Starting Roehl

Hey Gentlemen,

Thank you all for the honest replies. I definitely appreciate the feedback. I will chalk this up to lessons learned as I navigate my way through this career. Now I see that I need to exercise a bit more patience in dealing with the next company and take things as they come. One lesson learned of many. Thank you all!

Yeah, this industry will give you fits sometimes. At times it seems like everything is working against you and it gets really frustrating, especially early on in your career. You really just have to put in some time to learn your trade, prove yourself to be one of the best out there, and learn how these companies operate on the inside. Once you've been at a company for a while and you get to know the right people it will be a completely different world. You'll get all kinds of miles, great equipment, and opportunities in different divisions that most drivers don't even know exist. You just have to endure the bumps in the road and be patient until you can work your way into a great position.

Best of luck! I'm sure things will work out great for ya!

How's life going over at Roehl?

10 - 4 Brett Thank you for the run down of my experiences. I took time and went back over them and thought about things I could have done differently. Hindsight being 20/20 and all. I am definitely changing my outlook and expectations as I start for a new company. I am silently chanting "patience, patience, patience" as I prepare for orientation.

Damon L Hi, I am no longer at Roehl. I left about a month ago.

I am silently chanting "patience, patience, patience" as I prepare for orientation.

That's fantastic. And it will pay off for you in a big way.

I hope you'll keep us updated as you go. Let us know how things are working out for you. And definitely let us know if you come across any tough situations. We're always happy to help you understand them and come up with a strategy for working through it. You will never find a company that doesn't present issues from time to time. They'll change company policies, logistics software, dispatching structures, customer bases, and all kinds of things all the time. Sometimes you'll suddenly start getting lousy miles or shorter runs and you haven't done anything different. It's like someone flipped a switch and suddenly everything is messed up. Well that might be almost exactly what happened behind the scenes. So you just have to learn how to get to the bottom of whatever problem you're running into and get it worked out.

These companies all make money the same way - hauling as much freight as possible. If you're performing at a high level they're going to want to keep you around and keep you happy. But that doesn't mean they'll always do a great job of it. Once in a while you have to give them a shout and say, "Hey! Remember me? I don't know what's going on over there all of sudden but you guys need to send some love my way!"

Best of luck to ya. Hope to hear from you soon.

I am glad you were able to take a look inside yourself and make some changes. Our personal outlook and attitude will help dictate how things go in this industry. Once we are solo, we are very much in charge of our own destiny. How we handle the situations thrown at us and how we deal with the company have a lot to do with our success and failure. I had a very frustrating first solo week and just laughed at everything that didn't go my way. No matter how stressed or upset I was, I put on a smile and polite attitude when I had to call dispatch. I believe that helped me get the great rapport I have with them now. I'm in this to drive and make money. The more I improve my trip planning, backing and paperwork/Peoplenet work, the faster I can transition from stop to stop.

Good luck to you. I hope you keep us posted. Wishing you much success.