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For the most part, I love flatbedding. Most of our shippers treat us with respect, we don't usually wait a few hours to get loaded or unloaded, we go places that van drivers would never see, and the big one for me is our loads actually get used for something other than wiping someone's ###. Living/working on a farm most of my life, the big thing for me was the satisfaction of seeing how the work you did made a difference. I'd mow a field of hay, rake it, bail it, and haul it to the farm. Before I started driving, I was feeding the cows. I'd feed as they were being milked, and as they came out (in groups) you could watch the 300 cows eating as the milkman came and took away the milk for the day. The loads I haul aren't usually something that they have 100 other loads of the exact same thing just sitting there, waiting to be used. I did get my first O/D load the other day, and while it was a short haul it was quite interesting. Was hauling a Cat "Forwarder" and when I pulled in the rest area to do my load check and use the men's room, I couldn't believe how many people were checking out my load.

If I am following you right, I do my straps the same way. I get told all the time that it takes too long and I should do the "quick release" method. I just feel better the way I do it, and it IS my time not theirs!

The thrill of hauling spaghetti pipe out of Tulsa! Moves around like squirrel guts!! Oilfield pipe is fun, surface pipe is great, makes sound like Giant Liberty Bell for 3 minutes. Aluminun extrusions , 60 ft for Boeing 767 wings. Looks like a huge load but weighs 30,000. Cattle were more fun to haul cuz it was 2 decks of twist you gut out and chew holes in the seat in CO. Came around a corner on dirt, in and out of a ditch in TX one day and trailer rolled over, touched the ground and righted itself. Poor Angels, worked em hard.

Who do ya work for? And are you hauling new or used? I hauled junker cars down to the Mexican border, and then hauled newer cars back up to Montana. I didn't like the auctions, that's for sure. I would spend all day in L.A. or Phoenix looking for my cars at as many as four auctions.

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Sysco Delivery Driver-Teamsters Union Local 2

Flatbed is the only way to go !! Take pride in what you do and reep the benefits.

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Flatbed Bob

Quote:

KEEP THE RUBBER DOWN

Currently yob hunting. The car hauling fleece purchase did not work out. I just got fleeced out of a good $30,000 and wasted almost a yr of my life. If I never haul another car the rest of my life it'll be just fine with me.

I hate going to one stop for one car, and delivering the same. I hate car dealers who do not give one second of thought on where the trucks will park off road to deliver their cars. They seem to feel its just fine for you to park in the middle of the road with traffic flying by you on both sides. Well I value my life more than that.

I hated spending like you said all day at an auction looking for your cars that some other transporter decided to jump into and ride around looking for his cars and then never bother to put back for you to find.

And I hated being expected to dead head 50% of some trips when the company didn't have any freight.

Maybe I'm spoiled after driving for Landstar for almost 2 yrs. Its possible.

But I really dislike having a dispatcher!

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It kills me to think of it, but I think my days as a flatbedder may be numbered. I've alway had minor back problems and they seem to be getting worse. My heart is in this game, but my back seems to think otherwise.

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This is my winch bar. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my winch bar is useless. Without my winch bar, I am useless.

Yeah my back went out earlier this week and I got to thinking what happens if I can't bend to get my tarps or climb on the trailer. Sitting at home is one thing, one can rest and heal but if you're on the road and you put your back out then what?

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The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so
- Mark Twain

It ain't for the money. One reason I stayed with flatbeds is most of the places you go are open during the day, (I hate working nights) and the places you pick up and deliver to, it's not just a wharehouse or a dock to bump. I've got flatbeding in my blood is for sure.