Wanting to go roehl

Winter is no problem for training with Roehl. Go for it.

 

I've pulled sports flooring out of the UP to Florida and Texas, stainless steel pipes and steel racks from Wisconsin to Alabama, pavers from Wisconsin to Texas, etc. I usually run up out for Florida, bounce around the mid-west a couple days and then get sent South again. I pull a lot of lumber too. You can talk to you DSR and give them an idea of a general direction you'd like to head. Mine has always been good about working with me.

 

I started with roehl about 3 weeks ago. first week I was with a mentor because i only had 57,000 miles. At first I thought I made a mistake after sitting @ellenwood for 2 days waiting for any load. But since that time I have run my ___ off. 3500 miles last week. sitting in indy on a reset now. but I don't think I made a mistake anymore.

 

What an insight. Van drivers haul tampons. I dont care though. I got out of flatbedding because I was tired of doing even MORE WORK FOR FREE. I have found I make just as much, dont get as dirty, have more time, have less to worry about and deal with by driving vans, again, for the same money, if not more. So the jokes on you ladies driving flats for roehl mart. To the person who says that "out of 1900 drivers, only 30 complain", you should have been an epidemologist or statistician. Your right, we dont get to hear what all the other drivers think. In fact, I would say that most of them have the self awareness of a shoe box and probably have not heard of the internet yet. Just to get a feeling for what Im saying, next time your at a truck stop, make a real effort to talk to drivers and note if you are gleaning anything valuable from the conversation, just be careful, they are easily distracted. My opinion and my opinion only is that now is not a good time to be a new driver if you are looking to make at least $40,000 annually to save your ajustable rate mortgage and two suv payments.

 

Good advice, but on the flip side...be careful of this. The driver that tarped/strapped that relay load may not have done it right. There have been a few times we've had to redo a relay load. Another thing to keep in mind...If you happen to get cited for improper load securement (either by DOT or at one of the terminals), it doesn't matter if that is the way you picked it up, the fault will be yours.

Team Industries....We pulled one out of there once that had 27 straps on it. There is another place like that (can't think of their name) over in Fond du Lac like that.

This one came out of Fond du Lac.

 

It's not an insight, it's a fact, though it's not the only thing they haul. Believe it or not, I did haul one of those big boxes before I upgraded to flatbeds. I haven't forgotten about the paper rolls and scrap paper, either.

 

I like the big paper rolls; 6, 8, 10 of them depending on the shippers. Sure it's always 40k but they always go on and come off very quickly and on to the next thing!

 

I'm getting ready to test drive OTR this winter and I'm trying to find at least a halfway decent company to sign on with. While paging through Roehl's website it listed pay as salary, it was bi-weekly and during the training period it listed pay as $870 per bi-weekly period, $1600 up to six monts, $1680 6-12mos., $1780 12-18mos., and topping out at $1880 for 24 mos. or some such. I'm wondering do they pay salary or by mileage and have you heard of this pay system? I'm taking the winter off of my normal job to see if OTR is a career I can make for myself. I've always wanted to do it but I've been driving concrete trucks for the past seven years and the money has been very good. The past year or two however the money has taken a huge turn south and now is the first time it's paid little enough that I could justify checking out OTR. I have NO experience with tractor trailers, all of my experience is with straight trucks. Those straight trucks are pretty serious trucks though, I'm driving 65-70,000 pounds with half that being liquid load so I'm familiar with weight limits at least locally and tag axles etc. I was planning on getting my A license in the next week or two (going to borrow a truck and heavy utility trailer) just to get the license and be able to move forward. My prints and paperwork are already paid for and submitted to TSA for my hazmat endorsement so that should be ready in a month or so. Couple questions aside from the pay scale with Roehl, should I get my license through a school or will a company like Roehl be willing to roll me into a driver training program along with the recent driving school graduates given my experience on straight trucks and my clean records? I'm not married and don't have kids, staying out on the road for long stretches is no kind of deal breaker for me. The only anchor I have is my fireworks hobby which is about as flexible as I want to make it. I was also thinking about TMC, I'm not mentally locked into doing flatbed, but I think I'm leaning that way. Suggestions or answers would be greatly appreciated. And the attitude you bring to work, your willingness to roll with the punches has a LOT to do with your outlook in concrete driving as well. I've been union with the same company a LONG time (for me 7 years is a long time) and it's hard to think about giving that up but the time is right if I'm ever going to make a move now is the time to at least give a real shot and take a look. I know I won't make as much as I do in concrete but I've always wanted to drive tractor trailers. Sorry about the ridiculously long post.