Prime, why do you have to be so tarp happy?

That plastic wrap won't stay long once you get rolling down the interstate. You would look in your mirrors and see shredded plastic flapping in the breeze. That plastic is strong, but not as strong as the wind.

 

Simply, if the customer requires that the product be tarped (and the customer is not always the shipper OR the receiver, it's whomever booked the load and is paying the freight bill), then the product needs to be tarped. Prime doesn't make that decision, the driver doesn't make that decision, the customer that is paying everyones salary is the one that gets to make it.

 

and so goes the life of folks who only get 25 bucks or so to tarp. save your money, buy your own truck instead of doing the lease op thing, and get with someone like landstar or mercer where you pick and choose loads that don't have to be tarped, or either get 100 per cent of the tarp charge.

 

This reminds me when I pulled flats for roehl and lonestar.

About 3 months into working for roehl I noticed I tarp a lot. I'd get to the customer and they'd ask me why I tarped it? I'd say I was told too. Anyway, after being annoyed that I would see my load be pulled from outside or out of the mud and require it be tarped, I started asking the shipper and the end customer. At roehl I hauled A LOT of lumber from Georgia Pacific. I liked GP because they had tarp machines, really helpful. Anyway, every time I'd get a load to Lowe's, I'd call the store. If they didn't require it be tarped, it didn't get tarped.


Now when I worked for Lonestar I got lazy, I'd tarp maybe once a month. So when I did have to tarp I still contacted the consignee and asked if it needed a tarp. We never tarped those shrink wrapped engines.


Anyway, didn't mean to hijack your thread, but I agree that tarping sometimes sucked. Other times it made me a LOT of extra pay and made the time consuming task worth it. I did take pride in a tarp job with straps underneath and going down the road without any parachuting action happening. I always used 100 bungies though so that helped keep the tarp in check haha

 

the white plastic shrink wrap stays on very well, as does the blue, but many want tarps as extra protection

 

If there is EVER a claim against a CAT LOAD you pulled , you will be glad you TARPED IT , some of their customers think you are delivering a ROLLS ROYCE not an industrial grade piece of equipment

 

Had an argument with night dispatchers over Tarping here just a while back. Picked up some billets that had literally just came out of the furnace. 01 said it would take 24-48 hours before they would completely cool off. Got a call from night dispatch demanding to know why I wouldn't tarp them. When I explained it to him I was told "this wasn't an excuse" lol. Now, if they call, I just say "yup" and keep Rollin on.

 

It could be a security issue, so people can't see what you are hauling.