Preparing For A Trucking Career With Roehl

Good luck Cowboy. I will be following your journey closely as I am considering Roehl to start my driving career in the near future.

Mon 13 Jan 2020 (Training Week 1 Day 1)

Got into Marshfield last night at 1730, an hour later than I planned. Took almost twelve hours, but it was just due to some intermittent icy road conditions in northern Missouri/southern Iowa and having to clean salt off my windows occasionally. Otherwise it was a nice, pretty drive. Wisconsin is a pretty state. My roommate, J. from Georgia had arrived two hours before me. He's two years younger than me and seems to be a nice, laid back guy whom I should have no problems with. He hit it off quick and after buying a box fan from Walmart (for white noise) we were able to get to sleep around 2100 and slept straight through til 0530. Breakfast will be served at 0600 in the restaurant downstairs and then roll call and a shuttle van drive to Roehl at 0630.

NOTE: The shuttle van only comes on the first day of training, after that you're on your own for transportation. Plan accordingly. My roommate and I both drove our own vehicles and are glad for it. It's 0550 and I need more coffee. Will summarize day one tonight. Stay safe.

Tue, 14 Jan 2020

Days 1 & 2

Day 1: LOTS of paperwork. It reminded me of my first day of basic training LOL. We got key cards and driver ID's. You are not called students at Roehl. You are a trainee, because you are employed with Roehl from day 1. There was a lot of "Housekeeping" items covered on day 1, like the do's and don'ts at work and at the hotel, and expectations of both trainees and instructors. The instructors, by the way, are cool. They are humorous, good-natured, respectful, but completely serious about their trainees succeeding...not just being able to pass the test, but being a successful professional driver. I'm even more convinced that I made the right career move and that I chose the right company to work for. I have nothing bad to say about any of it.

Day 2: More chapters to read and study in the JJ Keller Truck Driving Manual, then we got the class on the Roehl way, the Save Seven, and the values and priorities of the company. After lunch we split into two groups: half went to the simulator to learn shifting and half went to the trucks to start learning the Pre-Trip. The simulator was fun (we had a good instructor) and everybody in my group of 7 did a good job. We switched halfway through the afternoon. When the day was done the instructors said the whole class did well enough in the simulator (nobody needed "special" lessons) that we will all be driving the trucks on the range tomorrow.

It is cold here. High of 30 today, but the rest of the week is gonna be 20's and teens for the highs. I planned well though and have layers so I haven't been too uncomfortable outside so far. Can't wait to be behind the wheel of a real truck tomorrow.

Stay Safe

Thanks for the continued update cowboy, they are definitely on my shortlist.

Thanks for the update and good luck.

Wed, 14 Jan 2020

Day 3: Started working on the pre-trip in earnest this morning with our assigned training trucks. I have a real good class of 14 people (1 didn't show up) and a great group of guys on my truck. Our instructor is Jordan (He's cool and very good). Then there's Big Jon, 47, from Iowa; John (my roommate), 48, from Georgia; Myself, 50, from Missouri; and Greg, 54, from Indiana. We are all shifting with no problems and our stops, starts and turns are smooth, so we spent a lot of time (1.5 hours each behind the wheel) just driving around the big oval (The Roehl 500) sharing stories and joking and asking the instructor tons of questions about the truck, real world driving and the industry in general.

At the morning break we got a tour of the driver facilities above maintenance. We can come in on the weekend and do our laundry for free in the driver facilities provided we give the fleet drivers precedence since they're only here for a limited amount of time. We all got our MyRoehl App downloaded onto our phones today and got registered. (DO NOT download this app before your instructor has told you to and walked you through the registration, otherwise it causes a ton of IT headaches for both you and the company. I have no clue why, but I do as I'm told, which is the key to success here...do as you're told, when you're told, and how you were told to do it. If you get that down, you'll be fine and will very likely not fail.

To be honest, after a few days in the program, I've come to the conclusion that if you fail here it's because you either (1) didn't take it seriously and put forth 100% effort, or (2) you didn't or wouldn't follow directions and learn from your mistakes and the corrective instructions given with a positive can-do attitude, or (3) you just aren't wired for this kind of job/lifestyle. If either of the first 2 applies to you, then #3 most certainly applies to you.

Fun fact #1 (scary if you fly a lot): Commercial Truck Drivers are more heavily regulated than airline pilots. We learned that day one, hour one. Fun fact #2 (scary if you take on a heavy truck with a personal vehicle): A semi truck carries almost three times as much weight on it's front left wheel as the total weight of the average four-wheel car. Sad Fact: 14 people die every day of the month in a collision with a tractor-trailer rig. Only one of those 14 is the truck driver. You, the professional driver, are carrying the lives of all those on the highway in your hands. Sad Fact: After just a couple of days here, you already have more driving training than most people ever get with just a regular license. In just about two months over the road , a truck driver drives more miles than most average people drive in an entire year.

Sorry for the trivia ramblings. Thought it might provide some food for thought. I'm really enjoying my training here, my classmates and my instructors. I have definitely made the right career choice and chose the right company.

Stay Safe.

Thanks for the updates! Sounds like you have a solid class of serious people. Great atmosphere to learn in. Everyone who attends their training program raves about how great it is. ROEHL and SWIFT are at the top of my hope I get accepted list due to their training programs and work opportunities in my home area (Philly suburbs).

Best of luck to you, I will be following closely

Cowboy - Just wondering how things are going for you.