Getting Ready To Go Roehl

Hello from Ohio!

So I had my appointment at DMV set for 4/20. Got an email on the morning of the 19th that my appointment was canceled. Checked online and the local office was closed down due to Covid again. Luckily I was able to get an appointment later in the morning about an hour away. Drove down there and I was in and out in 20 minutes. Got home and uploaded my info.

The only trainer they had available was an owner operator in a manual, so not having the restriction is already working out. They put me in a plane from Atlantic City to Atlanta two days later where I met my trainer in the afternoon on Thursday. Friday morning at 3:30 we were on the road to Ohio. Dropped off the trailer, found an empty, then spent the night at Loves.

Left this morning for a live load 2 miles away. Appointment was 7am but the woman in the shack says it probably won’t be ready til at least 6 pm. So back to the Loves it is and here I sit, waiting.

Good time to practice trip planning.

Congratulations on starting Phase 2! I'm a new Roehl Driver Trainer - I had my first trainee last month. Your description of the process is great - I'll suggest that my trainees read it. I'm not really that far out of GYCDL myself, and I remember it could sometimes feel overwhelming at this stage. Keep the reports coming!

Congratulations on starting Phase 2! I'm a new Roehl Driver Trainer - I had my first trainee last month. Your description of the process is great - I'll suggest that my trainees read it. I'm not really that far out of GYCDL myself, and I remember it could sometimes feel overwhelming at this stage. Keep the reports coming!

How long have you been driving, Robert B.?

I've been with Roehl since last June, including GYCDL, so I've been on the road about 9 months. Before that, I spent three years driving hotshot, a pickup truck with a 48-foot enclosed car trailer. Before that, I drove a desk for 35 years. :)

Seems I fell off the face of the earth for a bit there, but I'm still rolling along.

I had a great time with my trainer. Luckily we got along well and I learned a bunch from him. He is an O/O based out of the Atlanta area. Spent the bulk of our time in Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. Two people who are strangers in this small space can definitely be stressful but we did pretty good. Since he liked to be home whenever possible I got many nights with the truck to myself. Got plenty of practice backing at truck stops and docks, and he was able to balance the real world training with the book training. All in all a great experience. I spent three weeks with him and tested out in Conley Ga. Unfortunately that was the week of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown so I was stuck in the terminal for an extra day and a half. Finally got home for a few days and then I headed to the Gary Indiana terminal to pick up my truck. Did one more check out ride and they set me loose.

First solo load was from the terminal to just north of Detroit. Ride up there went fine, dropped my trailer off, and lo and behold, no empties there. Not unheard of but of course on my first time out. Took three phone calls to convince weekend FM there was no trailer there. That's when they started trying to figure out what to do with me. I had looked at the parking situation, and any dedicated spots were quite a ways away. Couldn't overnight at the consignee. Watching my clock dwindle as I checked in every so often. With 45 minutes on my clock they told me to bobtail to a safe parking location for the night. Ran out of time still 20 miles from the rest stop I was trying to make. Ended up in a mall parking lot for the night and luckily no one hassled me. Chalked it up to a learning experience. The rest of the next couple weeks was fairly mundane, but still learned a lot on my own.

Until I went home the first time.

My son talked to the manager of a local flooring store and got a handshake agreement so I could park there for the weekend. Not an ongoing thing but I wanted to be close to the house so I could set the truck up and such. So my last load was a live unload about 20 minutes away and all was going well. While I was being unloaded, FM calls and says safety just got notification that my license has been suspended. Several calls back and forth to safety and no one has a solution to the fact that I can't move the truck so we now own the dock. Eventually gave up and oh so carefully moved the truck and parked on the street in front of the building. Luckily it was legal for me to park there.

Finally got an answer from DMV the next day. Turns out a truck I sold back in January wasn't re-registered and my insurance company told DMV I no longer had insurance on the vehicle (because why would I). Took nearly a week of round robin phone call tag with DMV to finally get it straightened out.

Got back on the road finally and it has been going good since. After a couple weeks on my own I went back to a terminal for my close quarters training and test. After that they transferred my to my permanent FM. All in all everything has been going well. Small glitches here and there but nothing that isn't typical or part of the learning process. Still dialing in clock management and parking, but again, as long as today I know a little more than yesterday, I'm fine.

So since I'm getting better a catching my breath I'm gonna be able to keep up on the forums a little better.

See you all on the road. Roehl truck 6301

Seems I fell off the face of the earth for a bit there, but I'm still rolling along.

I had a great time with my trainer. Luckily we got along well and I learned a bunch from him. He is an O/O based out of the Atlanta area. Spent the bulk of our time in Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. Two people who are strangers in this small space can definitely be stressful but we did pretty good. Since he liked to be home whenever possible I got many nights with the truck to myself. Got plenty of practice backing at truck stops and docks, and he was able to balance the real world training with the book training. All in all a great experience. I spent three weeks with him and tested out in Conley Ga. Unfortunately that was the week of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown so I was stuck in the terminal for an extra day and a half. Finally got home for a few days and then I headed to the Gary Indiana terminal to pick up my truck. Did one more check out ride and they set me loose.

First solo load was from the terminal to just north of Detroit. Ride up there went fine, dropped my trailer off, and lo and behold, no empties there. Not unheard of but of course on my first time out. Took three phone calls to convince weekend FM there was no trailer there. That's when they started trying to figure out what to do with me. I had looked at the parking situation, and any dedicated spots were quite a ways away. Couldn't overnight at the consignee. Watching my clock dwindle as I checked in every so often. With 45 minutes on my clock they told me to bobtail to a safe parking location for the night. Ran out of time still 20 miles from the rest stop I was trying to make. Ended up in a mall parking lot for the night and luckily no one hassled me. Chalked it up to a learning experience. The rest of the next couple weeks was fairly mundane, but still learned a lot on my own.

Until I went home the first time.

My son talked to the manager of a local flooring store and got a handshake agreement so I could park there for the weekend. Not an ongoing thing but I wanted to be close to the house so I could set the truck up and such. So my last load was a live unload about 20 minutes away and all was going well. While I was being unloaded, FM calls and says safety just got notification that my license has been suspended. Several calls back and forth to safety and no one has a solution to the fact that I can't move the truck so we now own the dock. Eventually gave up and oh so carefully moved the truck and parked on the street in front of the building. Luckily it was legal for me to park there.

Finally got an answer from DMV the next day. Turns out a truck I sold back in January wasn't re-registered and my insurance company told DMV I no longer had insurance on the vehicle (because why would I). Took nearly a week of round robin phone call tag with DMV to finally get it straightened out.

Got back on the road finally and it has been going good since. After a couple weeks on my own I went back to a terminal for my close quarters training and test. After that they transferred my to my permanent FM. All in all everything has been going well. Small glitches here and there but nothing that isn't typical or part of the learning process. Still dialing in clock management and parking, but again, as long as today I know a little more than yesterday, I'm fine.

So since I'm getting better a catching my breath I'm gonna be able to keep up on the forums a little better.

See you all on the road. Roehl truck 6301

Oh, WOW, Jim!!!

Nothing like 'really' getting your 'feet wet' starting out, right? (Or muddy, in your sense, LoL!)

I was 'close' to sending out an MIA or a BOLO for ya; hahaha! Thanks for checking back in, and... please stop back as time permits, good sir!

Stay safe;

~ Anne ~

LOVE THE DMV!!!!