Leaning Toward Roehl

I heard Rick(y) was on vacation...and something about being stuck in a snowstorm.

 

It's best to go with one of the hometime fleets, regional, or flatbed fleet. Van national fleet is the absolute worst to be in right now as far as my recent experience proved. I wanted to try and switch but I lived 180 miles from Atlanta outside the SE regional and the 7/3, 7/4, 7/7 area and had no desire of doing flatbed.

I posted in another Roehl thread that I just got an hourly paid local job M-F and home every night and quit Roehl last week. It's gonna be nice getting overtime pay when I go over 40 hours in a week! Roehl treated me good, my 2 trainers were professional, and I was always home on time within 24 hours of when I requested even if there was alot of deadhead involved.

The only complaints I had were the poor planning and Van National fleet getting "leftovers." The last month and a half I couldn't get over 2k miles a week to save my life no matter how hard I tried even when I stayed out for 3 weeks at a time. Talking to other Roehl drivers at the terminals, truckstops, customers, etc. it was becoming apparent that the hometime fleets, honor program employess (hourly paid), and trainers were all still getting over 2500 miles a week and alot more! They were priority over Van National drivers.

One Example: After unloading at a customer recently, a 7/7 driver and a trainer/student team were waiting for a dock still after I was empty and I had asked them if they were preplanned out of there; "not yet". I went down to a close by truckstop after getting the message "freight is slow in that area, check back later." The two other trucks pull into same truck stop after a couple of hours and I talked to them and told them I was still waiting on work. Both of them sat for only a couple more hours then they both got loads, gave me the ole "nice to meet ya", and they were gone on their next assignment. This was about 1 p.m. when they left.

I sent another message off asking why I got empty first and they got loads out of there. "Don't know, will check with planner." Never got a straight answer back. I spent the night there and finally got something at 9 a.m. the next morning. I never gotten lied outright to about them giving other fleets or trainers priority but never could get a straight answer either. I gotta pay my bills too!!!

This scenario played over and over again at customers and sitting empty at terminals with other Roehl drivers and me, didn't matter how fast I got unloaded or if I was first, if other driver wasn't van national, he would be long gone while I would get "no freight" messages. If he was national, then I would leave first and he'd be sitting there still.

If you go with Roehl, DO NOT go into van national right now, the leftover freight is scarce! You WILL get miles and you WILL make more money on the 7/3 7/4 or as a parttime driver on the 7/7, and flatbed it seems right now too. When you are with a trainer, you WILL NOT sit. They like to make the student think there is more work than trucks.

As far as the Gary terminal goes, I've never felt unsafe there or heard of any problems. There's alot of lighting and traffic in and out of there at all times and it might be kind of hard for a crackhead to climb that high fence they got all around it. LOL! It's good they have a terminal in the Atlanta area and in Gary, it gives you a safe place to stay when you go into those areas when other drivers have to stay in the area truck stops. This is a big plus in my mind.

Roehl was decent in their treatment of me, barring the complaint I had above about not being able to get work when freight slowed but other fleets within the company could still get all the miles they wanted. These other fleets hurt national drivers, whereas a company like Crete for example is first empty, first to get assignment in the area.

News just announced yesterday that october's job loss was over 220,000 jobs last month, and that one of the major automakers may fail soon sending another 1 million jobs in the tank along with suppliers, small biz, etc. BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT YOUR PICK OF CARRIERS AND FLEETS WITHIN. It looks like it's gonna get worse before it gets better. I really hope not! Good luck and be safe everyone.

 

Correction, Roehl's Honor Program employees are on a bi weekly salary I think. The are NOT payed hourly.

 

I just spoke to recruiting, they looked up my application and it said that I was declined employment at this time. No explanation, just "declined". If there is some kind of black mark on my MVR or previous job history - I need to know what it is so I don't waste my time applying for companies that have strict hiring guidelines! I emailed the lady in the hiring dept asking for an explanation... we'll see what happens....

 

Sometimes I think they do it on purpose. I think it is a test to see how you react to things, or see if you really want the job. Could be a way of screening out hot heads.

 

Dudeman,

Same happened to me last week. I know for a fact that I have no dark clouds on my record other than a 26 yr. old DUI (at the age of 19), and unfortunately I have been unemployed since mid-May. First time in 27 years of my working life.

I discussed it with my trainers and advisor and they told me to have a one on one with the field recruiter (he came to school yesterday morning). After reviewing my application, he gave me the extension of his internal recruiter. I left a courteous message yesterday afternoon, explaining that the field recruiter instructed me to call to see if there was anything that I could provide that would allow my application to be reconsidered. Haven't heard anything back, but really did not expect to on a Friday.

My understanding of the process is that the applications are screened by committee, and I'm sure that they have some pretty high volumes coming through their offices.

I have received a pre-hire from Conway Truckload to attend training and orientation on either 12/8 or 12/15. From other threads on this site, Conway is very professional and supportive of their drivers and stress safety the same way the Roehl does.

Maybe a talk with your advisor or instructors could help?

Best to you,
CaptK

 

I to am considering driving ... I have been a real estate broker the past seven years but for the past two I've become broker and broker
Anyhow I've been reading these boards for weeks as I have been preparing for CDL school. Seems these boards are not much different from the Cleveland Browns insiders boards ... lots of negative posters and lots of positive posters.

In either case information is information and I appreciate all that share. I have also been loolking at Roehl to apply to once I start school ... but thats a way down the road. (no pun intended)

Best of luck in training and once again thanks to all that answered the original poster.