Roehl - Some Quick "Inside Questions"

Personal Appearance - Are goatees / bald heads allowed?
Doesn't seem to be an issue from what I have seen. Have even seen pony tails. The main thing that was expressed to me was to be presentable. Decent clothes, don't look like a slob.
Slip-Seating - How BAD is it, REALLY? (7-4/7-3)
Have not heard any gripping about it. Most drivers clean up after themselves when getting out of the truck. Just one of those unwritten common curtisies.
Management - Are you micro-managed once you prove yourself?
Forever by a Qual comm, go over 67 mph and it beeps and records the amount of time reflected in a % against your total drive time. As well as idle time and mpg. All the things most companies watch via Qual comm. From the beginning once I got issued the tractor it has been pretty much hands off. I watch the things that I know they are watching, pick up and delivery on time, if I can't they get a notice that I can not way ahead of time, not 1 hour. If you do what they expect, which is known up front, you will feel like the Lone Ranger out here.
Tips - Anything else you can add that hasn't been said on here before?
I do not know if it has been said or not on here. Too much to remember it all. Roehl is not a perfect company. They have people running it and some are better than others. Overall it seems like a good place to start ones trucking career and not be pushed to run illegal and supported when you will not, and will be late to deliver or pick up. The company seems to be real good at pinching pennies, however one can learn from that as well, for example changing your own fuel filter. The way I see it, it is a trade off, I got my foot in the door, I am gaining experiance every day. My pay has always been right and in the bank every Thursday. Could I make more money driving a truck or be at a better company. YES!! However none of those companies will take me till I have the required experiance. Are there worse and lower paying companies. SURE!! The bulk of them being training companies which practicly every one gets blasted on here.

You got to pay your dues somewhere to get going and Roehl is not a bad place to cut your teeth.

Best of luck to you in your choice and career.

 

Heres some more of the same. Goatees and bald heads. The only thing they had anything to say about was personal hygene.,Look neat and take a shower regularly. Every company watches your moves closely thru the Qual Com. All ya gotta do is do your job right, Dont speed, although the trucks are governed at 65 MPH,it is easy to get up to 70 on a downgrade,I always kept the jake brake turned on and touched the brake pedal while going down a hill. This will normally keep it close to 65 MPH.They watch your logs very closely,however if your logs are off they will notify you and you can take care of it and find out the problem by makng a phone call,unlike Swift where they pull you off of the road for a couple of days, send you to a log class, and never inform you what the problem is. Deliver the freight on time,and you always have plenty of time to get it there on time. You will find that the personell at the terminals are very friendly and helpful,this includes the mechanics who work on the equipment. I have driven for about 6 companies in my driving career, and Roehl is by far the best.

 

Oh Yeah,on the slipseating. I was on the 7 on 7 off program,and it worked out very good. Just me and another guy using the same truck. I always cleaned the truck after my 7 day trip, and the other guy cleaned it out good too.So my experience with slipseating was a good one.

 

As you can see from the posts on here, Roehl doesn't get too many negetives as compared to the other training companies. You will find they are not perfect, however they will work very hard to keep you happy and pulling for them. I have never found a job in my lifetime that didn't have some difficulties. Trucking is no differant. You have to be a good self motivator in my opinion since you are out there by yourself so much. If you kick yourself in the butt a couple times a week wonder why you got your CDL and wanting to quit, then a couple times a week pat yourself on the back for jumping in, then it is all normal and part of growing into life of trucking.

Once again best of luck to you!

 

Oh and another thing, LOL every 7/7 driver and/or 7/4/7/3 driver I talk with get good miles for the 7 days out. It is usually 3,000 plus or darn close. It is understandable why they want to keep those fleets and drivers happy since the trucks never sit like mine does when I come home being on a national fleet program.

 

I guess if you want to drive only 5000- 6000 Miles a month, slip seating would not be that bad. But who takes the time away from getting miles by doing things such as maintaining the truck?. What if you get a driver who abuses the equipment while you are home and it breaks down on your shift? or maybe the truck is new and you seem to be the one who always has to get the bugs ironed out of it. What if the other driver wrecks the truck, what kind of down time would that cause?.

Does a solo who does not go home every week get dumped on because they have to get a part timer home to meet the other driver?
The logistics of having all these different kinds of operations going on would suggest someone is getting the shaft. Thats why I don't work for a outfit that has a large fleet of special needs drivers like teams. I was tired of getting shafted so the company could keep them happy at my expense.
If they are a separate operation thats fine, if not solos are already. DP behind teams, O/O, Lease drivers and training trucks. Add 7/7 or 7/3 drivers to that and it could make for alot of extra work for a Solo driver at this company to get the same miles they could get easier somewhere else.

If your a special needs driver it sounds like a good place to work from what I have heard mostly. I don't see any Roel trucks out here on I-5 so I guess they must run back east mostly.

 

bigblue19,yeah if your gonna run 7 on 7 off your gonna get about 6000 miles a month. Thats all some people want.It was perfect for me being semi retired. Most big outfits do run tream operations,and yes they will get most of the coast to coast runs due to the time factor.A solo driver can only drive so many miles in a day, whereas a team can run twice as many miles.So it makes sense to put teams on the long runs.As a 7 on 7 off driver I averaged a little ovwer 3000 miles in 7 days and that keeps you moving pretty good.If you are driving national and run that many miles the old log book is gonna catch up with you and your gonna have to sit for 34 hrs. somewhere.I know I used to run anywhere from 3000 to 4500 miles a week ,back in the good old days, but the companies now watch your logbook very close.If you log everything properly after 3000 miles in 7 days you aint gonna have very many hours available.So yeah the 7 on 7 off trucks can average 3000 miles a week for the company,which aint too bad I still hear these drivers standing around the truckstops bragging that they are running 5000 miles a week.I just sort of smile and say YEAH RIGHT.