SPD or Central Oregon Truck....

At SPD you won't pull any specific trailer type. I just pulled an a/c load on an open step out of FL to the PNW, Then swapped it for a special low deck step conestoga pulling an antique KW truck back to Ohio. After that, who knows, I could be pulling something else with it or swapping to an open flatbed or back to an open step and pulling who knows what. I think at COTC you get assigned a trailer and do nothing but live load/unloads which can have advantages because you keep the same equipment all the time so you know how it has been maintained...here at SPD, it's a crapshoot with how drivers treat the equipment much like dry van and reefer drivers. Some drivers take care of the equipment and get it maintained, others leave it for the next driver to deal with.

Keep in mind, SPD is being partnered with E.W. Wylie, so we are morphing into an E.W. Wylie clone. SPD management says they're gonna remain in charge of their own operations, but it feels like it's a marinette show...they may appear to be doing their own thing but it's Wylie in Fargo pulling the strings making them sing and dance. COTC is a group leader and other similar Daseke companies are being merged into their group(Daseke is grouping their various similar companies together...we are in Wylie's group) Of course, this all may change now that Daseke has been sold to TFI...no one really knows. We all may be speaking canuck by this time next year...or nothing could change.

 

Last year my average length of haul was 1597. If I take away all the local short moves specific to my division I’m at 1849. These are mostly preloading od loads for other guys while I’m waiting for my load to be ready.

spd uses 2 and 3 piece 8’ drops. You typically have your choice in WA, the other yards it’s just what’s available. COTC uses 2 piece 6’ and 9’ drop tarps.

the good thing about swapping trailers all the time is we keep most of our gear on the truck. All the new trucks are coming with Inclosed headache racks. Typically the only thing I swap trailer to trailer is the tarps. Most of our flats and steps were replaced last year with brand new equipment, somehow I tend to get the few old trailers still floating around. I must be lucky.

 

I hope it works out you fellows, I worked for small flatbed company in the late 90's, sold out to mega van company, nothing was supposed to change. Within 10 months our yard was closed, power units replaced with fleet trucks. Original management gone... sit two or three days waiting on load, trying to keep dead head under 20%.

 

My length of haul is similar to @kylefitzy. It's that good here because one of our main customers (Boeing) has assembly facilities in the northwest and southeast. Last year it wasn't uncommon for me to pick up from a supplier around Charleston, take it to south of Seattle then pick up either from our yard north of Seattle or a different supplier and head right back to the Charleston area. The one thing about SPD is they do a fair amount of multi-stop loads. Sometimes from one shipper to multiple delivery customers...sometimes a true LTL where you pick up from more than one customer and deliver to multiple customers.

 

Maybe this will help. There are two drivers from COTC who park in our yard during their home time. I've known both of them for over twenty years. Neither one ever says much but when they talk you want to listen. Both have been with COTC for over ten years and neither one has any plans to quit. They say that the money and benefits are fair and you don't have to run like a maniac to make a good living. That's rare for a left coast flatbed gig.
They both agree that the key to success at COTC is just rolling with the punches, taking the good with the bad, and not whining to the office about every little thing. Be on time, don't tear up the equipment, don't damage the loads, don't get into shouting matches with the customers and you'll have a job there a long time.
Both of the guys say that after you've been there awhile, say a year or more, and your dispatcher sees how you run and knows that they can count on you you'll start getting some real gravy loads.
Is it a perfect place? Nope, neither one of them claim that but like I said, neither one is a whiner and when I asked specifically about what they didn't like they didn't have much to say.
I don't know anything about SPD except what I've read on TTR