my 2 cents on Roehl

Wow, that's REALLY impressive!! I hope you're well now and things continue in such a positive light!

 

You could do a LOT worse than Roehl. Actually, for a new driver seeking experience it is probably the best place to start.

 

I am a new driver, interested in Roehl because I have to get a CDL and training. I plan on a year of OTR in some part of the country. No obligations or real estate to keep me here.

May I ask why you feel Roehl is especially good for new drivers? I have not spoken with them, but I did speak with Roadmaster this past week.

 

They offer good training at their driver training facility in Marshfield Wisconsin.
You have the option of paying for the school or financing through them. If you go through them, you are obligated to drive for x amount of miles to pay them back. If possible, I would recommend paying for training up front, if that is an option.
What I liked about Roehl is that they train you to do it correctly, and legally.
If you have no experience it is a good place to start. After training you are given decent equipment and you will go all over the country, most likely. Good experience, yes. Will it be all good? No. But you could do a lot worse than Roehl. Don't believe all of the pay talk and bonus talk, because unless you have a really good driver manager, you won't get what they claim. But they are a good place to start

 

I'm glad to hear this, as a student in school, I have been looking for a company to work for once I am finish. I applied at Roehl and orientation has been set for March 12. I am looking forward to get my CDL and lokking forward to driving for Roehl. I hope comments like this turn out to be true.

 

I will tell it like it is. I said it is a good place to START. If you are fortunate enough to have a good driver manager and your attitude is good and do not refuse loads, you will make decent money. Live on a budget while out on the road and work, work, work. It has been said in other forums that it gets much better with time. I put in 14 months and never realized the boost in pay, bonuses, etc. I was dispatched out of Gary, In. for 7 months and Ellenwood, Ga. for 7 months. I had one great DSR out of Ellenwood for 5 of those months there and life was good. After I lost this person life went back to you know what. I hear they have made changes there and hopefully things are better. There will be much waiting for loads, and the like. But, like I said, it is a good place to get experience. You can take one year of experience and then your options are much broader.
Good luck

 

Thanks for the comments and I will be dispatched out of Ellenwood too. I hope to get the good dispatcher that you speak of. I plan on trying to except all loads that i can run leagal and also plan to be a driver on a budget. I hope Roehl turn out to be a good company for me.

 

A good friend of mine just quit this company after being solo for 3 months averaging 1800 miles a week.

 

Many drivers think they are legal when they really are not because they do not read the definition of what is legal and how often it does not conform with driving for a irregular route carrier.

Your best bet would be lots of eta's and pta's and covering loads with the hours you have to get them out of the shippers yard instead of telling a OTR carrier with forced DP you can't do this and that. that just gets you on the b squad with the rest of the HOS complainers.

Unless the company has a policy of refusing loads you can't deliver on time, you cover the freight they need covered or get slowly starved out.

I ran my hours and pu everything I had hours to pu. The rest was up to the office who usually just said do the best you can or we will reschedule or repower the load down the road, just get it rolling.

If you run when you have hours to run, you can never be late and most loads have enough time on them if you don't trash around in the T/S playing video games. But don't think you will never have to tweak the rules to drive irregular routes unless you don't mind paying for it in the end.