Anyone looking for CURRENT info GYCDL program at Roehl

Been here going on 6 months. Went through the GYCDL program and would be happy to provide current and accurate information if anyone has any questions

 

Heres the break down for the GYCDL program which is broken into several phases.

Phase 1 is the program itself. The 4 main training terminals are Conley, Appleton, Marshfield, and Gary. What terminal you go to is partly determined by fleet and availability. Appleton and Conley train Dryvan while the other two do both but mostly flatbed.

Once you have your CDL you begin Phase 2. You must be on your trainers truck a minimum of 19 days and complete no less than 5 loads without their help with the exception of driving. Each trainer runs their truck differently but at the same time you will also be assigned your Fleet Training Manager who will call you several times a week and cover stuff your trainer should be teaching you. Your trainer will also contact this person and provide feedback. This FM will be your FM during the 3rd phase.

Once you pass your check ride and are assigned your own truck they will immediately route you home for hometime. Once your done you begin Phase 3. Basically they start assigning you solo loads. How well you do depends on you. But the expectation is mostly just learning time management and your Fleet Training Manager helping you. Eventually you will start talking to them less and less and your regular Fleet Manager will just start taking over.

I'm on the National Dryvan Fleet. Most of our freight is East of I35 with most of it being Midwest, NE, and SE. I do see Texas every now and than but we have a Texas regional fleet that runs out of Dallas and they run all the Texas to Texas stuff. Youll.mostly get the pick up in Texas and take it somewhere in another region. During the week whatever region you end up in expect to run regional until about Friday. On Friday when all the regional and local guys are going home expect to be near a drop yard or terminal and you will take the load they relayed (means dropping a loaded trailer) and delivering it in another region.

I average 3,000 to 3,500 miles every week. The key to being successful here is not.going home every 11 days. If you do you'll be like all the other drivers who complain about low miles and paychecks and cant figure out why they run the same place over and over. You schedule your hometime in advance. The planners see it so when you go home every 11 days they will only keep you close to home so they can get you home. I stay out about a month to 2 months at a time.

Now lastly, they recently overhauled the pay. They currently offer 2 types of pay plans. They now have a pay plan which pays like a traditional company meaning your pay doesnt fluctuate. Everyone here is scored on performance. The higher your perform the more money you make. To get yourself on the old pay plan which pays the most you have to earn your way on it. I achieved a level 10 my first quarter and will be on it starting in May. I'm projected to be right at a 10 again which gets me a 4 cent raise and a bonus. If I achieve it again my 3rd quarter I achieve silver status which means my pay cant drop because I'm locked in. Honestly it isnt hard to do well. I dont do anything special. Just do tons of miles and deliver on time. I always meet the fuel goal for the quarter as well.

The only complaint I really have is lack of freight in the West for Dryvan. And every now and than especially when your in Wisconsin you get a bunch of short loads but you can talk to your FM and they will take care of it. Normally you will have to do about 2 or so a week and they generally give you a really long load to make up for it. This past week that wasnt the cass but my FM took care of it immediately.

 

Also how quickly you finish your contract is up to you. The people who bad mouth Roehl honestly probably wouldn't do well at any company. They really value hometime here and if you spend more time at home than on the road you arent going to see the miles or pay. Generally I take home over 1,000 a week and I'm at the lowest pay level still. But of course it varies from week to week based on how the loads fall, when you left home, etc. People only see their paycheck they dont see how many miles they actually ran in their 7 day period. So if you leave home on Wednesday your week would be Wed-Wed not Wed to payroll cutoff on Saturday.

 

I waited like a month but that was also my choosing since I wanted to give my job ample notice. It's my understanding that in the winter there arent nearly as many students rolling through as summertime. Last time I was in Marshfield they only had 4 students compared to the 12 students coming in per week. That was 4 students total. I know Conley has the smallest classes of all the terminals, Appleton is partnered with a local college (dont know much about that), Gary and Marshfield seem about equal. Honestly if your national van you will see Gary the most that is kind of our biggest and busiest terminal. I usually see Conley when it's time to go home. Marshfield I rarely see and I am okay with that. It's not exactly the nicest of all the terminals but it beats Iron Mountain.

We have terminals in the following areas:

Pheonix (all flat bed), Grand Prairie (pretty much all van trailers, TX regional and local guys run out of there), Iron Mountain, Gary, Marshfield, Appleton, and Conley. We also have drop yards all over the place. Some are actual drop yards and some are at customers who we pay to drop trailers at or dealerships like the one we sometimes use in Indy.

 

I want to mention that this week I somehow managed to get 3 1,000 plus mile loads. We do have long loads here but the average haul is usually shorter than 500 miles

 

My friends that are flatbed love it. They have a TON of Westcoast runs. Of course there is a learning curve to flatbed but they all make good miles. Personally it's not my cup of tea but we have lots of coast to coast runs. You'll hear it at the terminal also. The ones complaining are the ones going home every 11 days and than wondering why they dont get miles. Roehl is one of the few trucking OTR companies that doesnt make you stay out for weeks at a time. They are generous with hometime but let's use common sense. I live in Florida they arent going to send me to say CA k owing that in 3 days I need to be home. They are going to keep me somewhat busy but at the end of the day they care more about getting you home on time than you getting miles. Now if you stay out 28 days for example they will run you off up until your last week so you only get one bad paycheck so to speak