Roehl Drivers Beware

I worked for them for fourteen months. I ran the national fleet and the last 6 months I ran the southeast regional fleet. In the ads they claim 36,000-42000 dollars per year. I stayed out on average 11 to 14 days and home for 2 to 3 days. My w-2 for the first year totaled 26,179.44 for fiscal year 2007. I never turned down a dispatch. I was 6 minutes late for one appointment down in Florida at a grocery warehouse on July 11, 2007. I asked how to improve, how to get better runs or at least not sit for entire days waiting for dispatch. I had one good dispatcher in Ellenwood Ga. for a few months and I stayed busier. After that my miles went to ####. I left for greener pastures and found a job that I really like. I look back on my experience with Roehl with a great deal of anger, confusion and bitterness. In every aspect of their marketing they lie about mileage, bonuses, and the list goes on. If you are there or are planning on going there, note that you have been warned. The trainers are the main drivers that make money. They get paid for having you in the truck in addition to the miles they receive for the dispatches. You get nothing other than time in the seat and 65 dollars a day (unless that has changed since 2006). The trainers stay busy because they don't want the trainee's seeing how they will be sitting after they get their own truck. And if you think that all is Red and Rosy, why do you think there is an opening for new drivers at a company that is soooo wonderful. You will work for a while, and in time you will either quit or they will run you away to make room for the next 2500 dollar student or .30/per mile driver. That's where they make money: tuition and cheap driver pay. Go ahead. Get you some of the Big Red Machine. When you're done you will look back and remember that Homeboy told you first and told you the truth. Unless you know someone high up in Roehl or you are satisfied with slow dispatch, lots of sitting and meager, meager pay, you too will be looking for other work. I just hope you find a job as good and as different from Roehl as I have.
Good luck and be safe.

 

I won't pretend to know how Roehl will run you but I have worked for several OTR carriers in the past and can tell you that you will get this msg over your Qualcomm sooner or later when you are not ready to roll. We need your help running this load and have no one else to do it.

Now it seems like a simple answer legally because you are not ready. And remember ready does not just mean if you have hours. It also means that you are physically ready. Another thing to remember is that many of these companies preach safety but do not practice it when it means the difference between when they go home or keeping a customer happy.

As a piece rate driver telling some companies you can not legally do something is pointless because they already know you can't do it legally They want to know who is on the A team and who will be on the B team. And guess which one will make money when freight is slow?

When a new driver gets into the industry they have no idea how cut throat it is nor do they know how many ways a company can put you in the poor house with little effort. Making money and doing it legally is not always as easy as one thinks it is. Just remember that company pr and policy does not always translate into the realities of the job.

 

"your results may very", and, "You're the only one available to do it"
Both good advice and words I have heard from previous dispatchers. When I drove Limos in Minneapolis, always loved that one "You're the only one available to do it", especially when I was part time and we had several full time drivers who were not working and had been asking me how much work we had that weekend.
Also thank you HOMEBOY for the words of warning. I am not going into this totally blind, to prevent total newbyness I am here asking questions and seeking advice from the people in the know. I welcome advice and criticism as long as it is useful.

 

Hey all;

I just wanted to add my two cents worth in here!

You may not need to get all shook up about the word Terminated! Although everyone automatically sees the word "Terminated" and thinks that means "FIRED", it really is a word with many meanings other then this. Your company may have this as standard language for the end of employment no matter what the circumstance. If they fire you, they should give cause?

Terminated

1.
to bring to an end; put an end to: to terminate a contract.


2.
to occur at or form the conclusion of: The countess's soliloquy terminates the play.


3.
to bound or limit spatially; form or be situated at the extremity of.


4.
to dismiss from a job; fire: to terminate employees during a recession.


5.
to end, conclude, or cease.


6.
(of a train, bus, or other public conveyance) to end a scheduled run at a certain place: This train terminates in New York.


7.
to come to an end (often fol. by at, in, or with).


8.
to issue or result (usually fol. by in).


Not 100% sure how DAC works or if they have a certain set of regulations or standard words they allow for actions, but I would hope that if you were actually fired from somewhere, it would have to list cause of action.

Regards,

 

Look, don't be afraid. If you are starting out, Roehl is a great place. In my opinion it is the best place to start if you have to drive for a big company.

Roehl didn't fit me like a glove, but I still had a job and I was still running. It is just that each company has its downs and that rubs some drivers the wrong way. When I was a student I tried to start with Swift and that lasted 9 hours. No, that is not a good comparison, but you will not have the headaches that drivers from companies like that have.

If you listen to all the negative you will never get started. And you need miles. 1yr OTR at least 2yrs pref. My friend, these are tough times to be starting out so be prepared.

I was never forced to do anything illegal. They will ask something that is border line, such as what looks legal on paper but you know that you can not do it. Like trying to pick up a load in a major city back east when you only have enough time to get there. They will try to hustle you, but all you say is that they should have a talk with safety about why this can't be done. That will end the issue.

No company is better than the dispatcher that you get. Sadly this is true in more ways than you can imagine. I did not like mine, we had problems until the very end. Not all my other dispatchers were as bad. Some were with it and were pretty cool. However, I did have a si tdown with him and his supervisors, and you have a right to do this. This changed a great deal, he was less apt to hound me, and gave me my space.

These things that are spoken here are caveats that experienced drivers have, even the million milers don't like they way that Roehl has changed. Get your year in and then discuss the things that you do or don't like. But in order to find what you do or don't like you must get experience first.

There are better ways to get experience sure. Like riding with 'The Snow Man' from 'Smokey and The Bandit". But the rest of us have to go with a company. Roehl training is good place to start.

 

"There are better ways to get experience sure. Like riding with 'The Snow Man' from 'Smokey and The Bandit". But the rest of us have to go with a company. Roehl training is good place to start."

That is what I am learning, though with some trepidation. I chose Roehl primarily for three reason's. MY father was the lead mechanic at T\A Rogers, MN before it was a T\A. He suggested Roehl. I also worked there, met some of the driver saw the equipment and liked what I saw. Third, the point's brought up here on this site in general.

 

I was impressed with one of their trainers today. I was sitting in my seat wiping my dash down and seen where they were pulling up to spots and talking. Setting up for the back and getting out and looking at the different angles. When they got near me the trainer asked me if I was about to pull out. I told him no I am here all weekend. He said OK and they pulled up in front of me and got out and looked things over. The lot had a lot of empty spots and they were working all of them. I could tell the trainer was really investing himself into his student and I told him I am glad to see that he takes his job seriously.

 

The two trainers I had were really thorough. I give Roehl credit for having good people in the training dept., but beyond that....well, you're SOL.

You don't have a dispatcher, you have a DSR. They don't control what you do or how many miles you get, the planner does that. "I'll check with the planner" is an answer I got EVERY DAY. From what I understood I couldn't change planners, lol.

The planning was awful at Roehl, that was my major HEADACHE every day. Twice a week going to go pick up loads that another driver had picked up already the last month I was there would just drive me nuts. After doing 50 - 150 miles deadhead, then having to wait another couple of hours for another dispatch that hadn't been picked up already with more deadhead would kill a day and my week when it happened as often as it did. The planning is something that really needs to be worked on.

LOL! I remember one day deadheading 160 miles to a load that already got picked up, informed DSR ("I'll check with planner"), 3 hours later "beep" and a new dispatch with another 150 miles deadhead, live load, 350 loaded miles, and then live unload, then an unwanted 34hr reset with the "no freight" message. A whopping 660 miles in 4 days # .30 mile with a lot of HEADACHE involved. $49.50 a day to sit in that big red truck far away from home. I made more a day working with the trainer, lol!

I won't dog Roehl into the ground like you see a lot of posters say about their companies on here, just the reality of my experience there. But it IS NOT the angel of starting companies that people on here make it out to be. 2700 - 2800 tractors and still a big turnover. I can't count the number of people JUST ON HERE (online, on this site, let alone the people that go there newbies that never have seen this forum) since I've left that praise the recruiters at Roehl for getting them into orientation so they can get their very own big red truck to replace those that have quit, uh hem, I mean terminated, lol!

Good luck and may you do better there than I did.