Roehl Company Sponsored Training

Hi guys, I am looking into getting my cdl. I like everything that Roehl is saying about their paid cdl training, but really want some good feedback. Everything I see is over a year old and I would like something a little more current. I am also considering swift. Like I said, I am looking for more current information. Which of these are better? I have no problem getting my permit prior school, as I have had my permit before. Just no truck to get the cdl. I like the paid training and shorter obligation the company that roehl offers, but is it real? I am looking at going in August 2016, due to some personal obligations have, and using my vacation at my current company to get paid even more for training. Any help at all would be appreciated. Brett, old school? Any help here? Thanks in advance.

Hharleywood

Infidel, have you checked into Central Oregon? They are a great flat-bed operation that hires form the Western parts of the country. I highly recommend them, and think you should check into them before making a decision.

FYI. I think Roehl runs a great operation, you can't go wrong there. You'll just have to get past your way of thinking that what they are doing is "indentured servitude" - it's far from that. It is only a way for them to try and recoup their training expenses. The average expense for training someone for this job is nearing ten thousand dollars per employee these days.

I'm like you, I have done a lot of things in life, including running my own business for thirty years. Trucking is so different from any other type of business that I have ever been associated with that you just have to throw most of your pre-conceived ideas of how things should be done out the window. Any time I see someone refer to that commitment they are asking for like you did I can usually figure that they came across that idea from some disgruntled (former) truck drivers blabbering their spiel on the internet. Be careful about what you believe or read on line concerning trucking - most of it is questionable at best. We try real hard to combat the erroneous information out there, but it is a never ending battle because there is just so much junk that keeps on reproducing itself on-line because there are a lot of folks who try to break into this industry and fail. Unfortunately those vast numbers of people are constantly blaming their own shortcomings on the trucking industry and the large trucking companies.

Your decision and choice is basically going to boil down to your own personal preference on length of training time and commitment. Swift and/or Roehl will both require something from you, but both places have plenty of opportunities available for you to go into. You stated that you already had your CDL. Do you have a current training certificate, or have you been out of the truck for a while so that you are required to go through some sort of training like a refresher course? The reason I ask is that I'm not sure if Central Oregon has that type of training available.

The main thing that trucking truth doesn't teach is the need to be an independent person everything else I learned from this website and community and I would say I'm succeeding at my new career.

Jake Brake, your killing me man!

The idea and need of being an independent person in this career is a golden thread that runs all throughout this website. The blogs and forum threads are filled with that very important philosophy.

Here's a random quote from an old thread where I pointed this out to someone. It is a direct quote, except I added the bold type to the specific line - this stuff is all throughout the forums

Zen Joker, I'm a flat-bedder and a lot of the times my delivery times will tell me what day of the week and what hours they will be receiving. As an example it may tell me to deliver on June the 9th from 7am - 3pm. Therefore you get to manage your own time and make it work out however you want to manage your own clock. Some people will prefer driving all night and arriving at 7am, get unloaded and then go take a break. Another person may prefer to drive all day on the day ahead and get to the receiver that night and shut down waiting for them to arrive in the morning and unload when they get started that morning, then go get another load and drive all day again. You'll figure all this out once you get your own chance to do it. What you don't want to make a habit of is getting there at the last minute - I see a lot of drivers doing this. This is the kind of stuff that keeps you from being able to get on another load that same day. These are the little details that help you be successful at this.

Most of my loads are live loads, but occasionally we have customers that we leave empty flat-bed trailers at so we can just go drop and hook when they let us know that we have a loaded trailer ready.

There are also a few industrial sites that I go to that only load or only receive between the hours of midnight and six a.m.

One of the great things about driving a truck is the independent way the job is managed. Once you get the hang of how to manage your time you really can be creative and make it work to your advantage. I recently ran a high value load with about 2800 miles on the trip. Since this load is worth about 1.4 million dollars, for security reasons they want us to run it with another driver who is carrying the same load. We had to stop at the same places together, park together, and stay together the whole trip. We would discuss driving over meals together and I discovered real quickly that he didn't get near the miles that I do, and it was simply a matter of not understanding some simple techniques about managing the hours. After several conversations I thought I could see the light bulb going off in his mind, and he thanked me profusely for sharing with him things that no one else had ever explained to him. For me it just seems like common sense, but when a person hasn't been exposed to the ins and outs of the rules of HOS they don't realize what they can be doing to help themselves out and still stay within the legal limits of the law. I give my props to Brett's High Road Training Program because that section on logs in there has mad my career far more successful than it would have been had I not been exposed to the nuances of the law and how the rules work.

Hharleywood,, I jut took a look at Roehl's Hiring Page. The commitment listed (15 months and/or 12 months - both are listed) might be called average or fair for what you get. They do pay you that $500 per week while doing your training.

I went with Swift. No pay up front, and mostly no cost to you. Trucking Truth's Swift Page mentions $150 up front - I never saw that a year ago when I signed up, but you need money for basic living expenses - like food. Commitment at Swift is 12 months. Swift will charge you out of each paycheck, but at the same time they pay you back for the school

Whatever, if you go the Company-Sponsored Training route, you will have a commitment for between 8 and 15 months.

Get your CDL permit before you go to any company, regardless of what they say. Since you are looking at August, closer to August, start the High Road Training Program to take and pass your CDL permit test. This will definitely save your class time to prepare for the CDL Driving test..

I think someone else said on here. Some one who was going/or went through Roehls school. It was 120K miles.

I already have my CDL. And for orientation and 2 weeks with an OTR trainer they want 75k miles. Im still stuck on the longevity contract. I just cant get past it. Been trying to sell myself on it since Thursday. Cause I still want to work for them.

Anyone know of another large flatbed comapny that runs and hires in the west. Seems TMC, Maverick, Melton etc.. do not.

I already have my CDL. And for orientation and 2 weeks with an OTR trainer they want 75k miles. Im still stuck on the longevity contract. I just cant get past it. Been trying to sell myself on it since Thursday. Cause I still want to work for them.

So what's the problem? "I still want to work for them." In that case don't you want to work for them way past one year? By the time you're "in the groove" most if that 75k will be gone.

And don't try to give me "but I might find a better deal!" (Translation: "There's greener grass out there somewhere.") Yes, there may be. But will you want to change your life for an additional $10 per week? Commitment is what gets things done in the world. Otherwise, you'll just be changing checkout lanes at Kroger because you think that other one is better - you're still at the back of the line.

I went through Roehls CDL school and have driven for them since November of 2014. My mile commitment is probably complete by now. I really have been too busy to count my miles. I simply don't understand why people have an issue making a commitment to work for 1 year. I know for me, working for Roehl has been real good. People say they micro-manage...I get my load assignment...I drive...I unload at the shipper. Sometimes I take shortcuts on their routing...I fuel where they tell me too. I'm on a dedicated route , so I get home every week, except when I want to stay out to earn an extra day on the weekend. They didn't deduct for their school, they exceeded my cpm expectations and I've done quite well this year. Quite frankly I'm thankful to be employed and with a company that cares about its drivers

I already have my CDL. And for orientation and 2 weeks with an OTR trainer they want 75k miles. Im still stuck on the longevity contract. I just cant get past it. Been trying to sell myself on it since Thursday. Cause I still want to work for them.

So what's the problem? "I still want to work for them." In that case don't you want to work for them way past one year? By the time you're "in the groove" most if that 75k will be gone.

And don't try to give me "but I might find a better deal!" (Translation: "There's greener grass out there somewhere.") Yes, there may be. But will you want to change your life for an additional $10 per week? Commitment is what gets things done in the world. Otherwise, you'll just be changing checkout lanes at Kroger because you think that other one is better - you're still at the back of the line.

Wow! Thanks for assuming the worst about my character right off the bat. I find your reply very condescending. You may have been doing this longer, but I assure you I am not some 20 year old kid that doesn't know how the world works.

One of the things I have done in my life is run my own business. So I know that one the most expensive things you have to pay for is training new employees. This is the same in trucking as it is in the entire business world. Trucking is not special in that it has to pay training costs. So what you have to do to keep new employees is to provide incentive's for them. Like pay them more than the competition, or better benefits. You get the idea. You see this now with all the competition for drivers between companies 'We'll do this for you! We'll pay for that for you!' What Roehl has done. Is turned that on its head. Instead of providing incentives, they provide coercion. By signing their contract your indentured to them for 75k miles. I understand why they do it. I'm just uncomfortable with it. But I'm torn because they seem like a good outfit to work for and so it might be worth it.

I started a thread about this in fact https://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-11919/Page-1/roehl-longevity-bonus. If you want some of the finer points.

"Commitment is what gets things done in the world." No it isn't. Its work. Work is the basis of all currency in the world. You would work for a company that treated you poorly? Didn't give you miles? Or even had terrible benefits all because you wanted to be "committed". Thats how people get taken advantage of. Im not saying you should find another job every 3 months (Im told this 75k miles would take about 9 months) but I think a year is enough time to find out how committed the company is to me. Its not about the time for me.

I went through Roehls CDL school and have driven for them since November of 2014. My mile commitment is probably complete by now. I really have been too busy to count my miles. I simply don't understand why people have an issue making a commitment to work for 1 year. I know for me, working for Roehl has been real good. People say they micro-manage...I get my load assignment...I drive...I unload at the shipper. Sometimes I take shortcuts on their routing...I fuel where they tell me too. I'm on a dedicated route , so I get home every week, except when I want to stay out to earn an extra day on the weekend. They didn't deduct for their school, they exceeded my cpm expectations and I've done quite well this year. Quite frankly I'm thankful to be employed and with a company that cares about its drivers

Thats encouraging to hear Tim. Thanks! But yeah, if you read above its not about the year.

Infidel counters:

Wow! Thanks for assuming the worst about my character right off the bat. I find your reply very condescending. You may have been doing this longer, but I assure you I am not some 20 year old kid that doesn't know how the world works.

Infidel, I wrote this for a person who lists less than 20 posts here (meaning rather new to TT, but beyond that I do not know), who uses the classification Company Driver In Training (another "new" indicator). I see you are from Boulder City, where I've been a couple of times to see the BOULDER DAM movie. Beyond that, I do not know if you are 19 or 79 years old or what your past experience is. I am writing for a poster that seems to be a bit worried about committing their (short term) future to paying off their education in a lifetime trade.

For someone who writes "Im still stuck on the longevity contract. I just cant get past it. Been trying to sell myself on it since Thursday.". Seems you can't talk yourself into the commitment for one reason or another.

Infidel, trucking is uniquely different from all non-retail businesses because of 100 percent annual turnover. I too have run businesses, training is indeed expensive, but with trucking you have the added complexity of trying to manage high turnover and the incredible risk of accidents during the first year of driving.

Although you do not fall into this category, I think the majority of new drivers fail to see if you "commit" to a second year with your initial employer, your trucking life, available options, and compensation potential is vastly different on the "up-side".

I am well into year three on a dedicated Swift account and have overall yet to see a better deal with another carrier or even within Swift. And trust me I have looked, interviewed and turned down other offers and my DM knows this.

My relationship with the DMs, planners and my performance record enable an incredible degree of flexibility and preferred status in my job. That does not occur unless you establish yourself as a "committed" driver with your employer.

Infidel counters:

Wow! Thanks for assuming the worst about my character right off the bat. I find your reply very condescending. You may have been doing this longer, but I assure you I am not some 20 year old kid that doesn't know how the world works.

Infidel, I wrote this for a person who lists less than 20 posts here (meaning rather new to TT, but beyond that I do not know), who uses the classification Company Driver In Training (another "new" indicator). I see you are from Boulder City, where I've been a couple of times to see the BOULDER DAM movie. Beyond that, I do not know if you are 19 or 79 years old or what your past experience is. I am writing for a poster that seems to be a bit worried about committing their (short term) future to paying off their education in a lifetime trade.

For someone who writes "Im still stuck on the longevity contract. I just cant get past it. Been trying to sell myself on it since Thursday.". Seems you can't talk yourself into the commitment for one reason or another.

Did you take a minute to read why? And yeah Im new too trucking. You are selling new people short. Just cause we might be new to this, doesn't mean you are the only one knows about hard work. It seems like you are more inclined to put new drivers down right away (the ones who have doubts about any facet of a company anyway) than actually look at the argument. If you were to read my first reply and my post on this. I feel like I explained my position quite clearly. Yet you continue to mis-characterize my position. So I guess I just cant find a way too communicate with you.

Thanks for your help.