Pros
Trucks are maintained for the most part.
Cons
1. trucks are maintained, with the exception of heat. once ran 3 weeks in the dead of winter with no bunk heat. wasn't fixed until 500+ dollars of fuel went to waste by idling the truck to use cab heat overnight. ran in a different truck with the same issue except with ac in the summer down south. 2. "No forced-dispatch -ish" : meaning they don't force you to run the load or run at all. but if you don't want to run, you don't have to, you just can't stay in the truck and will be resigning from your position. 3. Hometime - go OTR national and earn an average of 1 day off per 6 days out on the road. stay out for 2 months and request a load to get you home and you will be sent the opposite direction. not once. not twice. but many consecutive times your request will be made lower priority than ANYTHING in the company. 4. Average load vs. Average pay : average load for OTR national fleet driver is around 350-400 miles. *** "Average pay for OTR drivers(directly quoted from their fleet operations manager) is about $16.50 per hour after all numbers are accounted for." *** drove for them for 18 months, averaged $10.50 per hour over the duration of my employment with them. 5. Safety department. The company "cares" about safety, but will argue to no end with you about their sly attempts at altering and syncing logs from the office to the truck while you sleep. They will break 14-hour clock laws and regulations in order to succeed a sale, meaning the driver will work (off clock) to ensure the load is complete before going to sleep for the night, and will still be expected to but up 'n at 'em 10 hours after the end of their 14 clock(give or take 15 minutes for restroom, changing, and coffee in the morning) - which boils down to the driver getting 4 hours of sleep and referring to #2 in this description. 6. Efficiency: the company completely ignores the driver's natural ability to be the most efficient person at their job. you WILL run THROUGH chicago during rush hour, reguardless of the availability of routes around. you will NOT shutdown early outside of chicago to avoid the rush hour waste of hos(hours of service), reguardless of your 14 clock only having an hour remaining. 7. Hours of service resets(34 hour reset) are pretty strictly avoided. You WILL wait 32 hours for a load during an industry slump in the middle of nowhere with no wifi, and 2 hours before getting a fresh 70 clock you WILL take a 50 mile load to keep moving and making money, reguardless of only getting an hour back for the following day. How's that for the "Safe Seven" Roehl? Onward, it's a good company to give your heart and soul to if you never expect a return. Not a good, not even a mediocre company, if you plan for career progression, or basic human understanding. Contracts for schooling, a job, a truck purchase, or even a retirement account can and WILL be held and if broken, the company(Roehl) will obtain every cent possible back from you, even earned wages.
