nonamegiven,

What eqiuptment do they use for flat bedders?

Any Swift driver, my friend Ed who lives in Corning NY loves Swift and has offered to get me on. He has told my uncle, who lives next door to him, that you can make a fortune based out of Syracuse. I would like to know if any info is true.

Kinghunter

I might be interested in this. Have you asked him what he means by a fortune? How much per year? Based on a dedicated route, does he mean? Are the rates per mile higher there?

World, Corning, NY is a small town where everyone knows one another. The houses are cheap and I think he does national. I have not spoken to him in 4 years though the next time I talk to my uncle, I will ask him to forward my number and have him call me.

Kinghunter from Melbourne

I understand. Whenever I hear the terms " make a fortune " I have to ask what that person means. There are plenty of truckers who would be happy to make $60,000 in a year, which he might call a fortune, but other people would not consider that a fortune, it would simply be better than $40,000. $40K sounds like it is pretty close to what many truckers make in a year, at least their first couple of years, working 40-45 hours a week.

Comments from the vets? It is hard to generalize, I know. I am simply trying to quanitify the term a " fortune " to give me some numbers to put into a spreadsheet. It makes no sense that Syracuse would be much different than any other part of the nation, unless he was talking about the numbers of miles which are available--but that still means one has to do the hours, which are clearly limited.

Curious to know what the real numbers are.

Curious to know what the real numbers are.[/quote]

He has been with them since 04, so I imagine close to 50+. In 04 he had a brand new Volvo VNL670. Right now he driving is a 08 Volvo. I will try to get more info and will PM it over to you. Swift has its ups and owns and I only see their ups.

Kinghunter

Got it. Is that what he is calling a fortune? How many hours does he work in that year?

Just curious, as we hear so many things on this site, it is hard to quantify.

A fortune all depends on where you call home, I believe. I make excellent money considering where I live. If I lived in, say, NYC... I'd have a hard time making it on 65k a year. My house is 4,100 sq ft with a 2 acre lot and cost me 119k in Central Kentucky. A newer house (built in 1991) so it's in excellent shape, as well. That same house would cost you 4x as much in California, New York etc... and then that 65k a year doesn't go as far, eh?

I was a school teacher before deciding to drive a truck. I tell you what, truck driving has it's downfalls that's for sure. However, my pay, home time and everything else makes it more than worth it to me. Yeah, I'd like to be home _every_ night if I could but that's just not reasonable in the trucking industry.

If it doesn't work out or I get tired of driving a truck at least I have a college degree and other avenues to fall back on. However, I find driving a truck pretty liberating. There are weeks where I never once talk to a "boss" outside of accepting pre-plans. I just do my work and go home and get left alone. To me that's pure aces.

What do you mean? I haul a covered wagon and still get paid for tarping, so I have it made in the shade.

We have regular flatbeds, step decks and covered wagons. To get a covered wagon you have to be on the PLS or G-TOWN account. So, unless you're part of a specialized account that hauls steel only, you won't get a covered wagon. We have Wabash and East trailers.

I'll admit, a lot of our trailers are crappy on the flatbed side. They keep them in circulation FOREVER, it seems.

We have pretty standard issue flatbed equipment as far as chains, binders, tarps etc... they're pretty much the same as all other companies. If you can get in good with an equipment guy you can get some top of the line equipment as they do have some 7/16ths chains and 12,500lb binders and such. I'm lucky enough to have 8 of each. Sure beats the dog chains and binders, that's for sure.

If you have any specific questions I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

Are the trucks for flatbedding the same condos or a different breed? What kind?

Kinghunter

Well golly gee whiz.... that sells me back to swift... a recliner.... maybe to make up for the times you need to sit in the terminal. how spending money on fixing the broke trucks,, washing the trucks,,, teaching the drivers how to actually back up..,,, and a flat screen tv... boy oh boy.. really can be making money sitting back in that recliner and watching a flat screen tv...