I live in kansas is there alot of loads my way

Go Reefer trls and you should have no problem getting loads out of Kansas. Meat packing companies operate out of Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska. Many companies will deadhead you to Mid West to pick up meat load. When I was with Trans Am they deadheaded me about 600 miles to pick up at Tyson a few years ago.

 

Tarping and securing loads is mostly common sense and not that hard. Look at the load and think what it may do in certain situations and secure it to counteract that. You will learn all about that during securement training at the trucking company.
I've tarped/untarped and folded tarps in a Chicago blizzard and just looked at is as part of the job.
I've had to pull off the interstate and re-adjust tarps that the high winds ripped loose or caused tarp bungees to break. No big deal, just part of the job.

 

Here's what I'll tell you, Kansasboy...

...I drove for TMC for almost four years, was a trainer for about half of that. At the time I lived in Indiana, currently in Tennessee now. But had actually been to and through Kansas a LOT. While there may not be necessarily the same volume of freight in KS at large as say a Tennessee or an Indiana or an Ohio, that's not to say there's NO freight. There is. But, for starters...

...One of TMC's four terminals is in Joplin MO, roughly about 3 hours or so straight south of KC. And being that you live as close to KC as you do (what's Ottawa, what, about 30 miles or so from KCK?), I'd say you could probably do pretty well getting home most weekends. (Inside TMC's primary hiring area, they guarantee 46 of 52 weekends home...and I-35 is pretty much the western fringe of that primary area. Outside of that they say every other weekend.) KC at one point had a heavy iron pipe and plastic pipe operation going--for all I know, they may still, so that's working in your favor. That said, TMC also runs a Lowe's distribution center about 40 or so miles up north of KC in St Joseph, so it wouldn't surprise me if that location ended up being your primary "get home" location. (Be warned, however...that is also one of the most despised DCs in the country, so...) There's also a few steel places up in St. Joe, too. Speaking of TMC hotspots, back down in aforementioned Joplin is a place called Tamko...it's one of TMC's biggest roofing product customers (shingles and roofing felt rolls) as well as Tamko's home HQ, meaning more available loads (& that place stays busy). While I don't know how much of that stuff goes north, that could also be a homebound location for you...I'd think you could just jump MO-171 towards Pittsburg and then run up US-69 and then whatever local route you wanted to get home if you were to get a thru load going that way. (Can you tell I've been thru KS a time or two? Lol)

As for in KS...what some say is true: you may find yourself dealing with hay. That said, in all my times going in and out of KS, 90% of the time I pulled salt out of one of the Cargill plants either in Hutchinson, about 30 or 40 miles west-northwest of Wichita (call it Salt Central), or about another 30 or 40 miles further north in a place called Lyons (North American Salt). I also picked up pretty regularly out of a steel I-beam place down closer to Joplin in a place called Parsons. So there's that.

That being said...you'll probably find yourself in and out of Oklahoma a lot. There's a good number of steel pipe operations down there, in Edmund (which 90% of that stuff goes down to Houston TX, or did when I ran it), Tulsa, a drywall place in a boondocks named Edmund (it's southwest of OKC in a place back behind nowhere), another paper place straight east of Tulsa in a town called Pryor (if you ever want to go to California, that's the place to do it from--they routinely ship paper out to the Bay area and the L.A. area). I remember a coiled rod plant in Stillwater OK. And further down I-35 almost to the TX border is another roofing place called Atlas, in a town called Ardmore.

There's also a decent volume of freight into and out of MO, and surprisingly in and out of Arkansas as well (that's another place I found myself going a lot, mainly for the lumber loads). And of course, there's also Iowa (which being where you are really doesn't put you too terribly far from TMC's home base in Des Moines. I ran a few John Deere loads from their Ankeny plant up north of Des Moines to and through KS a fair bit too.)

So that's what I can tell you about freight. Of course, all this was also current ad of about a year ago, too. But at least you have an idea of what's around you. TMC likes to keep drivers in about a 500-mile circle from their home base when practical to ensure you can get back home on the weekends. Of course, much of that also depends on you as the driver, as well. That said...

...TMC loves them some veterans. (Fifteen year Army vet here.) That said, they also expect their drivers to run hard, as well. (That's kind of a necessary evil in this business, too.) But after a while you get used to it, even get to have some fun while doing it, and I'll say I actually managed to make some good $ with them (my average take-home pay after taxes generally hovered around the $800-$850 mark). I'd say give someone a call of you're really interested.

And feel free to hit me up if you have any more questions about them!

 

No. I run my own authority.