Reohl Refrigerated is a mess

It's almost as if there are two Roehls out there. One good, and then the evil twin.

I have had some bumps here and there, but overall I can't complain too much. I don't sit a lot (though I am salary), I get home when I ask, and they treat me with respect.

It's frustrating because I like it here, but then I see my brothers and sisters getting treated poorly and that obviously brings the overall reputation of the company down.

I wish everybody up in Marshfield would get on the same page. Roehl has the potential to be a good company, they just need to unembed their collective corporate head.

 

I had heard that before the tenure of son Rick that Roehl was a good company to work for as a driver. I suppose economic pressures as well as family greed have played a part in the overall decline of the driver friendly company, as well as the continued decline of the image and perceived importance of the truck driver. I have been told that drivers are a dime a dozen and are as dispensable as tissue paper. This was heard at the Ellenwood yard from a member of management. For whatever reason, there are fewer and fewer good driving jobs left and the large carriers are not the place to look for a good job, in my humble opinion.
Next!!!

 

I have never been accused of being a company cheerleader but I feel compelled to stick up for them here. Rick isn't the problem as far as I can tell. I haven't detected any family squabbling either. Everett seems to have done a decent job raising his kids. My beef is some of the chuckle heads that have been brought in from other companies. They seem to be the source of all my frustrations. As far as having heard "The management person at Ellenwood" speaking ill of drivers...Ellenwood isn't really a bastion of upper management. Second if you didn't hear it personnally then quite frankly I doubt it was said. Sounds like typical driver BS to me.

 

for a company that'll make you go broke, I grossed about $1k last week.[/quote]

I must agree,I am on the verge of bankruptcy because of Roehl. I drove van.Roehl just doesn't have the freight for the number of van drivers they have. I understand that your a flatbed driver. So maybe you guys are doing better.
I drove the 7/4,7/3 for 5 months and got between 2500 and 2800 miles a week.I switched to National going out 11 days under my wife's protest. Trying to make more money. I did that for 2 months getting under 3500 miles for 11 days away from my family on average. Finally enough was enough. I tried to cancel the family insurance to gain that extra $80 bucks a week. But Roehl has there junk insurance set up inside tax guide lines which forces employees to keep it til the end of the tax year.
My family can't survive off of $450 or $500 a week. And thats Mcdonalds money to be away from your family the way truck drivers do.
I have now found a better company that fits my families needs. I am actually driving and making money instead of sittin in truck stops waiting for loads. I run 5 days out with 2 days off. Making .36 cents per mile for a Regional run instead of the lousy .30 cents Roehl wanted to pay me.
Thats right newbies get your traing from Roehl.They are good for that.Nice people. But nice people don't pay the bills. Get your training. And move on after 6 or 8 months. Take what you've learned and get a real trucking job.Some where else.

 

I was one of the first people to jump on the reefer side when Blume was bought out.
Yes, most of their trailers were junk. Some of their trucks were too, but alot of them were pretty nice.
The reefer freight was pretty good at first. You would load pizza, cheese, etc out of WI and then run out and drop it. I mostly went to TN and PA. You would then call a broker for a run back to WI to reload.
Good miles for the first 6 mo or so.
I then found out that Roehl was putting Kraft loads going to PA on trains because it was cheaper. Ok.....I can understand that......
After this, my miles went WAY down. So did all the other reefer drivers I talked to. Most of the drivers I spoke with were getting around 2000-2200 miles a week. I lived with this for awhile.
What broke the camels back, so to speak, was them not getting me home on time for two MONTHS in a row! So much for "guaranteed" home time. I always told them when I came out of the house when I wanted to be home again. I usually ran 11/3 and sometimes longer to get the extra day off.

The biggest problems are the lack of freight, and the lack of planning. There seems to be no pre-planning at all. I would sit for 2-3 hours sometimes waiting for a pre plan. I was always on time and had no damages.
I have a shipper 30 miles from my house that sends 6 loads a week to Marshfield. I picked up one load to get me up there and yet they kept complaining they had no freight in my area.
The van side and the reefer side just don't talk to each other. Solve that problem, and you will solve a lot of other problems.

 

Yeah, I just sit around making this stuff up. It gives me something to do on my evenings and days off. And whether Ellenwood is a "bastion of upper management" or not, they still are responsible for the southeast region drivers, as well as others, of which I was a part for a while, and that attitude was reflected in more ways than a conversation. Yes, problems run throughout that company, but with all of the turnover I'm sure that someone is aware that something is awry, and Rick is "The Man". If he's in charge then he is responsible, perhaps not solely, but ultimately.
Good day

 

Ok, you claim I'm the minority for the fact that I rarely wait on loads and get decent miles. Now, would you mind backing that up with some proof? Not the 5-10 drivers you ran into while at truck stops complaining to you about not getting miles (most likely not getting miles because of the complaining to dispatch).

 

Ya know I really thought I phrased that carefully. I was willing to take you at face value if you yourself heard this aforementioned disparaging remark. If you knew a guy who's brother heard somebody say it then...I am less inclined to believe it. Back to my point about terminal management they really are impotent. All power is derived from Marshfield. It is shocking just how little any terminal can do about anything. This goes for all of our terminals. From the research I've done into outfits such as yours and others that are similar it is a whole different world. Each terminal acts as its own little fiefdom.

As far as turnover goes and let me be very clear that I do not agree with the approach that is taken not much has changed. It is no better but no worse than it ever has been. Management has made many stabs to try to solve it but they seem to keep stepping on their own johnson. All these flex fleets that are so popular came about in an effort to make more people happy. We have more regional fleets than one Can shake a stick at. Heck when I started there were two choices national or south east regional. Problem was those fleets came at a cost to the national guys. You figure dang near half the company always seems to be needing to get home. This tends to suck up a lot of what used to be good runs. Also I have found that most people don't seem to quit over one big event but rather the slow steady buildup of minor aggravations(Sound familiar?). I think many of these things could and should be dealt with at the dispatcher level but due to our top heavy management people's hands tend to be tied. I don't have all the answers if I did I dang sure would have a much fatter wallet. Hell I would even let you have some of the 100's after I used them to blow my nose, but that's me, I'm a giver.

Again I am sorry if I gave the idea you were making things up.

 

Stop fighting, you two! Roehl is tearing this family apart.

*runs off to room and slams door*

 

there, there tater we ain't fightin' we just having a spirited debate.