Roehl - Will Put You in the Poor House

If you're looking to make good money in this industry, don't consider Roehl Transport.

I worked as a flatbed/Curtainside driver for them for a year. During that year, I was constantly needing to get on the phone with dispatchers and supervision about my miles.

Roehl has what I call a "Pinball Machine". This pinball machine runs from southern kentucky to Minnesota. If you're lucky, you'll get 600 miles for a weekend, and most during the week, are 250 to 350, you being required to spend upwards to two days on many of these in-week runs.

My average week was 1200 to 1500 miles. Every single week, unless - as I mentioned previously - you'd get on the phone with dispatch and complain. Even so, on one occasion, I was told to quit my whining and haul the freight.

Roehl nearly caused me to go bankrupt, me having to struggle from moth to month to pay my bills, much less deal with my on-road living expenses.

If you're looking for miles, don't get sucked in by "Go Roehl!". Be smart and don't go Roehl. They will put you in the poor house.

 

I was one of those hard workers. Without complaint, I took every load which was given me, ran it on schedule and delivered them ontime, every time. I had no accidents, no tickets, no logbook violations, two perfect roadside DOT inspections; I was the "right" driver.

However, unless I called up to complain, I would be run mercilessly in their Wisconsin/Illinois/Indiana regional loop. If I asked enough, I would get a load to California, Arizona or Texas. But right after, it was always back up to Wisconsin, where I would wind up running in that same regional loop until I complained again.

It was an endless cycle of getting mediocre runs until I complained, sometimes me patiently running in the loop for three or four weeks at a time, before I complained - because I was afraid of getting a reputation as a complainer.

Finally, after a year, it was enough.

It was a year, too, during my 14 years experience as a driver, that I earned the least I have with any other company.

If you like lots of home time, like to stay close to home, then maybe Roehl is for you. But me, I am a 6-to-8-weeks-out driver. I stay out that long because I like to run 48 and make money. Roehl, period, is not a company for that kind of driver.

 

Very true. But I don't want a reputation as a company-hopper. I stay a year, no matter what. It looks really bad on your resume if you show a different color of truck for every month.

 

Very true, Bigblue. But you know what? I resigned from Roehl before I actually quit, sending them a letter of resignation when I confirmed my job at the company I am working at now. When I sent them this letter, they started ringing my phone off of the wall, trying to get a hold of me. When they finally did get a hold of me, they practically begged on their knees for me to come up to their home office (under load and with full pay) to talk things over with them before I made my final decision.

Well, the people there were very nice, and they did sound sincere. Throughout my whole experience with Roehl, all of the office people were always nice, the issues ever only being about the miles.

So, at any rate, I went up there.

When I did, they made all of these promises, even gave me a top-of-the-line Volvo truck to drive. They even offered me their curtainside division, said that division ran more miles - they had two great contracts up in Wisconsin I could run from to get those miles. So... I called the other company back, and I agreed to stay with Roehl.

I stayed with them for an additional month.

During that month, I saw one run from each of those two contracts - one was 1300 miles, the other 1200. All of the rest of the runs I got, ranged from 144 to 388 miles. I made two $600 paychecks, the other two ranged between $200 and $300.

When I called my dispatcher to tell her that I was turning my truck in to their Gary Indiana terminal, the first word out of her mouth was "WHY?!"

"I'll go bankrupt if I stay here," was my response.

I turned in my truck, and then flew to the other company (I had actually called them before making this announcement to my dispatcher).

Roehl is a regional company. Period. If you get a good run, they are few and far in between, and there are never enough of them to keep you in the kind of money that most drivers out here want or need.

I do have one question for you, though, Bigblue. What exactly is a solar powered driver? I can probably guess, but I'd really like to know what one is.