Am I out of my mind for wanting to do this ?

Discussion in 'Flatbed Trucking Forum' started by SamuraiTater, Aug 11, 2017.

  1. spyder7723

    spyder7723 Road Train Member

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    Yep the vertical rail is fine. But the top and bottom flange absolutely will weaken the frame. I had started to respond the other day then erased it cause i realized it was nothing but truck stop counter bs anyway. No shipper is going to assume the liability of welding to a trailer when you can simply chain down any framing the load needs.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2017
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  3. ChaoSS

    ChaoSS Road Train Member

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    Your'e probably right there. I still wouldn't want to let a customer weld anything to the trailer. Any needed supports can be made independently, and the whole assembly can be secured with straps/chains as needed.
     
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  4. spyder7723

    spyder7723 Road Train Member

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    Don't worry, no customer will ever try to weld to your trailer.
     
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  5. ChaoSS

    ChaoSS Road Train Member

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    And here I was, in the school of nobody will ever hire anybody unless they've spent the last ten years working their way through mega carriers who pay crap but give you an APU, learning that that was going to be a regular concern.

    :confused:
     
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  6. LoudOne

    LoudOne Medium Load Member

    If it's been heat treated it MAY effect the structural integrity. (More than likely.) Really depends on the how the person prepares the metal to begin with.
     
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  7. LoudOne

    LoudOne Medium Load Member

    Oh and just for the record Volvo's here maybe considered useless (well the white ones and their drivers lol) but back home they did the job well.

    62.5 tonnes 3000 km round trips in 3 days lol and even worked as hard as a flat bedder as we had to lift/or slide gates then secure loads close up and lock down curtains. Then roll on for a 14 hour drive.... received_241199006321877.jpeg
     
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  8. TPS Report

    TPS Report Bobtail Member

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  9. SamuraiTater

    SamuraiTater Light Load Member

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    Yes !!! I have updates, indeed !

    I used my final three weeks of vacation / Paid Time Off to go through a quickie CDL school. I wasn't real happy with the minimal hours of training I received for the money but hey, I was trying to get it done in a real short window so.....

    I passed the skills and road test on the first try and earned my class A CDL last week. During school, I decided NOT to submit any applications for employment because they all required a signed release at the bottom which authorized various third parties to verify my employment. And even though I put "Do Not Contact My Employer" on the application, you know some third party person would probably call anyway. And if my employer knew what I was doing with the last of my PTO time, they'd likely fire me on the spot and refuse to even pay me out for my PTO.

    Imagine my surprise when the first day of school we get called into the office one by one to verify paperwork and this admin woman looks at my application and recognized the small town in Ohio some 600 miles away where my company HQ is located. Yeah, buddy, she knows that town, it's where she was born and raised. How coincidental ? She is also familiar with the company I work for. In fact she knows some people there. She says, "Do you know XXXXX ? That's my cousin."

    Boy was she shocked when I told her that was my VP and the woman who would fire me right now if she found out I was NOT in a deer stand and in fact at a truck driving school. To her credit, she was very apologetic that she had even mentioned her relationship with my boss and assured me my boss would not find out where I was.

    .........More.............
     
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  10. SamuraiTater

    SamuraiTater Light Load Member

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    Anyhoo..... While everyone else was getting pre-hire notifications by about the second week, I was laying low in the weeds until I had the CDL in my wallet and the vacation pay in my bank account.

    Thanks to you guys, I had a good bit of the information I needed before I ever went to school. I was able to confirm lots of things I'd Iearned here about flatbed trucking, recruiting mis-truths, common carrier policies and owner-operator stuff. I had very good ideas about what I wanted to do and who I'd like to do it with if possible. I feel like the homework I'd did really paid off.

    I have it narrowed down to a priority list of what's important to me pretty much in this order:

    1. I want to flatbed (for a variety of reasons).
    2. I want to be long haul, gone 3 weeks plus at a time and running west of I-35 primarily.
    3. I want competitive pay and with a reputable company that treats you human.
    4. I want the experience of a standard transmission. Maybe later I'll appreciate an automatic, but right now I need to learn.


    Out of school I started contacting specific carriers with Melton being the primary target. Speaking directly with a recruiter, she's filling in the application over the phone. She used the words, "I'm making you an offer" and on Wednesday of this past week, she wanted to know if she could send me a bus ticket to travel to Tulsa over the weekend. She wanted me at their orientation on Monday morning. I nearly said hell yeah, on the spot, but I actually need a few days to close things out with my employer. They need their vehicle back and I need to close out my storage unit for starters.

    When we covered medical questions on the application I was completely forthcoming about a kidney disease I've had since childhood. I told her their doc was probably going to see trace amounts of blood in my urine and that would be a marker to them for major kidney issues. But that it's a benign kidney condition I've had all my life, it never stopped me from serving in the military for 20 years or from any other activity. I told her I'd even bring documentation from my primary care physician stating what it is, how it's been well monitored all my life and not a cause for concern.

    I really believed I needed to be honest on the application. If I'd of denied any knowledge of my condition and just allowed them to find it at orientation, there's a good chance they send me home for falsifying information. Later that evening, I get a text from this recruiter stating she could NOT get my application approved. I called her the next morning and she told me she had submitted it up the chain and somebody up above her shot it down and did not give her their reason.

    ...So Melton is off the table.....
     
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  11. SamuraiTater

    SamuraiTater Light Load Member

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    Meanwhile, Maverick is ringing my phone off the hook and leaving messages. I called them back and they'd like me to come to their orientation. I like everything about Maverick except the fact that they run all automatics.

    Been hearing from McElroy and Boyd Brothers as well.

    Friday afternoon while driving to Atlanta for a Saturday job at Grady Memorial, I thought about a recruiting poster I'd seen on the classroom wall. It was for Senn Freight Lines out of Newberry, SC. That's pretty local to me and I'd never heard of them. I figured they must be small and regional, but just for ####s and giggles I looked them up and called them to find out a little more.

    Boy was I surprised ! Yeah, they're small. About 100 trucks. But they run all 48 and have at least two weekly coast to coast runs. Talking to a recruiter in that Newberry office I learned they are primarily long haul. They run all 10-speed Internationals and Volvos. This could be the company for me. :)

    Friday evening when I got to my hotel in Atlanta, I received a call from a recruiter at TMC. They'd like me to come to their orientation on the 23rd. I told her that sounded good and I'd call her back on Tuesday to confirm. The disciplined environment TMC is known for doesn't scare me. In fact I embrace that sort of atmosphere. I like everything about TMC except the freight lanes they could provide for long haul. There's a difference between "running all 48" and having trucks that run in all 48.

    Monday morning I'm going to sit down with that recruiter from Senn in his office and by mid-day Monday I'm pulling the trigger on one company or another.
     
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