Roehl Transport

Most of our interaction with the company we drive for is through one person, the dispatcher (in my case), DSR for most other drivers. Through this one person a driver can have a very good, or bad opinion of the company they driver for.

My first 2 weeks out of Evo III with a permanent dispatcher was all I could stand. It was like I switched companies, not dispatchers. The reason I chose to drive for Roehl right out of school was because of all of the positive comments I read in this forum. My last 2 weeks with Roehl I experienced a lot of the things that people in this forum describe happening to them while working for Swift, J.B. Hunt, etc.

This is not just sour grapes. For the most part I had an excellent driving experience. Company scores in the 90's on driving tests, no tickets, 2 DOT inspections both with 0 violations, no late deliveries, never had a problem finding a customer, and found most customers to be very pleasant to deal with. Besides not getting a different DSR when I requested it, my only real negative experience with Roehl was with one dispatcher in Gary.... However, that experience was enough to make me walk away.

 

From both the safety department, and the terminal manager, it was "wellll.....if it keeps happening, let us know..."

That was when I knew that Roehl's "Safety is a value, not a priority" is just a line that covers their collective #####. Well, I guess they do mean it as it applies to drivers, but that doesn't mean a dispatcher can't harass, manipulate, or do whatever else to get you to violate that policy. Of course if they are successfull, and the worse does happen....they will blame it on the driver in a heartbeat.

 

She sounds like the same Evo III DSR that I had. Unfortunately for Roehl, drivers coming out of Evo III expect this same level of professionalism to continue. When you get a really bad dispatcher right out of Evo III, it just feels like you've been duped, and Roehl is just like all the other "bad" trucking companies.

 

Roehl's "Honor Program" deserves mention here as well.

As a veteran, this sounded good to me. I could spend my first year or two getting paid on salary while learning the business without worrying about how many miles I was getting.

My first week out of the house (Evo III) I learned what the "Honor Program" was for, and it wasn't to honor veterans. That first week I logged just over 3000 miles. Many of these loads were less than 200 miles, a couple were about 100 miles. After the first week, I got an average of 2600 miles per week. I'm guessing most OTR drivers don't like these short runs at all. However, I'm not guessing when I say that no rookie driving for CPM ever got 3000 miles their first week, or anywhere near an average of 2600 per week.

My point is not to complain about the number of miles I was driving. I knew it was abnormal, but I considered it good training. I handled it with ease, and I wouldn't want any fewer miles to drive. My point is to address the dishonesty. Subtle or blatant, it seems to run rampant through this industry.

In summary:

Roehl's "Honor Program" exists for the benefit of Roehl, not veterans.