Roehl Company-Sponsored Program - Day To Day

Day Two(08 Mar 16): 0700 - Waiting in the class room for the instructors to show up. About 5 minutes later, in walked the instructors and informed us we would be working on our turns today. We split back up into our two groups of three and the other group headed out to the truck while mine headed to the simulator. I will be blunt. I absolutely hate that POS simulator. Everything, and I mean everything, feels off. Shifting doesn't feel right, depth perception goes completely out the window, and it will tell you you're hitting a curb even when on the screen you're not. After spending around 30 minutes each on the simulator practicing left and right turns with the trailer, we headed out into the yard to the truck while the other group came inside. For the next 45 minutes everything seemed to go very well. Of course I managed to basically forget everything I had learned about shifting the previous day and managed to bump myself into reverse instead of second as well as mistakenly bumping myself into 9th gear instead of 7th. But after a few minutes everything came back and I began to actually work on my turns. According to my instructor, we all did better than expected. We initially began with just left turns before lunch. Afterward, both groups got into our respective trucks and and began with right turns. Again, my group did well. My instructor felt we were doing well enough that tomorrow we will be hitting the town. In the mean time, after our second break we went out for a "commentary drive" where our instructor drove around town talking us through everything he was doing and looking for. When we returned, we jumped ahead of schedule and the three of us started working on our backing. We did several straight line backs between cones and concrete divider walls with about 3 feet of space on each side of the trailer (don't quote me on the spacing.) After we did much better than expected (again, my trainers words, not mine. I'd never make the claim. Personally I'm still waiting to run myself over while driving.) we moved on to offset backing both left and right. While we were basically walked through this step by step, it was still great practice. Especially getting to practice feathering the clutch. After this it was time to head back to the hotel and grab some chow. All in all, it was nothing short of an amazing day. We are currently a little over a day ahead of schedule. Tomorrow we have, unfortunately, more simulator time planned for backing practices, then we will be taking the trucks onto the roads for some real practice. Time to get some shut eye for what is sure to be an interesting day tomorrow.

As a side note, anyone who comes to Roehls WI location, bring waterproof boots. Currently, both training yards are dirt. And when I say dirt, I mean three inches of mud with small streams running through everywhere. If you ever wanted to know what it was like driving an 18-wheeler in a dirt derby, you'll get to learn.

- Razor

Wow, y'all are in the trucks already!!! I'm nervous, but ready to hit the ground running.

I know it's only your 2nd day, but as any talk of the pre trip inspection come up yet? That & backing are my 2 main areas of concern

I will be watching for your daily postings & preparing myself in the process

Day 3 down. Bad news. Razor had to leave this morning for a family emergency. I can try to do my best to keep up with posting the day to day. For my group, morning started out with doing some on road driving around the block making left turns. Then after break time we hit the simulator for backing exercises. After lunch was back out to the truck for more on road driving. For me it was two times around the block on right hand turns, then headed into the industrial district. Crossed railroad tracks (make sure window is down and no shifting while on tracks), making left and right turns on small curvy roads (ended up jumping 1 curb and scraping another on 2 narrow road sharp corners), and back to the yard. The other 2 guys in my group only worked on right hand turning around the block. Then shortly before leaving was back to the classroom to get our ID badges. Instructors told us that tomorrow we will be going over the pre trip in the morning. And then it was back to the hotel

Razor or Thomas, what is the length of orientation time? From the time get there till out on the road with a trainer, till you get your own truck? Thank you

Razor or Thomas, what is the length of orientation time? From the time get there till out on the road with a trainer, till you get your own truck? Thank you

You are in the school for 4 weeks, although our instructors told us that 4 of us are advancing so fast we may be able to test out the 3rd week and not have to stay a 4th week. Then it's home for a couple days and out with a trainer. They say the average time is 15 days with a trainer (not team driving). Then you get your truck and they route you home for a couple days and out on your own

Razor or Thomas, what is the length of orientation time? From the time get there till out on the road with a trainer, till you get your own truck? Thank you

You are in the school for 4 weeks, although our instructors told us that 4 of us are advancing so fast we may be able to test out the 3rd week and not have to stay a 4th week. Then it's home for a couple days and out with a trainer. They say the average time is 15 days with a trainer (not team driving). Then you get your truck and they route you home for a couple days and out on your own

Thank you for the info brother. Last question if I may. Does Roehl have a large percentage of automatics there?

Thomas:

Excellent post in Razor's absence. I hope things are ok w/him & he's back soon.

Your class has really hit the ground running. I'm nervous, but I know that's what I need.

I finally have my start date of Monday, March 21. I will be training here in GA. My recruiter said training up there is 4 weeks. She said training here is 3 weeks. I have to double check that.

I am looking forward to your daily posts so I know what I'm in for lol.

Take care & hang in there!!!

Karen

Razor or Thomas, what is the length of orientation time? From the time get there till out on the road with a trainer, till you get your own truck? Thank you

You are in the school for 4 weeks, although our instructors told us that 4 of us are advancing so fast we may be able to test out the 3rd week and not have to stay a 4th week. Then it's home for a couple days and out with a trainer. They say the average time is 15 days with a trainer (not team driving). Then you get your truck and they route you home for a couple days and out on your own

Thank you for the info brother. Last question if I may. Does Roehl have a large percentage of automatics there?

I don't think they have a ton of autos yet but they are phasing them in. I am hoping and praying that I don't get one when they upgrade my truck because I have repowered way too many loads from guys stuck in the shop for weeks because the auto couldn't handle the mountains of pa and wv.

Razor or Thomas, what is the length of orientation time? From the time get there till out on the road with a trainer, till you get your own truck? Thank you

You are in the school for 4 weeks, although our instructors told us that 4 of us are advancing so fast we may be able to test out the 3rd week and not have to stay a 4th week. Then it's home for a couple days and out with a trainer. They say the average time is 15 days with a trainer (not team driving). Then you get your truck and they route you home for a couple days and out on your own

Thank you for the info brother. Last question if I may. Does Roehl have a large percentage of automatics there?

I don't think they have a ton of autos yet but they are phasing them in. I am hoping and praying that I don't get one when they upgrade my truck because I have repowered way too many loads from guys stuck in the shop for weeks because the auto couldn't handle the mountains of pa and wv.

I started at roehl in a manual, but 4 months ago my truck was sold and I was placed in an automatic. I doesnt seem to do any better or worse on hills than my other truck.

Boomshaker, I can't say I know how many autos they have or if that is what they are moving towards. We train on manuals of course, but as far as I can tell most of the tricks I have seen coming in and out of the terminal have been manual. I do know that an experienced driver that came in to orientation at the same time as my class said that he got a 2017 freightliner with an auto.

Karen, congrats on getting your start date. It is nerve racking when you first get in the truck and especially when you hit the road for the first time. The biggest thing to deal with that is to not let your nerves get the best of you. Especially out on the road. That is when you start making mistakes, and if you dwell on a mistake just made within seconds you've made 5 more. But don't worry too much. The instructors are there to help and guide you and will do everything they can to help you to perfection

On to today's happenings. Started the morning out in the classroom to get our log in for the website and app (all of a couple minutes) then it was out to the shop (out of the cold) to go over all of the aspects of the pre trip. After taking the time to go fully into detail about the pre trip it was time for break. Afterwards we split into our 2 groups (they decided to swap out one person from each group). We hit the road again. The other 2 guys in my group drove making a loop around town back with right and left turns, RR crossings, sharp turning intersections, and crowded streets with close ontersections. Because of time I wasn't able to drive. Then we took our lunch. My group decided to take 30 mins early from lunch and head out and start doing some of the pre trip on our own. After lunch we hit the backing range. One of the guys from the other truck went home at lunch because he was sick. Not sure on if he will be back tomorrow or not. And the remaining 4 of us all piled in the same truck (our other instructor had to teach another class for the afternoon) Took turns on the 45 degree back (not on the test buy will be the most common used) and the 90 degree back. We all did pretty well. Our instructor said that he was glad to see we were all still cathing on fast. We spent all afternoon on backing with a break in between the 45 and 90 back. Then the instructor had us do the post trip on our own. And it was time to head back to the hotel