Life After Roehl

Yep its the babying and hand holding that got to me the most. With my new company I choose my own routing and fuel wherever whenever needed.

 

That's too bad, it wasn't always like that. I was actually friends with the majority of my drivers and 5 years later I still keep in touch with 7 or so of them. If they have truly gone this direction that is a sad state of affairs. I would fight tooth and nail for my drivers, especially when a planner wanted to pin a service failure on them when they changed an appointment time two days into a trip. In fact I argued so loudly against it before that I was taken into a conference room because the planner didn't like the way I was placing the blame back on them, and it truly was their fault.

I'd questing everything, and that didn't always work so well for me. I questioned the MPG calculation and then dug into the number for my bottom 5 drivers and found inaccuracies at our terminals where drivers were getting charged double gallons. This would kill my drivers averages, so I'd fight against it. That got me in hot water because I asked who to reconciling the fuel usage at the terminals. If we were double charging some drivers, where was the extra fuel getting accounted too, and therefore the money for that fuel? I got knocked down a peg for the one and told to mind my own business. Since that time I've had a problem with numbers, I prefer to see the raw data to make sure the information being provided is accurate.

 

Exactly! Both my FM's talk and treat me like a child, it's absurd. I feel like goin off, but I thankfully don't have to put up with that any longer, with my new company I pick my route, my fuel, rider and pet policy, no governed trucks, new volvos, apu, and most importantly only 50 trucks and 46 drivers. I've already met the owner and a few people in safety and they are all real down to earth NICE people. I can't wait for this change.

 

Its happend to me several times and another driver I keep in touch with. My FM plays dumb to it, or me getting a service failure on a load I told them I didn't have enough time to get it there. Problem number 1 is communication

 

That's too bad, everything used to get a root cause analysis, by the FM, FOM, CS, CS-Manager, and Ops Manager. I know in flatbed, when I was there, they'd go back to your exact situation when the load was pre-planned or dispatched on the driver. Then look at the information as sent and decide if there was enough time. Going forward we'd look to see what kind of issues if any the drivers ran in to. If no, extended breaks, the driver was pretty much in the clear. If there was a change in the order that was not communicated from CS to FM it was a CS failure. If the communication made if from CS to FM but not to driver, it was a FM failure. If communication was not interrupted but there wasn't time to complete the dispatch it was a Customer failure. If the driver was delayed, traffic, weather, accident, etc., and this was not communicated to CS it was a FM failure, if it was communicate to CS but not the customer it was a CS failure. ETA/PTA issues were on the FM.

The only way a driver could be held accountable were extended breaks, or if they took a load through home and didn't come out on time.

 

I'm more of a literal type person so I don't see a glass half full, or half empty. I see half a glass of a water like substance. That means to some of you I hate Roehl because I don't drink the kool-aid. Others think that I'm a Roehl apologist because I will point out what they do well. What I try to do is post so that those who come here to research companies to drive for will get an accurate picture of the good, bad and ugly. Roehl does some things well and others not so well.

With helping owner/operators they pretty much fly by the seat of their pants. If they like you and you are still leasing a truck which means they own the truck, they will loan you all the gold in Ft. Knox. Otherwise you can twist in the wind. They need to get personalities out of running the business, loaning money or making advances should be a strictly business decision. I have not heard anyone complain that the lease program is a ripoff, or that they have been screwed on leasing a truck from Roehl. From what I can tell they offer the trucks at market value. There are better deals at other companies, but in most cases if you are already at Roehl you are better off staying put until you own the truck. The exception would be SNI Choice board. In the end an owner/operator should consider if a mileage based, dispatcher system is really the most profitable way to run a business.

From what I have heard Roehl has a pretty good system for taking brand new drivers and getting them up and running in their own truck. They are definitely a safety conscious company and the hand holding is great for new drivers who don't have a clue what they are doing.

Their hometime program is great for those who need predictable time with the family. I have not seen any other company with as many options as Roehl has. I was a 7/4 driver for over 2 years. I did this from the time my daughter was in 2nd grade through 4th grade and it was always a big deal to take me to the truck, or pick me up. These were great family events, usually with a stop at Imo's Pizza which we ate on the 2 hour drive home. In fact my wife has told me that she misses taking me to the truck and picking me up. There are also many semi-retired drivers on the 7/7 board. They don't need the money, but like getting out of the house (or is it the wife kicks them out?)

Right now miles are really bad and I constantly have to push, or they will give me the worst loads on the board. Marj has especially been bad about pawning off really short loads always with the excuse that that is all they have. Here is something I will never tell them since they would use it as an excuse- My miles have always been short during May and June. They usually pick up again starting in July and continue to improve through the first half of November. Just because I know and follow the trends doesn't mean I will allow them to get lazy and push any ole lousy load on me. Here's another news flash- there are public load boards that anyone can go to and see what is available. That information helps me to decide if I need to tell them they need to do better, or take whatever I can get.

Still I am running a business and I have been following a business plan. That plan has called for me to move from Roehl to either Schneider Choice, or Landstar. All along the timing has been either around October, or wait until after the holidays and make the move in January. Just as I believe their decisions about when to help drivers should be based on sound business practices and not personal feelings, my decision is also based solely on sound business goals and whether or not they are achievable at Roehl. Unfortunately they are not. Therefore it is only a matter of time until I leave.

One final thought, when looking at miles and making a decision to switch based on miles you need to keep some things in mind. First miles fluctuate, not just weekly, but monthly, quarterly and yearly. Don't just look at the weather, look at the climate. Second, what is the industry average for miles? Last I heard the weekly average was around 2300 miles per week. Compare what you are getting to that number. Last, how sure are you that the grass really is greener? I'm looking at becoming one of those smaller companies. As I prepare I can tell you the hardest thing is making sure I can pay well since I don't have the margin for error that larger companies have. You could switch only to find yourself out of work. Curry Ice & Coal had been around since the 50's and about a year after I left one day the drivers came in to find out that when the plates expired on the trucks they no longer had jobs. This was a company that had around 200 trucks. Just something to keep in mind.

 

I've never wanted to switch, my plan was to stay with Roehl, I love OTR and I love driving.
The fact is, with Roehl, I have not made ANY money, I went over all my pay stubs and about 80% were under 600. And quite a few being under 500 and under 400. My time here my highest one and only was just over 700. Like I said, first and last time I saw that. In my situation and with my personal opinion it's not very hard for the grass to be greener, I'm not super picky but there is no way I'll settle for what has been my average income with Roehl. I have done my research and have asked as many questions that come to mind, and I told myself, if I'm going to leave Roehl then it has to be a step forward, but the more I've been thinking and looking over things, that's not going to be hard, infact if Even I get the same low miles with my new company, I will still be making more each week.

Im im not worried about that, as I have talked to drivers who told me they are steady 2800-3200 wkly.
so in my case I'm very confident that the grass will be very green, (I'll have the money to water it) lol.
i can find plenty good about Roehl and I'm not bashing them, more of just stating my experience in the time I have been here. I believe it's a great starter company, and for those who find it the "right fit" then good for them. Everybody is different in what they expect and look for in a company. Everything else is just a personal opinion or somebody's real experience with them. Unfortunately, I've talked to drivers that have told me the same thing, which is.. It's taken Roehl years and years to build the good reputation they had and only 2 years for it to be on the downhill grade. And I do believe that. In order for my grass to be greener, I just need to make over 600. And be treated like a person, instead of a number.. And in my experience here, that's how I felt, and the money I've made has just been way too low.

 

I must be the luckiest driver in the company because I never have any of these issues. Never one service failure. If they drop a tight plan on me, I tell them it's tight and I can't guarantee the eta. I've never had an issue missing an eta or an appt as long as I communicate my progress. I've had 6 or 7 different FM's and lately 3 different BA's. Never had major issues with any of them. Some are more efficient that others, sure, but never anything we couldn't work out.

 

Sounds like when I first started, they were very helpful with me and if I couldn't make it on time because I was sitting for 6 hours getting loaded they would be very understanding on getting it switched around for me. I cannot say the same thing now, I've gotten 2 service failures on loads that I told them I couldn't make it on time BEFORE even sending in macro #59. How I was treated when I first started to how it was at the end, is night and day. Like I have said, this is a problem of communication, like I said I had 2 FM's until the other day when I was informed that I no longer have The same fm but a different one, and my fm never told me anything about him being unassigned to me.

 

I can understand the changing of fm's being frustrating. Sometimes they change things up without notice to the FM's. I can sense their frustrations as well. I'm sure Meltom can chime in here better than me, but I have pretty in depth conversations with a lot of my FM's, and from what I can tell a lot of the BS comes from over their head and trickles down, so it's definitely not all their fault. They just deal with what's coming down the pipe. Planners are the Gods and sometimes the FM's are completely caught in the middle and if they stick their heads out too far it gets chopped off. I once thought about trying the position as I have a pretty thorough management background, but from what I've seen from the outside looking in, I'm staying out of that rat race.