Lepton1's transition from door swinger to flatbed

I'm about six weeks into my career at ACME. Load securement is becoming much better. Every chance I get I watch how the experienced hands do it, ask questions, and try out new tricks. Seems everyone has their own style and methods, and I've used a blend of things to become pretty efficient, especially when doing multistop loads or unloads.

Pay ranges according to the dispatches. My smallest check was $500 the first week they were trying me out, and some of that was the luck of the draw and a slow week. My largest check was $2200. Average seems to be around $1500 per week.

Earlier this week we had a driver's meeting and it was pretty upbeat about the prospects for the industry. Several customers are reporting they are planning to bring in more rigs and get them operational in the 4th quarter or 1st quarter of '16. The word is to get ready to start going strong next year, and rates should be going up again.

I know that many of the experienced hands have been bemoaning the fact that rates have dropped. In my book, coming in at the bottom of the market, I think the rates seem great compared to what I'm used to outside the oil industry, so any increases will only be gravy for me.

Had a serious talk with my older brother. He's ready to sell me his truck, a 2003 KW T2000 that just had a rebuild, new clutch, rebuilt transmission, etc. etc. that's in good shape now. I'm leary about making the plunge right now to O/O, but that's definitely my goal with ACME. If I buy his truck now I'd be making payments and need to aggressively build a maintenance reserve. Time for some serious analysis of a business plan.

 

I'd say about 5% of total miles is offroad. It varies widely. It could be a local 100 mile round trip with 20 miles offroad, or a 2000 mile round trip with 50 miles of off road. There's a fair amount of highway driving involved. Once you are dispatched you need to haul ### to get the load and make the delivery, so trying to cut down on mpg by cruising at 60-62 mph won't cut it.

Seems to me that driving a truck with a bunk sleeper that's 13'6" high creates quite a bit of vacuum behind the cab. That's why I'm starting to think and plan for the day I get into this as an O/O. Right now in an '07 Freightliner with a Detroit series 60 I'm averaging 5.0 mpg, running at 70-75 mph whenever necessary to get the load done on time. It was originally specced for OTR as a Swift truck and was ungoverned as soon as the owner came over to ACME, running with a 10 speed that is freakish IMHO in how it runs through the gears. 5th at 1500 rpm hits 15 mph, so there's quite a range of gears to select running below that, which is a definite bonus running off road.

Loaded heavy, which is most of the time, even 2-3% grades will require a downshift from 10th to 9th.

 

Thank you Scott! Hopefully this thread might be of value for someone that is transitioning to flatbed and/or oil field work. Wasn't sure whether to put this in the oil field forum or the flat bed forum.

I've been accused in the past of over thinking decisions, particularly when it comes to business. However, I know for a fact that's saved my butt on more than one occasion.

Jumping into working the oil fields like I have has meant a fairly steep learning curve. I've used this forum, google searches, and Youtube searches in addition to consulting numerous drivers regarding how to secure loads and work with the system that is used by ACME.

I just finished delivering a load from a rig NW of OKC to two yards in the Houston area. Got stuck in a ditch trying to back out of what I thought was my first customer this morning, had to have the friendly folks stop traffic on a narrow two lane residential road for me to blind side out and paid way too much attention to making sure the trailer tandems didn't get stuck in the ditch. Had to use the inter axle lock, rock it back in reverse and jam it into granny low to get enough momentum to climb out. The business I thought was the correct address told me that "many trucks pull in here thinking it is 'X Company'", but their address doesn't really exist on this "main" road.

Idling the afternoon away in the Flying J just north of Houston off I-45, waiting to see if the Houston terminals might be able to scare up a load for me headed to OKC. The thing about ACME dispatching is that each terminal looks out for themselves. I hate the thought of deadheading all the way back to OKC, so I'll wait to see what the Houston terminals might be able to offer. I wouldn't might running and gunning down here for a while if they don't have anything headed back to OKC.

Now I think I've got the beginning of a good feel for these mixed loads to or from rigs. There's always some heavy motors and collars that are about 30' long, then some shorter motors and collars about 8-15' long. I lay out four 4x4's to allow for loading the shorter items next to the main stakes and have shorter stakes to throw in for good measure. Subs always go to the front and kit boxes or satellite boxes either go on top of the long pieces, on the side if there is room, or on the back. This Houston load was an easy one and went together like a charm at the rig.

 

Oh, you just HAD to bring that up. It brings back painful memories.

But seriously, can't help but figure there's a GPS story in that picture. Truth be told, that road doesn't look that far off from a few I've taken so far. You have to maintain your momentum and your wits.

 

The only training provided is two "ride alongs". The Ride Alongs aren't paid. Every O/O at ACME is responsible for doing RA's for new drivers.

I had the benefit of rooming with my brother, who's still laid up with a shoulder injury and is on workmen's comp, who's provided valuable advise how to organize my side boxes, winches, dunnage, etc. to be most efficient.

You don't need your own authority. I see you are in ND. I believe ACME has terminals up there. Each terminal is basically owned by the terminal manager as a franchise as far as I know.

I know for our terminal there is a freeze now on hiring new drivers, but all indications are that business will be picking up over the next year and hiring will pick up with it.

 

Yesterday I went on "Will Call" (I'll call when I want to go back on the board) for the second time in the last six weeks in order to have a mechanic come and replace the fan. I found a broken blade during my post trip.

It felt good to have a planned 34 hour reset, beers, and plenty of sleep. My brother and I met the mechanic and while he worked on replacing the fan we rewired a tail light on the trailer, added three more 4x4's to the dunnage (bringing the total to eight 4x4's long enough to go to the rails), strapped a set of two shorter 4x4's and 2x4's under the trailer (for building "sub boxes"), and screwed two full 4x4's to the front of the trailer to have a permanent front for a sub box.

Today we finished season 4 of Justified, played cribbage, and waited all day for a load for me. Finally got a call this evening to pick up a load at a rig near Horntower in the morning. Drove out to Okemah to take a 10 and get to the rig tomorrow morning at least an hour before the appointment. There will be at least three flatbed loads out of the rig, and I've learned to be early and first to load.