a tandem, so theoretically when I hook to a set it weighs about 32k empty.

    I encounter the same problem when I do linehauls on the side. The weights on the manifests are never right, due to either missing Pro's, or people just trying to ship stuff on the cheap. I have a few customers who do this sometimes.

    Once I picked up a transformer from a rental place, standing about 3' tall and roughly the size of a standard size pallet. The bill I got from them showed this thing weighing 300 lbs. It felt a lot heavier than that. They reweighed it at the terminal, and it was more like 1800 lbs. That would add up to a large discrepancy on a linehaul load with 30 bills on it. I typically find the listed weights on manifests to be about 2 tons light.
     
  4. lookingtotruck

    lookingtotruck Bobtail Member

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    I was trained at Gary and all the people around there were helpful. It was apositive experience and as many have said here before a lot of what went on is the trucking world not Roehl and the handbook is there tot ell you a lot of this plus the phonecard and mainly talking to your DSR and haing them OK you leaving the yard so close to weight with no scale. Make them send that ok via the Qualcom so you have proof. Hope you get tucking somewhere else. Roehl cam thru on all they promised me and a lot of others.
     
  5. radiorambo

    radiorambo Light Load Member

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    Aug 5, 2007
    Rochester,Mn
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    Well to me you just aint cut out for Otr driving. Some people aint. Try local runs like hauling fuel,milk,store deliveries etc. You will have more organized routes and be home every night. Ive had experiences like that you just learn from them. I accidently passed a scale one early morning cause the scale changed its open and closed sign instead of the usual open/closed they had a morphidited arrow. and I thought it was burnt out or somthing cause it barely looked like an arrow. So I drove by it and realized it was open and stopped just passed it. I tried to explain to them that I did not recognize the new sign. That did me no good at all and it cost me 300 bucks.:biggrin_2553:Lesson learned...My company just laughed about it.
     
  6. actros

    actros Bobtail Member

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    Jun 19, 2007
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    An interesting thread.
    Sorry to read of your experiences. One thing is for certain if you were driving in the EEC, Mr Rhoel & his company would know of it since he would also be fined and his operating license be cited for the same violation.
    That would have got his attention!:biggrin_2559:
    Actros
     
  7. tomhorn

    tomhorn Light Load Member

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    Aug 9, 2007
    Jacksonville, FL
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    I haen't even started school yet, but have been doing research and have heard lots of stories. Yours is not a sad one in comparison. Other companies are leaving drivers stranded far from home on their home days, leaving them hanging for long repair periods and not compensating any of them for it. Others have major pay problems, expect drivers to drive illegal and dangerous equipment, ask them to falsify logs and run illegal. If I do take this up, Roehl is still my first choice. From what I have gathered the three best companies to work for for a new driver are Roehl, Maverick and TMC. Rhoehl is the only one that wold give me SE regional based in JAX, so they're my choice. I will not list the worst, but if you read these forums, you know who they are. You will probably be lucky to get hired anywhere now. I'm sure your DAC states that you walked away with little or no warning. You only gave it a few weeks and I'm sure the letter motivated management to paint it even worse on your DAC. If any other companies call Roehl Management (and they likely will, as these guys talk among themselves all the time), anyone considering hiring you will hear about the letter, maybe even get a copy. If I owned a trucking company and I saw it, I wouldn't hire you.

    I'm not being mean, but look at it from their point of view: They invested in your orientation, 3-4 weeks sending you out with trainers and they only got a few loads out of you before they had to accomodate you with a truck drop off and find someone else to take the loads they had planned for you and get the truck. I think you screwed yourself with the letter.

    Look, I understand your frusteration on a level, but if you had thoroughly researched this career, you would have been more realistic. I already know that unless you are running dedicated, there are not always loads right where you are, right when you're there. Sometimes your schedule needs to be flexible. Perhaps had you kept going and communicated your home time frusteration, when they did get you home they might have given you some extra hometime, if you wanted it. But we'll never know, because you gave up prematurely, in my view. Even if you were running dedicated, you would have long wiats. Talk to some guys that run dedicated for the big retailers, like walmart. Sometimes they wait in line for half a day or longer to unhook, then wait around again that long to get their next load. It's just the way the business works. You need to be patient and flexible.

    As for the overweight issue, that should have just been a lesson. It is to me. If there is no scale to do a check and the weight is not certified at the shipper, I would have communicated that to my DM and told them how I would be proceeding and I would proceed as follows: Make the agent sign a statement that he certifies the weight as stated on the BOL and that if it is inaccurate and a citation is issued, that he or the shipper are totally responsible. If he refuses to sign, then I'd tell my company that I would not take the load, unless they released me from liability or got the weight certified. It may have caused some friction, but I would explain that I'm new and poor and can't afford to risk a ticket. There's nothing they would do that would damage your DAC nearly as much as what you did.

    Trucking is not for the faint of heart.
     
  8. lookingtotruck

    lookingtotruck Bobtail Member

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    Jun 29, 2007
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    In the original posters defense no matter how hard you research this topic and the companies to work for it wont eliminate your problems and we all have that one thing that will make us say this company is not for me! So since you still are only researching there buddy watch how critical you are of one who has been in the actual drivers seat!
     
    Azeron Thanks this.
  9. lookingtotruck

    lookingtotruck Bobtail Member

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    Jun 29, 2007
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    I agree 100% no company can be perfect and what one driver experiences as a bad thing might never come up in another drivers career but for you to say don't be truck driver because he #####ed about Roehl is wrong. Though again you are right some are not meant to be truck drivers.
     
    Azeron Thanks this.
  10. roehl16

    roehl16 Bobtail Member

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    Aug 11, 2007
    atlanta,ga
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    roehl isnt a bad company at all. ive been driving for 8 yrs. i worked for usx for 7.5 and for knight trans for 8 mos. if you think roehl is bad wait until you work for a company that doesnt pay practical miles and has no mty trl's. sounds like you dont have a real feel of what trucking is really like
     
  11. curlywolf

    curlywolf Bobtail Member

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    Aug 1, 2007
    Tampa, Fl
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    When you quit all companies are pretty much going to steal every thing you have coming and more. Sorry, but get used to it,they have done for years and got away with it. o/os get hit alot harder than you did, but you learned a good but costly lesson.
     
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