Roehl Transport Employee Reviews about "dispatch"

Pros

The training is A+ they really want you to succeed your first 3 months. You can move to any fleet without much trouble. You can get .11 CPM tax free. Benefits aren't bad.

Cons

Dispatch will call you during your sleeper time to put loads on you, despite if you're awake enough to take the loads or not. Your dispatcher is not your friend and will only want the loads to get there so they can get the bonuses for early delivery. We dont get anything for that stuff. Just get your CDL A and start looking for other companies. Not enough pay for the stress they put you through.

Pros

The phase 1 training, out of the Appleton, WI terminal, was great. Felt prepared, informed, and passed my CDL. My OTR trainer, in phase 2, also an excellent experience.

Cons

Phase 2 training has you out on the road for a minimum of 19 days. I was fortunate to be matched with a knowledgeable, and conscientious, trainer. Sadly, the trainer and the actual work of driving, and visiting customers, were the only bright spots. Training was a harried experience at the beginning, because dispatch scheduled us as a team, instead of trainer/trainee. That meant more than a week of 16 + hour days. My trainer was finally able to wind down the length of the days, but we were still given dispatches with impossible timelines, that would guarantee a domino affect of late arrivals. A lesson to learn in this business, if you’re late for an appointment, you will not receive detention pay when the client retains you over two hours. At the end of phase 2, while coordinating my transition to a solo driver, I was explicitly asked to lie. Roehl does not practice the ethical guidelines they’ve listed in their Driver Reference Guide.

Pros

Driver orientation is the only legitimate point regarding this company. But it comes with an unjustified and potentially damaging cost.

Cons

Fleet managers having managerial discretion when they are not actual managers. They are dispatchers and are not part of the hiring process and should not be a liaison to Human Resources, acting as an alternative to such, or any other departments within the company. Since everyone in dispatch are classified as managers, there are no supervisors or HR reps at any of the terminal locations. PLEASE NOTE: This Company participates in predatory practices in the form of their debt contractual agreements used in the hiring process of new employees and apply this practice to their orientation class. DO NOT SIGN THESE CONTRACTS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!! Once you sign you are automatically in debt to Roehl, and they can terminate you without cause, especially if they deem you an unfavorable employee. They WILL draft your final paycheck immediately following termination. From recruiters to dispatchers, the employees at this company will lie to you about everything, and are not forthcoming and transparent. They will also interfere with your pay, delay detention pay, dishonor home time requests, and subject you to unprovoked hostility, intentionally poor communication interactions and hostile work environment because they know they have you on the hook with a contract. This is in part how they make their money. They will sell the so-called debt contract to a collections agency. They will also alter your HOS, force loads regardless of safety concerns, AND WILL USE HIRERIGHT AS A REVENGE TACTIC FOR ALL TERMINATED EMPLOYEES. This company also engages in coercion, which is a federal violation of FMCSA.

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.

Pros

Good hometime and safe company

Cons

Dispatch leaves you hanging and a lot of pay discrepancies. Keep an eye on your pay stubs.

Pros

Very driver oriented. I've been here 10 years, I've been OTR, I've been local. I've always been treated with respect. I had problems with one dispatcher, Roehl made it right.

Cons

Pay raises are hard to come by. As a local, don't expect one. The one place that irritates me is pay. Yes, I get paid well, but we should be getting annual reviews and raises. OTR, regional, dedicated are offered raises based on preformance, however the catch is amount of loads and miles. Drivers can't control that. Some dispatchers along with the owners love to micro manage. Roehl is taking full advantage of technology.

Pros

New equipment Freightliners and Internationals

Cons

Terrible dispatch and fuel and routing solutions. Slow to pay missing trips. they go through driver managers like i go through socks. No home time and forced dispatch.

Pros

Good training company. My advice to new drivers is work for this company and then get out. They will treat you like crap if you work for them more than a year. They want you to resign because they get money from the Government for training drivers. So if you resign then they have an excuse to bring in new drivers. They will deliberately make your life miserable so that you hurry up and quit and open up a space for a new driver.

Cons

Terrible, belligerent, ignorant, and lying dispatchers out of the Gary terminal. Making $300/week. Bad directions in the Qualcomm. The management treats the drivers like crap and sees that they get paid crap. No benefits.