Pros vs. Cons. Refer,flatbed,van,tanker

If you are concerned about the heat, pull a reefer. I did in the early 90's and when I was unloading, the reefer was running and it was nice and cool in there. Now things might have changed and they may not let you run them anymore, but it was a chilly 34 inside as I was unloading... Nice when it was 110 outside.

I have pulled them all also. I like flat as the reasons mentioned before, different loads, challenging to strap, easy to load and unload.
Tanker, I pulled gasoline and bulk cement, both are some work, but not too bad.

Everything else has been mentioned.

What pays the most? Well that depends on your experience, how much you want to run, what the company pays and if they have the miles.
You can go to a company that pays .50 a mile, but if you only get 1000 miles it is $500, but run for a company that pays .35 a mile and do 3000, it is $1050 I think?

You get the idea.

Good luck!

 

wow, I had no idea their were baffled foodgrade tankers. I pulled milk tankers for a while and they were all smoothbore. I was told all foodgrade had to be smoothbore cause bacteria could build up on the baffles in the hard to get spots even after washout. My time pulling foodgrade was ok,most places I delivered to were made for little trucks and thats a pain in the arse and some you had to back into with and I aint bull##### about 2 inches of clearance on both sides. Other than dogfood plants the recievers were very picky and could deny your load. A driver I woked with ended up dumping a haul load of milk in the field after it was denied twice. Wash tickets,samples,temp. of foodgrade is very important as people consume these products. The FDA will sometimes be at the scales or recievers also.

 

ok I get it now i think so reefers are the refrigerated,dry van like the name,i guess if a tanker id rather do gas or hazmat. becuase id have to raise hell if my load was denied and I wasnt paid but I read flats are better on gas better for o/O on one of these forums makes sense but not if your hauling a huge oversize??but then again youd most likely be going slower so im stumped....

 

You thought they was pullin that wacky weed didn't ya??

 

lol something like that tell you the truth i never really put much thought into or else i would've just googled it what you hauling no tarp dry van??

 

No; this is where you are gonna really get confused... I pull a flat...

 

lol you aint lyin about that one I wanna drive flat bed after I get my year of exp in at one of these companies that hire graduates maverick seems like the specialize in flatbed what company you working for are you o/O

 

Maverick is a very good co. That would be a good choice if you could get on there. I was with them. I am with mercer now, but I am not a O/O.

 

Spokman I prefer reefers, but it really comes down want you want to do. The reason I won't pull a flat is with my luck I'll take a crash course (pun intended) in parasailing.

 

I'd rather do a reefer. At least if there isn't a reefer load there is a dry one! you can always stay loaded. I don't get the usual sit for hours the past few years since the company I drove for had a large detention fee and good lawyers to enforce them! We usually got in and out like a duck!

And as larz said, if it's hot just crank up, the unit! That also helps when you have a dry load on the floor and the lumpers will work faster for you when you cool them off! Might cost you a dollar in fuel but the time's faster!