Steel haulers, basic question

In my opinion, next to hauling Hazmat, steel seems, (at least to me) to come in 2nd or a 3rd place for the most dangerous material to haul. This discussion came up last weekend in Baton Rouge while I was at a Hazmat Response Team training seminar, (I'm a Hazmat tech with the Shreveport Fire Dept and on a State of La. Response team).

My question to you all is this type of hauling lucrative for you all? I know Hazmat for the oil patch, "Was", or maybe still is for a few, a high paying gig. But, does the dangers of hauling steel it make it worth it? I've seen some pretty intense pics of cabs literally split in half from coils breaking free and rolling forward off the deck. Steel beams sliding forward or even off of flats and falling onto 4 wheelers, etc. Are there big differences in cpm between sheet/flat steel, coils, beams, tubes? I'm just curious strictly and I can promise you I'm not looking to get into that side of hauling. I'm happy with my belly dumps hauling rock and raw frac sand. But, the discussion of old war stories was brought up of incidents we've made over the years involving trucks hauling hazmat materials and I brought up steel hauling and if anyone had actually made an accident involving trucks hauling steel. Much to my surprise, out of 38 professional firefighters/medics and hazmat techs, no one had ever made a accident involving steel in the state of La. I'm sure it happens more than I think, but I was surprised and pleased that no one had.

Is Steel where it's at for you all that haul it? I hope so because it seems like a dangerous product to push around the USA, for low cpm's.

 

Wow, this just doesn't make sense to me. I would have easily thought those of you hauling steel were making at least $2 cpm and up, period. And that's regardless of what the market is doing. It's no wonder this industry suffers like it does. Every one wants a truck, but no one wants to pay for the truck. And I agree, Insurance companies are flying truck companies into the ground as well. But, insurance is flying a lot of businesses into the ground.

Hay bails, that's a surprise for me too. Didn't realize that was such a issue. It kills me that companies wanting products hauled still wanna pay O/O and carrier companies like it was still 1982.
I'm just sorta floored on these steel cpm rates. Sheeze.