Bad or good deal for OTR Flatbed?

Only you get to make that call, I'm afraid. 6 months experience, and you don't want to drive for a mega, when most of the industry has always required about a year's experience just to get away from a mega? Essentially, you've already limited yourself to find out what's 'fair' or not by accepting what you've taken, and not wanting the other. I hauled free deadhead with the guy that bounced my checks, when I first went OTR. He tried that only when loaded stuff on me. Never again, and I expect direct deposit to make sure there are no rubber checks ever again.

You have a choice, to make for yourself, and only you can tell what's fair for you. If you like where you are, talk to the guy you say is 'a nice guy' and let him know your concerns....and find out how nice he really is. Or just grin and bear it until you get your year in where you're at.
Have you learned how to roll your hours yet, or are you just burning them? Are you on ELD? (New truck, most likely unless it's a Glider)
Are you Canadian? Because Americans only require a 34 hour reset.
On the whole, I'd rather do my time with a mega carrier, micro managing me, as a new driver and getting paid for every mile driven at the least, because you don't get paid for non-driving time. From what I've seen, the mega rate per mile is close to what you're showing, and they get paid every mile they actually drive.

Your call. Good luck.

 

When I did flatbed at my first company (a reputable large starter company) I made less than that and the tarping was free. I felt like you do. I wasn't experienced enough to move up to anyone else. At the 2-year mark I moved up to a better company. I look back and no regrets.

 

It's not great but everyone have to start somewhere and there's plenty worse paying gigs around... the thing with flatbed is you gotta run your elog real tight, since most deliveries and pickups are bankers hours... if you can get unloaded in morning and reload in afternoon , that's the way to keep high miles.... a good dispatcher and a good driver that manages time effectively you can still get 3k+ miles a week depending how fast ur truck goes and what area of country you run...
at 6 months experience I wouldn't expect you to be an expert on any of that stuff but it seems u are doing well so far... just keep at it, put in some time with the company and just keep learning everything you can securement wise. If u ever got a question how to secure something, there's lots of knowledgeable open deck guys on this forum that can help u....

Now let me throw you a little bone and you can do what u want with it. Those of us that are running high miles on flatbed aren't logging all the time it takes to tarp and secure and whatever else... the vast majority of the time I spend at a shipper/reciever is spent in sleeper berth for 2 reasons.. the first reason and the most important is it stops your 14 hour clock when u get over 2 hours consecutive... the other reason is staying on duty all the time while tarping and securing eats away at your 70 as well as you won't stop ur 14 which causes u to shut down earlier which costs u miles which may move a delivery to afternoon instead of morning, which means u can't reload til the next day...which by the end of the week may cause you to lose a whole day or a whole nother load... now i still log on duty time to make everything look good on a log for inspection/audit purposes.
I'm not saying you should do that because technically it aint right and i dont wanna give u my bad habits, but its just showing u a different way forward that will boost your miles and your money. You can run ur show how u like ... I ran just under 160k miles last year on the west coast exclusively. Loading/reloading 3 times a week.. I make less than you on CPM but more on the weekly paycheck, but all my deadhead miles are paid as well too... that's kinda messed up they don't give that to you

 

Yeah, that bites.

@Graceful Trucking , some places pay a lower rate for the deadhead miles, like half, to incentivize you to get there faster but safer. Not paying deadhead miles just makes you run your fool head off to get to the paid loaded miles.....which sounds like what this guy's doing. Of course, he may be doing it because you haven't yet learned how to manage your time, and conserve it.

The other thing is, as long as your company, at least last I remember unless it's changed, is that if your company specifically allows you to be not responsible for the vehicle while off-duty, and you have a card or note in your permits book saying that (Swift had a card), you can be off-duty while at a shipper/delivery while not working, which conserves your hours to do as you like while waiting for them to get to you, although it doesn't stop your clock, like @D.Tibbitt says, but you're also not burning up On-duty and driving time. A pre-trip needs to be a minimum of 15 minutes. Loading/unloading 15 or so minutes, whatever it takes you (wink), and a post-trip needs to be filled out on closing for the day's run, but at least when I was logging, it wasn't required to show any time allotted to it, just noting that it was done. Also, your break, I understand can now be used as On-duty not driving, so when you fuel up enroute, that time is not lost unnecessarily and is dual use. You're getting a break from driving, and are doing load check, fuel, etc, during that time period, again, conserving and using your time efficiently.

@Graceful Trucking , rolling your hours means, using all the above hints, you can conserve/manage your time and essentially, run while not running out of hours. If you're on the 8 days/70 hour logging system, then as long as your hours per day never go over about 8-9 hours a day, you should never need a 34 hour reset, because when your 8th day approaches, you start getting those hours from 8 days prior, back into your bank to use. Do the math. 70 hours / 8 = 8.75 hours a day. Some days are shorter, say, you wait at the shipper/receiver, load, tarp, drive. The 14 hour day will be mixed with On-duty time, driving time, off-duty time, and then 10 hours of sleeper/off duty time. As long as your On-duty time and driving time barely exceeds 8.75 hours a day, you'll be able to continue rolling. But make sure your math is correct. With an ELD, as long as you use the above recommendations to log your time, you should be able to do that and never run out of hours to drive/work. Some days will be longer, when you can drive all day, for instance...but then you have to route plan your self so if possible, you land at the shipper/delivery and can sleep on property (as long as it's allowed and safe). This way, you can save on that short morning delivery drive that eats your On-duty and driving time, before you start loading/unloading. (You'll figure how to work this out if you're smart)

Unless they've changed it, you only do a 34 hour reset then, as an American on US soil. If you go to Canada, that's a different can of worms that requires you to have a 36 hour reset, again....when you have to reset, but with the above recommendations, that reset can be done when you're back at home, whenever that is, as long as you roll your hours and manage your time correctly. Try it.

Good luck.


Edit: Corrected the 14 hour day, from the 11 hour day.

 

I had the same problem, but then again, are you getting paid to sit and wait at shipper/receiver yards? Then why should you log as on-duty, since with permission from your employer to be able to be off-duty while waiting, you can log as off-duty? It's not dishonest, it's allowing you to not be penalized for the inefficiency that a lot of companies have in their logistics systems. Why should you be penalized because they aren't efficient as you can be?

I don't know about you, but post-trip inspections time don't have to be logged and I can do a pretty good vehicle inspection off duty, so that I only need to do a quick 15 minute check at the beginning of the day, like making sure no one pulled my 5th wheel lock. Checking tires, oil level, air supply test/check, load check, etc. If I need fuel, I can incorporate that into my pre-check, since you're supposed to do certain things at stops like load checks and tire checks...during stops and fueling. You see? You need to incorporate and run efficiently using each moment of time to complete your responsibilities to your advantage...legally.

Once you develop these routines and systems, you'll find you're much faster, thorough and efficient so that you'll actually have time to grab a quick coffee and a snack, within those 15 minutes. You're doing flatbed, so learn our systems. When I drove a van on occasion, I'd be able to get my 10 hour in while waiting for these companies to get me loaded at the docks, that's how much time they wasted. Should I be on duty during that time when I can be in the sleeper for that time and get a daily reset? You see, different sectors require different routines and time management techniques. Don't think of them as honest or dishonest, but tailored to the job you have to do, and to meet the legal requirements with the amount of time they give you to do these things, legally. Run during hours of night, if possible, so you have less chance of problems with traffic in cities. After you load, maybe shutdown early where you can get a parking spot before everybody else does...or if you've just started, run all night and sleep during the day. That's how I ran, and one of the reasons to sleep on property, if possible, because you avoid that daylight traffic, and when you''re unloaded, you drive through that city while everyone else is at work, and out of your way to your reload point, get loaded, and then figure out the time you need to get there and plan to drive early, late, whatever it takes. Driving ruins your idea of a daily schedule of a sleeping routine. You may have to adjust it to make delivery, etc... These are things you need to learn, and until you do, you will flounder, waste time, do on road resets (you didn't want to do) etc

Hope this helps ease your 'conscience'.

 

I'm as honest as the day is long!