ROEHL - THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

In Ga where are you going to school at and who's paying?

I worked for Roehl and they are a good training company, Check out the Roehl forum.

 

When I was at roehl years ago, the few flatbedders I talked to complained about not getting great miles. I don’t know what the truth is. I’m sure it’s still a great way to get flatbed experience if nothing else. Sorry I don’t have a better answer.

 

I did flatbed training with Roehl in Marshfield. They were very thorough in what they taught. They had classroom and hands-on training with actual trailers and products to secure. It was well worth my time.

 

Are you in a private cdl school or Roehl cdl school?
Have to be careful with flatbed jobs; many are regional so the paychecks won't be as good as the OTR jobs. I know the recruiter told you OTR, but is it truly OTR?
If you want true OTR flatbed, look at Melton Truck Lines as a first choice or Paul Transportation or System Transport. They all 3 hire new cdl grads. Melton and Paul train in Tulsa and not sure where System trains.

 

Systems is out of Spokane, Washington. Training in Marshfield with Roehl in winter will really show you what it takes to be a flat bedder and dealing with weather.

 

This company is a good company to start out with. But don’t be afraid to explore other options once your contract is over. When you’re under contract you make (I believe) .34cpm. As a company Driver you will make more, but your miles will drop exponentially. When you talk to a recruiter you will be promised the world and all its gold, but in reality you’ll get a rock. I was PROMISED an $8,000.00 - $10,000.00 sign on bonus only to find out, months afterwards mind you, that I was hired on 17 days prior to the bonus’s last day and I was PROMISED that I’d receive it, PROMISED. I was also PROMISED to average $1.360.00 a week net (after taxes). I have yet to see any of those PROMISES. I also was eligible for a recruitment bonus. Now not only do I have that I recommended this company on my conscience, I had to remind them to pay me for that recruit. Roehl will do anything in their power to pay you less, in order to pocket them more.

The “Your Choice Pay Plan” is a joke, and it is not a funny one. If you don’t achieve the MPG that they want you to (oftentimes 9mpg in the Rockies with the truck and trailer almost at legal limit) they will DEDUCT points from your pay plan. That in turn DEDUCTS your CPM. They say that these trucks will do the MPG that they desire. However they fail to mention the fact that the MPG is based on a truck in Kansas or Wisconsin that is an automatic with a light load. If you don’t arrive to a shipper or consignee at the time that they expect you to (often run you very close to missing those times) they DEDUCT points. If you don’t make it to the fuel stop that they want you to because you feel your trucks tanks are too low, they DEDUCT points. If you need anything other than regular service for your truck, they DEDUCT points. They ADD points when: you pay for your Haz-Mat, you get a passport, or drive into NYC. Roehl will DEDUCT your pay after two consecutive financial quarters if you have too many points DEDUCTED.

They’re safe to the point that it is unsafe. I have made a turn three times and ripped out the electrical box out of the trailer. Neither I, nor the people or mechanics (some of which are gainfully employed by Roehl) can find anything wrong with it. So apparently that makes me an unsafe driver? I struggle to wrap my head around that. If you use your brakes just a little bit harder than a ginger slow down they consider that a “hard brake”. You will have you stop and explain the situation to your dispatcher. Who will promptly say that it is your fault for having a vehicle pull out in front of you and that you should have been going 25 in a 45 to avoid that.

Other miscellaneous niggles:
• Home time is no guarantee. Don’t make Dr.’s appointments unless you have a week off. And you won’t have a week off unless you run a month and a half straight.
•As a “National” Driver, you’ll be lucky to see anything west of Minneapolis, and anything south of Atlanta
• Lots of small customers with Wonky hours. Lots of sitting waiting for them to open.
* Detention pay is bogus. If you have less that 20 hours on your 70, and end up doing a reset, or have to wait for a customer to open the next business day, you don’t qualify for detention pay.
• With these small customers you will very often be traveling small country backroads with nowhere to park, eat, or accomplish any other form of life’s necessities.
• They will take you backwoods ways to save 1.2 miles but in reality you have a lot more stopping and starting in small towns along the way instead of running a parallel highway.
• The miles appear good, but oftentimes you have to wait to get loaded or unloaded which burns thru your clock, then you have to do a ten hour down the road if you’re lucky enough to find a truck stop.
• You don’t get paid to secure a load, only to tarp it. No matter if it takes you five minutes, or five hours.

All that being said, the mechanics, some of the people you talk to over the phone, and the fuel pump inspection people are nice as a majority. However, I would not ever recommend this company to anyone who has a CDL.

If anyone has any questions about this company, feel free to message me. I will be honest and straightforward as that is how I chose to live my life.

Revision:
Yeah, they sent me on a run thru Joliet and the GPS, which we are not allowed to deviate from, put me on a bridge rated at 31 ton and I was at 40 T. Got caught up by a Sheriff 3 miles away and slapped with a 8k citation. The sheriff said it was Roehl’s ticket because he picks up 6-7 Roehl trucks a day going over that bridge and he was sick and tired of it. Roehl is saying that it is my ticket and the sheriff said it was Bullsh1t. He thinks they’re sticking me with it because I only had three days left on my two week notice. Just figured I’d warn y’all about their games.

Keep it between the ditches!