My time with Roehl Transport.

in the passemger seat and on duty while i was drivng. I was comfottable with that.

As far as per diem. I originally tried to get on per diem because I thought thats what they were gonna push too..

 

but they actually suggested premium in my case.

Sorry about seperating posts. I'm typing into a cell phone with limited space.

 

sleeping trainer right now, by flipping on lights and rummaging through the log book.

 

I was thinking last that I had been posting my experiences, but had not been posting some of things that I have been learning out here. I'm sure some of you are wondering how this whole Evo 1, Evo 2 and Evo 3 thing work.

I know that each trainer goes to "train the trainer" classes in Marshfield, and is "certified" by Roehl as a trainer. I do not know how long the classes are, but I like the fact that there is some training and certification that they must go through. Jeb was telling me about a few things. They had to take their instructors (who played the part of us ignorant students) and demonstrate that they could competently and patiently correct, and teach them how to become professional drivers for Roehl. He also mentioned something about class work and tests. I certainly can't claim that their training was thorough or top-notch, because I haven't been through it, but so far it has worked out to my benefit.

Ok, Evo 1 and my understanding of it.

This is basically, where you really find out what this whole OTR (over the road) truck driving lifestyle is really like. Roehl describes evo 1 as "Life on the road". I'll tell you flat out what you can expect from this career, and I have only seen a very very small part of it.

You will be

-living in a truck,
-eating crappy truck stop food (or peanut butter or bologna sandwiches),
-walking across urine saturated parking lots - some of these guys out here just don't care where they go or are too lazy to walk to a garbage can to throw out their urine bottles, so they dump them out the window. Some of these parking lots really stink,
-waiting patiently (sometimes for hours) til its your turn to load,
-waiting patiently (sometimes for hours) in the truck while loading,
-waiting patiently (sometimes for hours) for your turn to unload,
-waiting patiently (sometimes for hours) while you are being unloaded
-waiting patiently (sometimes for hours) for night and weekend dispatch to get back to you,
-waiting patiently in line for fuel while the guy in front of you decides he's gonna grab a shower while parked in front of pumps.
-waiting patiently (sometimes for hours) on the interstate during a traffic jam.
-hearing car horns because your too slow
-seeing middle fingers because your too slow
-driving up steep hills
-driving down steep hills
-cut off in traffic
-waiting for an empty shower
-away from your family for long periods of time

I know that I have only listed negative things above. I don't mean to insinuate that there is nothing positive about this career. I just know that this career has been romanticized in movies and country music, and I wanted to be clear to those who are thinking about trying it, that it is not all sunshine and lollipops. I found that out in less than a week. It's a job, and it requires real sacrifice, real responsibility (you are literally driving a machine of death, don't take that lightly), and real knowledge. When your new to this, it's much harder.

Sorry, went a little off track there. What was I saying, again? That's right. What are we taught during evo 1? You are learning how to back your rig in as many scenarios as are presented. Only this time, you will not just be squishing a cone if you screw it up. Straight line backing, alley docking, and believe it or not, there are actually situations where you may have to parallel park this thing. You'll also be learning to do a 45 degree back (this was new for me, but I guess that's what they stress at RTDC).

You'll be getting real experience at maintaining a 7 second following distance, watching your mirrors constantly, using the qualcomm (roehl calls it the "driverlink", but it's just a qualcomm), using the qualcomm codes at the correct time, hooking and unhooking trailers, cleaning trailers (it's primarily just a broom, but sometimes you have to pull up nails from the floor), reading the map, planning your trip, shifting up and down properly (for maximum fuel efficiency). That's really all there is to evo 1. I'll fill you in on evo 2 when I get there.

 

We rolled into the Gary terminal at about 0630 on Wednesday morning. After a quick call to my supervisor and finding out that I didn't actually have a trainer waiting for me, I walked into the maintenance office to see if I could snag me one of the rooms at the Roehl Ritz Hotel. They handed me a key attached to a long, lead pipe and said "room #5". I hauled all of my gear up there and settled down in the 55 degree room (apparently the a/c works really well) to await a phone call from a trainer. I didn't know if it was gonna happen in 5 minutes, 5 hours or 5 days, so I posted my last post (I try to take advantage of the internet whenever it's available), and slept for a few hours.

The phone rang at about noon and it was my brand new trainer, Gunther (You know the drill). He had just gotten loaded in Wisconsin and was heading to Geneva NY with a load of canned beets. He would be here in about 3 hours to pick me up. I went back to sleep.

I met up with Gunther about 3 hours later as I was turning in my room key. He's in his late forties and doesn't look like the stereotypical truck driver, except that he's a bit on the heavy side (There are some enormous men out here). We exchanged a couple of pleasantries and said he would be out back in truck number blah blah blah blah. As I walked toward the truck I saw him sitting in the passenger seat an was very glad that I had taken that nap. I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the that day, other than we got to know each other a little and once again I was paired up with a trainer that was gonna be easy to get along with. I drove to Angola, IN and he took us the rest of the way to Amherst Ohio where we stopped for the night. 630 miles for the day, I drove 139.

The next morning I drove first. This load was another tight load only because we were not gonna be able to route through Canada due to me not yet having a passport. I guess because of this, we were ok'd to run the toll roads all the way to New York. It was during this stretch of the drive that I realized "My ### really hurts". I don't know if it's intended to be that way so drivers don't fall asleep, or if it's just due to Freightliner trying to save money, but the seats in these things really leave a little to be desired. Anyway, I think Guenther was spending this time evaluating me. He kept writing stuff down and it was starting to make me a little nervous. After he took over driving, He finally confessed that he was indeed evaluating me. I'm happy to say that he had much more good to say than bad. My shifting had somehow magically improved on the trip up to Gary. I was running through my lower gears much smoother, and downshifting with little grind. I was apparently checking mirrors correctly, maintaining proper distance, and answering his qualcomm questions correctly. He said the only thing I needed to work on so far was reading all the signs. By the way. Navigating in the state of New York is a pain in the ###. They apparently have chosen not to conform with the nationwide standard of marking their exits to coincide with the mile markers. What's up with that?

We got to the consignee and I followed him into the shipping office feeling like a little puppy. My ego is telling me that I'm ready for this. That I no longer need to follow the trainers around and wait for praise and guidance. The ego says I'm ready to take this bull by the horns and move on. But the smarter side of me has a different opinion. I'm not ready yet (who could be after just 9 days?) I did however decide to take a little more control over my own training. As we headed out of the office I saw that he was heading toward the driver door. I told him that I would like to back it in, and he stepped aside and let me do it. I managed to complete a pretty good back, if I do say so myself.

We were given a preplan which deadheaded us 35 miles to Watkins Glenn for a load of salt. This is where the fun began. I drove us the 35 miles to Watkins Glenn and due to the fact that Guenther doesn't believe in GPS (and we didn't have a local map) we drove very slowly watching every sign so we didn't miss our turn and have to turn around. When we finally found the street we were looking for, it turned out to be one of those streets that intersects at a about a 40 degree angle and it was not angled in my favor. I remember looking at it and thinking "there's enough room, I can make this", but Gunther figured it would be smarter and safer to keep going and find a place to turn around. Of course, he was right. After all, the turn would have taken some time and it would have left the side of the trailer exposed to traffic too long and run the risk of a run under. What we didn't know, however, is that just around the corner there was a small town with very narrow streets which just happened to be holding a festival of some kind and now I have to drive through it. Did I mention that these streets were narrow? Well these narrow streets also provided me with a long line of parked cars up and down both sides to avoid. Oh yeah, and there was somewhere in the ballpark of 112 million people wandering the sidewalks and crosswalks. This is going to be fun.

"Turn Left here. Let's see if we can go down a block and come back around". After waiting through 3 red lights and one car after another pulling up past the stopping line and preventing me from making my turn, a very wonderful individual in a brown jeep wrangler stopped on his own green light to hold back the traffic so I could finally make that turn. I bow to this gentleman, Thank you. I get to the next street. There is no way to make that turn. Next street, same thing. More people crossing the street, more cars parked along the street, people are walking their dogs and even those dogs are looking at me as if to say, "Dude, are you crazy? What are you doing on these streets with that big thing? This is not good. I'm gonna have keep going and hopefully, this street doesn't cross a weight limited bridge or a short overpass. I start to cross my fingers and that's when I see it. A marvelous site shining like a beacon in the distance, calling me toward it. It's saying to me. "You are welcome to turn around here." and " Save Money, Live Better, Walmart". I get into the parking lot and get it turned around with no trouble.

At this point, Guenther makes me take a break and he hops behind the wheel. I was more than willing to make the trek back through town and I told him as much, but he insisted. We get pulled into the shipper and I send the arrival message on the qualcomm. After checking in. I once again insist on getting into the drivers seat. I got a two for one special on this one. Before backing to the dock, I had to back into a parking space to wait for our call to get loaded. It was a near perfect back. When the call came, they gave us a dock number, and it happened to be an indoor dock. So I had to back through a door, into a dark tunnel and then bump the dock squarely. Roehl has a number of acronyms that drivers can use to help remember things. One of these is G.O.A.L. Get Out And Look. I mention this because, as I'm backing through this tunnel, I can see the dock door behind me and I can see that I'm on target, but just a little bit to the right, but it was close enough that it would still work. Yet, something was telling me to get out of the seat and walk back there to get a closer look. I'm glad I listened to me. Just 3 feet behind the trailer is a 50 ft long 5 inch diameter steel guide rail that was attached to the wall. If I would have continued I would have made one hell of a dent in the back of that trailer. Another lesson driven deep into my brain. A quick pull up, slight adjustment and another successful dock. We scaled the load right there and we were out of there and back through that festival (but this time there were no turns). Now I'm off to Rockland, Maine and more nightmares.

I will say that between the two trainers that I have had so far, I think I liked Jeb better, but it happens that I got much better experience from my time with Guenther. And it's primarily due to 3 states and that little festival town. New York state was bad for navigating, you had to pay close attention to know where you are at any given time. The other two states are West Virginia (which comes later) and the state of Maine. Maine is an old state. It's roads were engineered long before anyone every considered the idea of big trucks with 53 foot trailers. And for some reason they felt that they had little need for interstates that run anywhere near the coast. Where do you think our delivery was. You guessed it. On the coast. We were routed up U.S 1 from Portland. To hear the name of the road you would think it's it's a big 4 lane highway with lots of room. Nope, It's more like a really long, paved trail. It goes through town after town after town, up hills, and down (I later found out that these hills are just tiny little babies). The directions in the routing said that we were going to be on this highway for 57 miles and our delivery was right on this road. That's not too bad. 57 miles, That's about an hour right? 93 miles and 3 hours later we finally get to the consignee. The building used to be an old train station or something. To get into the yard I had to pull down a fairly short driveway which intersected the highway at a 45 degree angle. At least this time the angle was in my favor. As I'm pulling down this driveway and looking out the driver window I see this enormous hole in the ground surrounded by a 8 to 12 inch tall concrete wall. It looked like it was what remained of an old silo, and the drop was probably about 10 ft. I was about to make a comment about it when I realized that the driveway was making a sharp turn to the left and if I didn't do something I was gonna have the drivers side of my trailer tandems hanging over that cliff. I managed to stay out of the hole but I didn't do it without running the trailer tires up on that wall. Phew, that was close.

The guy met me at the truck door before I could get out and explained that the loading dock was around the block. We had to find a way to pull back out onto the highway (which was going to take some manuevering) go down one block, and take a switchback corner (corner which turns at an angle greater than 90 degrees) and then either do a "u shaped back" from the street or find a place to turn around and do a blind side manuever into the driveway and then back to the dock. Guenther said "Why don't you let me do this, it's gonna get complicated". Now, I have already made up my mind that I'm gonna take more control of my training from now on, so I said. "No, I got this. I'm up to it." He said. "OK" Of course, him saying "OK" didn't mean that he was gonna sit over in the passenger seat and be quiet. Guenther seems to struggle just a bit with letting me do it and only offering advice when needed. I would actually prefer it, if he would let me get myself into a bad spot before correcting me. At least that way I would learn something, rather than just blindly following instructions. Anyway, I look over the situation and had laid out my plan of attack. I'm positive I can make it. Guenther offered another idea. And Yes, his idea was better. Begrudgingly, I opted for his idea. It was going to require more maneuvering anyway, and I want the practice. I get it back onto the highway, and start to make the switchback turn. No problem, plenty of room, and not much traffic. The backing maneuver was going to be a little different. Luckily, I was the only truck at the dock, so I wasn't going to have to avoid other vehicle, but I had never done a u-shaped back before. I couldn't believe that I did it so easily. It was like the trucker god's were smiling on me at that time. I only had to pull up twice (and I will argue that I only needed one, but Guenther insisted that I pull up and reset).

We got unloaded, and sent in the empty call so we could get our load assignment for the next run. We were picking up in Bucksport, ME and would be dropping it at the Roehl drop yard in BenSalem PA. This load wasn't much to speak of. I got another backing maneuver, a drop and a hook and drove through a few more tiny towns at 25 miles per hour. Although I will say that Bucksport has a pretty neat bridge that you need to cross when coming in from the south.

This was day 10 for me in Evo 1. As we got to our stopping point for the night. Guenther was looking over my workbook, and asking me a few questions. Then he said. "I'm kicking you out of Evo 1, You'll start Evo 2 tomorrow."

Now I'm pumped. I'm getting closer.


Miles

8/18/10 - 8/24/10 (evo 1)

Total Miles 2473
My Miles 1516

8/25/10 - 8/31/10 (rest of evo one and start of evo 2)

Total Miles 3524
My Miles 2113

 

We get to the Bensalem yard and drop the trailer off to be relayed at a later date, and then park for the night in the bobtail parking section of the lot. If you haven't been to the Bensalem yard, it is a terminal for another trucking company that leases space to other companies for parking trailers. However, they have done something very interesting with it. They have also turned it into a truckstop. Showers, TV room, Internet, Vending machines, Microwave, Restrooms, couches, Scale, and food (but the food is only available from 8 am to 6 pm). I grabbed a shower, made a post on here, and then hit the rack for the drive tomorrow.

This Load was due to be delivered in Evansville, IN and Guenther gave me a bit of a heads up about what was coming up for me. We were going to be going through West Virginia and West Virginia has lots of mountain grades. I had dealt with a couple of grades in Pennsylvania and North Carolina with Jeb. They didn't seem too bad. But Jeb wasn't a stickler about using the engine brake as little as possible. Guenther on the other hand didn't seem to like the jake brake very much (He said is screwed it up your momentum, yeah, WHATEVER??). That is not to say that he wouldn't let me use it. He did. He would just reach over and shut it off 3/4 of the way down the hill. Just to warn those of you who may not know, but the hills in WV are very decieving. Once you get to the bottom of the hill, It looks like you are now driving on level ground and most of the time it looks like your driving down a very slight downgrade. So I'm thinking I can put my foot to the floor just before coming up the next hill to build a little momentum to help get me up the next hill. But what I found out is that when you hit the accelerator going down the slight grade, it doesn't increase your speed at all. "You've got to be kidding me." "In West Virginia, even when your going downhill your going uphill???" So once again, Guenther was right, build your momentum at the bottom of the grade so it can carry you up the downhill section so you don't have to downshift before getting to the next uphill section. Did you understand that? I sure didn't. So I dropped my ego off on the side of the road, and started listening to Guenther more.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't remember much about the next few days. It's basically a blur of roads, bumpers, street signs and tail lights. I continued to get along well with Guenther and insisting on driving more miles and doing more backing maneuvers. I can, however, tell you what is in my log book. The load from Bensalem delivered in Evansville, IN. I can't even remember what it was we were hauling. But we then picked up a load in Tamms, IL at a mineral plant. This load was going to Marshfield, WI. I'm getting the feeling that I'm gonna be leaving Guenther behind and moving on with another trainer. We were hauling a 42,000 lbs of Silica Sand it was going to a door company in Marshfield. On the way up there we got notice that I was going to be dropped in the Marshfield Terminal after we made delivery and I was, indeed, going to be meeting up with my next trainer, Herbert, so he could "finish me off" (quoted from the qualcomm). I hope I have enough time to grab a shower and do some laundry before he gets there. And I hope he's as easy to get along with as Jeb and Guenther.