Comments By Aubrey M.

Sorry, the mileage did not post as I had formatted it. if you need clarification let me know.

Chk date: Mileage
2-28: 818
3-7: home time/ truck move-in
3-14: 3161
3-21: 1951
3-28: 2484
4-4: 2728
4-11: 1512 home time
4-18: 2847
4-25: 2129
5-2: 2825
5-9: 2317
5-16: 3415
5-23: 845 home time
5-30: 2174
6-6: 2345
6-13: 1891
6-20: 2483
6-27: 2215 home time
7-4: 1553 truck change
7-11: 2451
7-18: 3705
7-25: 2924
8-1: 2723
8-8: 2152
8-15: 871 home time
8-22: 2961
8-29: 2162
9-5: 3141
9-12: 3198
9-19: 2847
9-26: 2935
10-3: 1537 home time
10-10: 1891
10-17: 2808
10-24: 2861
10-31: 3068
11-7: 3292
11-14: 1521 home time
11-21: 844
11-28: 3411
12-5: 2493
12-12: 3038
12-19: 2814
12-26: 3186
1-02-20: 130 home time
1-09-20: 3109
1-16-20: 2465
1-23-20: 2932
1-30-20: 3985
2-6-20: 2922
2-13-20: 2838
The 3985 and 3705 mileage weeks are because of a prior week’s paperwork being submitted a week late, so several hundred of those miles should be accredited to the prior week.

For those interested or simply wanting to know what to expect for pay and mileage in the Roehl GYCDL program, I'm posting my check amounts and made a list of the weekly mileages over my first year of solo driving. I joined the GYDCL program on December 31st of 2018, and began driving solo on February 20th of 2019. I completed the required 120000 miles in the week ending February 1st of 2020. I am dry van national and my base rate of pay was 38.5cpm until November 28th when it was raised to 41cpm. I was not enrolled in Roehl's performance based plan during the time frame shown, and I did not separate out detention pay, short haul pay, live load pay, multiple stop pay, or inspection bonuses (but those were all minimal). All of the home times shown on the mileage sheet were 7 days with the exception of the first listed. Typically those 7 days spanned across two pay periods to avoid a very small pay check upon my first week back to work. As a side note, beginning on January 28th this year Roehl began paying address to address mileage instead of practical miles.

The pay will be similar for flatbed and refrigerated, but the miles for flatbed will be a good bit less. I'm not sure about the mileage comparison for refrigerated. In talking with flatbed drivers, the tarping pay and higher cpm basically compensates for fewer weekly miles compared to dry van in general. This is all just ball park of course since there are several variables in figuring pay (CPM in the same division can vary based on your home location, taxes differ by state, deductions from check, etc.), but it is in black and white for people to see rather than just unverified ramblings.

Congrats

I think roehl is just running short on trainers, but they will get you one.

You may see a manual at some point. My truck, 2nd truck, is an auto, but i just had a loaner last week that was a manual and also recovered a truck that is a manual. So they're still around and it still pays to have that knowledge or skill.

11x62mph =682 miles per day.

Your math is way off, and the compared distance between the two ways of running is going to much closer in the real world. You'd be lucky to get even 600 miles everyday running your full 11 hours. Traffic, terrain, weather, shippers and cons, and timing and mileage of the runs themselves are all limiting factors. This is why if you actually turn over 600 miles in a day you're exhausted at the end of it. Three or four consecutive days of 525-600 miles will often mean using almost all of your 14 hour clock, unless your company somehow has loads that are 600 and whatever miles on a daily basis that all pick up and deliver perfectly with your ten hour resets.

The advantage to doing 34 hour resets and just running your clock to the max for six consecutive days is you don't have to worry as much about on duty time eating into your drive time. Running recaps, on duty time can end up costing you the drive time you need to get to a destination that day. So you're off duty a lot more running recaps, if you want to turn miles and earn that is.

Starting out, just run as the company dispatches you because they are already going to try and maximize your efficiency. As you go you'll learn the routine and what time you spend doing certain tasks and how to become more efficient in those tasks. You'll also learn how to keep your hours more consistent (as far as sleep schedule) which in my opinion is more easily done running recaps because you typically only have 5-12 hours in a day.

I have run mainly recaps since going solo on February 20th, 2019. I just hit 120,020 miles on January 28th, 2020. My fellow classmates running weekly with resets are 10000-30000 miles behind me. I'll post my paychecks and miles to date within the next week for people to get an idea of your first year. This is with roehl but other companies should be similar.

I kind of veered off topic there, but the point goes to Old School's advice of being a top tier driver. He or other experienced drivers on here could probably give individual examples of running pretty much the same weekly mileage whether they run recaps or do 34s.

Another advantage to running recaps in my opinion is you expose yourself to more load availability. You're available while the guy doing a 34 misses out. Also, you're staying in dispatches mind because you're running more often through more shifts and they know you need miles and are willing to run.

Pick one or the other to go with because either your productive, and probably safety, is going to suffer in driving, or your school work will suffer. This job cannot be done full time with another full time job, or even part time job on a daily basis. This is especially true in your first year of driving.

If you can find a good spot to do it, you can shift from third all the way to tenth without touching the fuel and the truck will not stall. If you can do this it should give you a little better idea about what was said here and by your instructor.

I did the GYCDL program with Roehl and am dry van National. I went solo the last week of February and am currently "officially" at just under 96000 miles, but have actually put in just over 100000 miles total on the two trucks I've had (40 some thousand on the first and 61000 on my current one). However, I stay out for a month or longer and run recaps. Two friends I went through the school with are about 10000-20000 miles less than me running dry van dedicated regional, but have 2 days off a week. I take a week off for hometime. The dedicated routes typically seem to run a steady average of 2500 miles per week, but can be higher with back hauls or filling in on other routes if you are a productive/efficient driver. For me, my weekly miles run from around 2400-3400. As I become a more efficient driver, my weekly mileage is staying more toward 2700 or higher, but I'm running my 14 hour clock out or down to less than two hours over 75% of the time.

As stated, flatbed and reefer typically run less miles but it depends on the drivers you're comparing, as Old School points out. That being said, I've confirmed by talking to both experienced and new drivers that in the end the pay comes out very close to the same regardless of the division you're in, as Brett points out. So if you're just asking about strictly logging miles, you have a better opportunity in dry van with this company, but that means taking people's advice off of here for being a top tier driver...which means long days, erratic sleep cycles, and a steep learning curve as a newbie. Flatbed and refer are the two divisions who will typically run over the rockies, dry van barely gets past the Mississippi as a company driver.

I have a 2020 Freightliner Cascadia and am using a .9 cu ft, 900 watt Sunbeam microwave from Target for less than $60. That fills up the cabinet for the microwave and runs just fine with the 1500w inverter, but i also don't have any other large wattage draw appliances ( like a fridge).

Take off in whatever gear gets the truck moving without giving it fuel. That is usually 3rd with a ten speed and an empty trailer.

How can you impede traffic that is stopping at the same time as you? It's much more important to stop safely and smoothly, so concentrate on that at first.... And slower is always better than too fast.

If a light catches you and you have to stop quickly you can't always downshift, so stay in the gear you're in, brake until the engine chokes way down without bucking, and push in the clutch as you come to a stop. Even if your in 9th you should be able to almost stop before clutching and coasting to a stop. You will certainly only have to coast less than a truck length. Wait until you are completely stopped, hit your range selector and shift to third so you are ready to take off again. Doing this you've stayed in control of the truck instead of possibly missing a gear and coasting too far out of gear. Downshift when you have time though To whatever gear you can make it to comfortably.

Turns are really the only place where you have to worry about getting to the low side so you can go slow and controlled as well as smoothly accelerate out of the turn all while keeping both hands on the steering wheel when not shifting.