Sick of all the negative posts about companies

I'm in my last week at Roehls RDTC school. Passed my CDL test Friday and am very pleased with the experience thus far. I am a veteran and will be taking advantage of a Veterans Apprenticeship they offer, it's a two year program and includes additional training (paid) as a driver. As far as I can see, as a new driver, there is no reason that one can't stay at Roehl for a number of years as a company driver. One of our instructors has 34 years with Roehl as a company driver...now trainer. He has always used company equipment and just chose not to own/operate. He has a very positive outlook. My opinion is that it is just his nature. He goes to work, does a fantastic job, and has a good attitude. One of Roehls sayings on the wall in the training center is to "put in an honest days work". From the feeling I get through training is that if you do that you will succeed their just fine. I have been given a lot of respect while at RDTC and I really appreciate that. I've got nothing bad to say about Roehl. I'm sure I will get that less than nice situation eventually or lack some miles at some point but from the way I see things working here that stuff all levels out.

 

Wait hold on a minute...You just took you CDL test in Arizona I'm assuming and passed and now you're moving to Illinois? You do realize you will have to retake then entire test in order to transfer you cdl into Illinois, right?

Maybe someone covered this and I missed it or you got you CDL in Illinois and I missed that, if so then sorry. Otherwise, you might want to get that worked out prior to finding an outfit, or just keep the Az CDL as long as you can.

 

The only words I can offer are believe non of what you hear and only half of what you see. Your attitude is a big determiner of future success or problems. I was told when I first got into trucking, "you can change companies as often as you like, but the only thing that changes is the name on the door". If a person jumps ship and nothing seems to change after changing jobs a person needs to take that finger that's pointed at the company, turn it around and it point it at themselves.

 

It seems to me you have a plan. You know it'll probably suck in the beginning, but you're willing to suck it up and do whatever you have to do to get where you need to be. I think I was mistaken and assumed you were just blindly jumping into something and wanted to hear you weren't jumping off a cliff...as you were falling.

I'm in a similar situation. OTR trucking for me is a means to an end, not a final career destination. I started with a "starter' reefer company, then briefly did dry van and now I drive Flatbed. I went to the starter company knowing it would suck. and it most certainly did, but it led to my current company, which I really like.

I still HATE otr, but it's part of my long term goals and I'm grateful that I have this option. An option I have because I sucked it up and did the starter company thing.

I wish you the best of luck.

 

As for low pay, that's up to you. If you get your tanker/hazmat endorsements, passport, TWIC, there is no reason, except lack of motivation, to not be in the $60K - $70K annual pay range within 24 months. A few drivers make that right out of CDL school because they are highly motivated and hard chargers and well prepared with all the endorsements, passport, TWIC. This is fact, because I witnessed it. For example, they hear other drivers say they have to pay dues or get a few years experience first, but the successful guys, ignore that and go their own way. When you are ready, you apply where YOU want to whether you think you will be hired or not.

 

Exactly Dinomite....Before I would go without a job , that pet would go to someone I could trust to care for it til I could do better....Priorities...

 

Exactly.

You can sit back and let the company manage your career for you if you wish. And they will manage it - in a manner that best suits them. You can also step up and manage your own career. It takes more effort, but you'll find that your career will then be moving in a direction that best suits YOU.

 

Currently I am making approximatly $62-65,000 a year. In two days I will celebrate my 1 year anniversary with my company. Before this I started with Stevens and was there 8 months. So after 1 year and 8 months I think that I have done pretty good. It gets better too. I will be getting a new trailer hopefully this year and that will put me in a higher pay range. I hope to be between $80-90,000 when that happens.

Yes, it can be done...

 

Truer words were never spoken.

Waaaay back in the day when I was very young and dumb and between jobs I paid the bills by signing up with serveral temporary agencies to be hired out to do computer work. At first I depended heavily on the agancies for feedback, computer training, and creating and maintaining excellent customer relations, and my paychecks reflected it.

But then one day it dawned on me. I'm the one that creates this so-called feedback; I'm the one that has access to each company's various computer programs (learned some of them on the spot!), and I certainly am the one that was in the primo position to create and maintain excellent customer relations. With that epiphany I began viewing the agencies as my "back office" suppport, and seeing myself as an independent contractor. After that change of attitude, I couldn't keep up with the callbacks, permanent positions offered (and finally I chose one with a Fortune 100 company) and twice, an agency told me that the customer called and asked me to just "name my price" and come back to work with them.

Agreed, windsmith. It's so much more rewarding when you take the wheel for yourself.

Ellie