Life After Roehl

Welcome Dark

Not too many drivers who have left have wanted to come back! I'm guessing you'll discover that you didn't realize how much you hated it until you weren't there anymore. It is good to leave on callback terms though!

I'm noticing that most of the threads regarding Roehl have just about dried up!

Since you been there most recent, how are they doing? Is the company hanging on or are they doing well?

 

I'm not defending Roehl, but right now freight is really bad. Normally the Landstar board has about 24,000 plus loads at most times, however, right now it's down to about 16,000 to 17,000. Rates aren't that great either. This isn't just a Landstar issue, I have talked to other drivers going through the same thing. What I'm saying is that part of what Roehl drivers are experiencing may be part of what is going on in trucking right now. Even before I left it was pretty obvious that Roehl was using a lot of broker freight.

Now that I deal directly with brokers (agents) I have a better understanding of what was going on. As an illustration, when you accept a load and then it cancels, it is possible that it was brokered and it turns out the broker didn't have that load. C.H. Robinson is really bad about posting loads with multiple agents, then when you call about that load it turns out it is already gone, even though it's still on the board. Just a tidbit of inside information that may help you understand what goes on that drivers aren't usually privy to.

 

That's why I haul groceries, never goes out of style. People need to eat, and they do, in turn keeps me busy. Locally that is.

 

The company will be fine...
They just have too many drivers right now I think.
My FM was averaging my miles about 1400 per week, or 250.00.
I cannot be a sole provider for that much...ever.
I put up with bad miles for 9 months, with last two being the worst!!! Freight is bad, but not that bad!!!
The FM went by a Nick name, At Gary. Under the previous FM, my stress level was a lot lower and my miles averaged an acceptable 2300.
Under "Bob" 1400 with multiple day trips back and forth through Chicago, relaying 800+ mile loads into Gary.

So yea....tell me again it was the freight

Just one week and 2500 miles with Larsen, already caught up all my behind bills

 

Roehl starved me out as well as soon as my truck was paid off. You will never know it, but a lot of their freight is brokered and right now brokered freight is really down. I agree that they probably should face the reality of who they are and downsize their fleet. Brokered freight is dicey enough for a single truck booking one load at a time. Trying to rely on it to keep a midsize fleet running is nuts.

 

I left roehl in May of 2013. I worked for Melton for about 9 months. Now I've been at P&S transportation for about a year and a half. I've decided to take a new driving job that is refrigerated but it pays salary, and my days off are guaranteed. I just hope that making the transition from flatbed to refrigerated again is something that I can do.

 

I ended up leaving Roehl in June. I started with them back in November 2014. It definitely wasn't a bad company to start for. I learned a bit. I was flatbed and went through 2 FMs before I left(Jason from Marshfield and Darrell out of Phoenix). I definitely felt most of you guy's pain about not making much money because starting out it was hard to clear $350-400 checks and eventually they started getting better. A few months in started to average around $650-700 take home. When Jason left to be a FM for flatbed trainers, my runs started to get better. Since January I was staying out for about a month at a time and under Darrell as a whole I started getting better runs and my checks reflected it and with the 3 and 6 month pay raise but I hated having to stay out so long just to get a week and a half off and to make a decent paycheck. In the beginning stages if it wasn't for the extra money from the Roehl Honor program my financial situation would have been different. I really enjoyed Darrell as a FM as a whole and the opportunities I got at Roehl but a few situations annoyed me like non other. When I started out and was going home for Christmas my first FM got me a load heading home for Christmas and it had me delivering about 130 miles from
Home a day before my scheduled home time. I made the drop and I was sitting about an hour maybe 2. No preplan, no nothing so I decided to hop in the truck and go home. About 4 hours later I get a call from the FM asking who told me to go home. I said I just assumed it was okay and left. I was thinking if you didn't want to me to go home just yet you should have had a load of some sort ready or called me. Then right when I was about a week out from quitting I was in Detroit and by the end of the week I was in Houston. I'm thinking I would be routed towards Conley, GA to turn the truck in. So I get a load assignment picking up in Louisiana going back towards Chicago. Needless to say I was mad. I was wondering why did they put that load on me. So I asked my FM and he was saying I was the only one in the area that could move it. So I was so close to leaving the truck in Houston but I decided to drop the load in Gary and turn in my truck there. Because it wasn't anyway I was going to relay that load and then drive from Chicago to Atlanta to turn a truck in. I had family in Chicago so I was picked up from the terminal and caught a ride back to Alabama. That experience left a bad taste in my mouth to end my employment with Roehl. I lucked up and found a local driving job that took me with 7 months of experience and I been here a month and absolutely love it so far. It's so much more relaxed where I work at now. I drive local and I ended up with a nice schedule for right now. Roehl definitely helped me start my trucking career and despite how I was done at the end and the other things I think we all didn't like about them I can't be bitter about the position I'm in now.

 

Been almost one year since starting at Larsen.
In ways, much better than Roehl.
In fact, if any Michiganders are looking with a year experience under their belt, hit me up for a referral.
This company has openings and recently had a company lease on to help with driver shortage.

 

After 3.5 years I've finally joined this thread. Left for a big move upwards to Upstaging which was a personal goal from the beginning. They require 3 years otr and a resume and road test. As for Roehl I gave up a lot of great friends and now know a lot of awesome drivers. Lost a few dollars in my 401 but will recoup that shortly. I did accomplish a lot at Roehl and owe them for my initial experience. They were fair and helpful to the end as well. In the last year I struggled with the scorecard for CPM and I know I'm not the only one dealing with that. I did look at some other companies, especially better refrigeration fleets, they were the only other reasonable option to go upwards. It's tough at the three year mark giving up vacation time and a percentage of profit share. So for new guys starting out it really is a good place to be, even with the contracts. Some things Roehl should work on is the scorecard and that Copilot in my opinion. I also enjoyed my time training others. I hopefully helped a few guys and girls out in their initial start. I'm looking forward to the new challenges of the entertainment industry and want to thank all my friends at Roehl for getting me to this place.

 

I'll be in this thread effective next Thursday too. I nearly accepted a spot with Landstar, but decided to take a spot over at SNI on their Choice board instead. I'll never have a bad thing to say about Roehl. They treated me like gold and I'd recommend them to anybody. It was just a business decision.