Comments By Onsdag

I hired on with Roehl through their GYCDL program 26 months ago now. I'm still with them and going strong. They are a fantastic company to get started with, and they'll help you have a rock solid foundation in this industry - as long as you do your part and put in the time and effort required.

In response to PJ's question: I had never heard of Roehl either. In preparing to get my CDL I came here to truckingtruth.com, studied, took the practice tests, and eventually got my learner's permit. I then sent out a blanket application through truckingtruth.com, and Roehl was one of the first ones to reach out to me. I'd never heard of them before, but looking into them, their reputation for safety, and especially their records as seen on the fmcsa website, I liked what I saw and decided to go with them. I couldn't be happier with that choice.

That being said, there have been challenges along the road. As I'm sure there are with any company or situation in this industry. Likewise, I'm sure you'll find similar high calibre companies throughout the industry to get started with. Just take a look at the high calibre of people on this website with backgrounds with many different companies.

I'm certain most good companies who value their (future) drivers are going to invest as much as they can into the success of those they hire. If you value yourself and others you'll want to do the same and put forth your best efforts to help make it successful too.

Good luck and enjoy the ride!

Interesting. I assumed your DAC report was only kept by and accessible through HireRight. So, if there are multiple companies that may or may not have a DAC report, how does one find out which one to request info from?

A few months back I had a random drug test. Never having done drugs there obviously was no issue, but that, and wanting to see what else it contained, sparked my curiosity and I later requested my DAC report through HireRight. I was completely baffled however when the report they gave me was blank. As in non-existent. This confused me because I thought the DAC report was the go-to resource that companies went to to find/report anything and everything about a potential employee.

I pressed HireRight for details, because surely there should have been something, anything, in it. After doing some more digging they came back and gave me a background check from a former (non-cdl related) employer from several years ago. But nothing from my current employer of 2 years now. No hint of previous employment from the past 10 years (other than the one that had requested a background check). No drug test results, not even from the screening process of becoming a truck driver. No credit reports or other financial information. No driving records (granted, I have a clean record). No results from any DOT inspections I've had (3 now).

But maybe I'm confused about what exactly is the DAC report, and what it does or doesn’t contain?

Yeah, I called safety and asked them about it. He said to just keep logging it as I do it. I can't be nailed on any violations if my logs are accurate and legal. And if they do claim a violation that's not there we can easily fight it. While it may be true that many officers aren't going to quibble over minor differences between sleeper berth and off-duty status, there are some who may be sticklers and it's best to just log it correctly in the first place to avoid problems.

I've been with Roehl for nearly two years now and just this past week I've been upgraded to a new truck - a 2025 Freightliner Cascadia. Sweet!

One issue I've come across though... Whenever I do a pre-trip, notably the alarm and button pop test, the truck enters a "Hold" mode and doesn't release air (or only in the smallest of increments) to the brakes. I have to sit there pumping the brakes like crazy for 3-5 minutes waiting for all the air to drain to ensure the alarms activate and the buttons pop. By the end of which my leg is seriously getting sore and starting to cramp. I'm pretty sure this is a new safety feature to prevent losing all your air, which sounds great on paper, but it sure makes doing the brake test portion of a pre-trip a right chore.

Is this what's going on? Is there a way around this? No matter if I pump the brakes slowly or quickly it always enters this "Hold" mode state. I've asked maintenance and they're baffled by it as well. So far the only way we've been able to bypass it is to leave the truck running and shift it into gear, then pump the brakes and whenever it enters the "Hold" mode then push the accelerator which deactivates "Hold" and then continue pumping the brakes before it locks up again. Back and forth. This is of course not ideal as that's not how you're supposed to properly do the brake test, and while the truck is running it's building up air pressure which defeats the purpose of the alarm and button pop test, but it's all we've come up with so far. The maintenance guy said he'd get back with me when he finds an answer, but so far it's been several days and no word (he may have forgotten).

Thoughts?

So yesterday I pull into the Casper, Wyoming weigh station, get scaled and am signaled to pull off and bring my paperwork in. No biggie, I know everything is in order and this should be a quick verification of IFTA or something. Well, the officer asks me when the last time I've had a level 3 inspection. It's been a fair bit. No worries though, and in gact I'm actually happy now because as I said everything is in order and this should be a quick $30 (company bonus for passing a level 3 inspection).

Turns out to not be so quick and simple. They end up keeping me there nearly an hour because as they're checking my logs they get super suspicious that there's some kind of funny business going on and they decide to comb through every little detail minute by minute. In fact the officer performing the inspection calls her supervisor and they both start questioning me on what's going on.

The problem? I log everything as I do it. If I leave the truck for a quick bathroom break I go off-duty break. If I'm inside the truck and not working then sleeper berth it is. They see all the times I'm changing my duty status back and forth and they're convinced I'm doing something shady trying to cook the books or something. Nope. Just doing my job as I've been taught.

There's 4 officers there, including the supervisor, and they tell me they've never seen anybody do that. The supervisor then strongly advises me not to be doing that as it could cause some serious issues - especially as it can easily cause split sleeper berth violations, which is what they were looking for. I assured them I only ever take a 10 hour break and don't mess with split sleeper berth. Still, they again strongly urged me not to be changing my duty status so often and that if I need to use the bathroom or leave the truck for anything under 15 minutes to just stay in sleeper berth. I was truly dumbfounded by this recommendation from them and expressed my concern of an officer accusing me of falsifying my logs if I were to be caught taking a bathroom break while being logged into sleeper berth. They didn't seem concerned about it and again stressed not to be changing my duty status unless I'm going to be taking longer than 15 minutes, such as to do laundry or something.

After nearly an hour of scrutinizing all my paperwork and elogs they finally let me go with their seal of approval.

What is everyone's thoughts?

As for me, I plan on still logging everything as I do it.

Advanced backing training during month 4 of TNT?

This is a good example of why a driver should G.O.A.L. Those stantions, poles, boulders, walls, and bollards are hard to see, especially after dark.

Can somebody explain how that could happen? Was it during backing? I can’t figure it out.

It looks to me like a yard jockey is at the helm. My best guess is some kind of backing maneuver. I've seen where if someone is trying to back up an empty trailer while the trailer brakes are set (i.e. sliding your tandems with the pins still locked) it'll cause the trailer itself to lift up a foot or two. Maybe something like that happened and the trailer came to rest on top of the pole? *shrug*

How long had you been driving at speed prior to the intersection slow down, stop, and getting back up to speed?

How long had you been pulling this particular trailer?

Was it loaded or empty?

I had been driving for about an hour. I had just picked up a D&H load from Schreiber in Richland Center, WI, and I was southbound on the US-61 truck bypass near Lancaster, WI, turning left onto US-61 S.

I was stopped for 2-3 minutes waiting for traffic to clear before making the turn. Got up to my typical 10 mph to make the turn when I saw the truck coming from the North around the curve so I started to accelerate through the turn to clear the intersection. It locked up after I started to accelerate beyond the 10 mph, though I don't know exactly at what speed because I was focused on my mirrors and what the truck and my trailer were doing.

This is actually the second time something like this has happened to me.

The first event happened probably about a year ago. In that instance I was also loaded, had been driving for 2-3 hours at freeway speeds, westbound on I-80. I pulled off the freeway at Sydney, Nebraska, heading to Love's to take a 30. Stopped at the stop sign, just long enough to come to a complete stop and verify it was clear, before making the left turn.

In this instance I wasn't in a rush and was making the usual 10-12 mph turn before the trailer brakes kicked in about halfway through the turn. But it didn't full-on lock up as the most recent experience did, it just noticeably slowed me down a couple seconds until completing the turn.

In both cases I called maintenance, described the experience, and asked what was going on but they had no clue.

I'm just as clueless and my only guess is maybe there's some kind of safety 'feature' in the truck or trailer going off. Much like the collision avoidance system that'll go off if it sees the shadow of an overpass or road construction materials in a construction zone while going through a curve and it thinks you're about to collide and so it automatically starts screaming at you while applying the brakes, much to your chagrin. Whatever the case, it seems to think you're going to fast through a turn and kicks in the trailer brakes to slow you down.

In a maybe slightly related vein, I've noticed on occasion when at speed on highways and freeways, when going through a curve (even gentle ones), sometimes the trailer seems to try to slow down of its own accord. It's hard to describe, but I can feel it stutter or lurch for a split second, like it doesn't want to be going at that speed in a curve. I could even be going well below the posted speed limit, or what I feel is a safe speed for the curve, when I 'feel' it happening. It's a very subtle feeling, but I can feel it nonetheless - like something is tapping on the brakes for a fraction of a second. I haven't ever reported or asked about this since I'm not even sure how to describe it or what I'd even be asking about. It's just... strange.

The other day I came to a T junction and was making a left hand turn. Cross-traffic has the right of way and doesn't stop. After coming to a complete stop and waiting for traffic to clear I initiated the left hand turn. I usually accelerate to about 10 mph to make a turn, which I did this time as well, but as I was entering the intersection I spotted another semi coming from the right around a blind curve in the road (visibility of about 1500 feet or so). As I was already halfway through the turn and into the intersection then I was fully committed, so I started to accelerate further than what I normally do - probably up to 15 mph or so - when all of a sudden my trailer tires lock up (or at least the driver side), start smoking and rubber is starting to be laid on the road. I hit my hazards to let the other driver know there's a problem (as if he can't see it already) and start applying the brakes, which oddly enough releases the tires from being locked up.

It's as if the trailer had a mind of its own and thought that I was making the turn too fast or something and decided to lock up until it got back down to a more reasonable speed.

Has anyone else experienced that? And what would cause this? It definitely was a potentially serious hazardous situation. One that I would love to avoid in the future.

Thanks Turtle for your feedback and insights.

I too have been thinking about applying for Walmart in due course. I have a few questions.

As I understand it you have to have 30 months of commercial driving experience before you can apply? Is that firm, or do they take other things into consideration as well?

On the one hand it seems like if Walmart is wanting to increase their Private Fleet (and has a program of training their own employees with no prior truck driving experience for that very purpose) they would require less experience for applicants, but on the other hand I can understand wanting applicants with a proven track record of at least a couple years. The reason I ask is because I work for Roehl, a company well-known for their high standards in safety within the industry, which seems well aligned with what Walmart is looking for, but I've only been with them for 20 months. Of that time I have also been a driver trainer (requiring even higher standards within the company) for just about a year, helping to train 10 new drivers. Just wondering if any of that would be considered, or if I still have to wait a full 30 months? Would love to get onboarded asap, if possible.

Followup question to that is, assuming it is 30 months of experience, what is counted towards that? I first became employed with Roehl in May of '22 through their GYCDL program, graduated and entered phase 2 (OTR with a trainer) in June, completed that and went solo starting in July. So would I first be able to apply in November, December, or January?

Final question (for now) is I hear we can use another Walmart driver as a reference when applying - can I use you for that purpose?

Thanks again for your help and insights!

I suppose I could have found the answers (at least a couple of them) by reading your diary.

Here is Turtle' diary for those interested: Turtle' Walmart Diary

Thanks Turtle for your feedback and insights.

I too have been thinking about applying for Walmart in due course. I have a few questions.

As I understand it you have to have 30 months of commercial driving experience before you can apply? Is that firm, or do they take other things into consideration as well?

On the one hand it seems like if Walmart is wanting to increase their Private Fleet (and has a program of training their own employees with no prior truck driving experience for that very purpose) they would require less experience for applicants, but on the other hand I can understand wanting applicants with a proven track record of at least a couple years. The reason I ask is because I work for Roehl, a company well-known for their high standards in safety within the industry, which seems well aligned with what Walmart is looking for, but I've only been with them for 20 months. Of that time I have also been a driver trainer (requiring even higher standards within the company) for just about a year, helping to train 10 new drivers. Just wondering if any of that would be considered, or if I still have to wait a full 30 months? Would love to get onboarded asap, if possible.

Followup question to that is, assuming it is 30 months of experience, what is counted towards that? I first became employed with Roehl in May of '22 through their GYCDL program, graduated and entered phase 2 (OTR with a trainer) in June, completed that and went solo starting in July. So would I first be able to apply in November, December, or January?

Final question (for now) is I hear we can use another Walmart driver as a reference when applying - can I use you for that purpose?

Thanks again for your help and insights!