Life After Roehl

Good luck wherever you end up glowstickz.

 

No..Advantage Tank Lines

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Just throwing this out there. I have been gone from Roehl for about three years. I remember having a student and about half way through training he said needed to get home because he just got hired by the railroad. We were routed pretty much by his house anyways so I dropped him off. He was telling me about the railroad and that I should apply. I dismissed it because I was making decent money and had a decent lifestyle because of 7/7. Then freight went south and health insurance went up. Turns out that a lot of that freight and the good long mile freight is going on rail now because of high fuel costs. Anyways, I applied for the railroad and got in. Three years later and I will make between 70-80k working as a switchman in the yard and I'm home every night. If I wanted to work as a conductor and go on the road I would make over a 100k. Conductors and engineers go out for one day, stay in a hotel and come back the next day. At my terminal they either work a 5/2 or a 6/3 schedule. The health insurance is good and railroad retirement is excellent. Just putting this out there because there is a big hiring boom in the railroad now because of baby boomer retirements and new business. BNSF alone will hire 5000 employees this year in different jobs and areas. I see a lot of truck drivers jump from trucking job to trucking job looking for something better and just keep getting the same results. For me it was better to get out of the industry.

 

Does the railroad train you to be a train engineer like trucking companies do?

 

Yes. Usually someone is hired first as a conductor/switchman and trained to do that. When engineers are needed then interested people can bid on openings. The people with the most seniority get in unless they have had accidents or missed work. BNSF has a big training facility in Kansas City with simulators and such but most of the training is OJT where you are based out of.

 

He all. Been a few months cuz I'm always TIRED! lol I post a little here or there but can't do it everywhere cuz I need my beauty rest,( which is not working!)

So Jan was freaking awesome. Ran just over 12,000 dispatched miles! I only had ONE 10k month at Roehl! I was home for 2 weekends in Jan, and almost always ran 3-4 wks out at Roehl. The difference is having the next dispatch before I'm empty 80% of the time. And not waiting much longer than 30 min the other 20%.

Feb sucked for just over 8k miles. Several customer and maintenance issues. Oh well. I don't count on having a great month when it's that short, cold and windy.

Mar was great again bcuz 1- I got moved from #591 to #721 (a 2011, I just tripped 300k yesterday)! It has an extra 10" length in the sleeper! It makes for about 35 cubic feet of extra living space. 2- I got just over 10,500 mi. Thats TWO months out of three, over 10k! 3- Health insurance kicked in!

(Yes, I cheated and copied most of my previous post from here: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...regon-truck-co-fun-begins-34.html#post3938981. Deal with it. )

April is on schedule to be over 10k again. Plus I'm already at 6.5 mpg which means at least another .005 cpm.

Did i mention that ALL my ins. bennies are paid for by COTC, and even with my wife's premiums, I'm averaging $100 more per paycheck AT A LOWER BASE RATE THAN ROEHL??

Roehl is a good STARTER co.

 

Bucks, I guess that throws water on what I've always heard... that you have to be related to, or really know, someone already working for the railroad in order to work there. Thanks for the info!

 

After leaving Roehl and starting my own company doing "haul away" I'm happy to report things are going well. My income will be 2x-3x what it was at Roehl if current trends continue. Being completely independent means being able to choose my own loads, routing, fuel stops, etc. and I could never go back to otr. OTR seems like slavery compared to what I'm currently doing.

FREEDOM! It's still a possibility.

For those unfamiliar with the term "haul away," we move those stacked trucks you see traveling piggyback. Our four ways are 92' long. The driving is fun but you work like a dog separating the trucks at the customer. When done, you call around America to the various shipping locations to find out who needs something moved, get on a plane/train/bus/rental car and go do it all again. We stay in hotels, not in trucks and are responsible for all travel expenses.

You learn to travel smart.

If you don't want to drive during "Roadcheck 2014" you shut it down. Yes, I shut down for three days.

How about a report from the rest of you "life after Roehlies?" Any regrets? I have none.

I'm glad I left. Wish I'd done it sooner.

 

Everybody is happy when they first leave. The test is if they're happy 6 mos or 1 year afterwards. Good luck dude.