The Truckers’ Report flatbed Hall of Shame.

He’s TMC too. I thought they had a good reputation for training. Maybe he missed pin and cotter key day?

 

Some of these places do train well. But even those good places lack in one huge thing. How stuff works. Sure, they can teach you how to strap a load, advanced truck driving, etc but I almost always never see them teach you how stuff works. Even simple things like chain hooks. Some stuff like that just stop and think about it and try to figure it out. It's not that hard. Just like the airlines nowadays (I swear I will never fly again) they don't teach them pilots what to in certain emergencies. They know what to do in some small emergencies but not all. They aren't trained to understand how the majority of the plane works. Like cdl school they are hurried through to try and fill the pilot seats. (and on top of that a true fact that boeing doesn't inspect their parts because it "wastes time" thanks to their new woke ceo). But anyways a real trucker knows how it works, and knows what to listen for if his truck is breaking down, and knows how to fix it roadside. I seriously think that the outback truckers show should at least be half of cdl school.

 

Wish I could've gotten a pic of the flatbed I saw the other day ago that was hauling one large aluminum ingot. It had 30,000 lbs spray painted on the back end of it. The driver did a nice job "securing it" with about a half a dozen straps.

 

There are a surprising number of flatbeds that don’t even carry chains.

 

Getting more all the time

 

It's very annoying. Used to be I didn't have to specify that a load needed chains, unless it needed a *lot* of chains. That started changing right around the COVID boom.

 

Zoom in on the bucket.

 

I pretty much had the same conversation with a broker friend of mine this morning. For the last year we’ve had a competitor brokerage eat our lunch. They keep sending in unqualified and ill equipped trucks. The customer has been strictly worried about shipping costs and gave a large percentage of freight to this other brokerage. Well, after a couple of bridge strikes and that big haul truck flipped over on I-20( tied down with 3/8 chain) we are starting to see more volume.

 

Is that a vise grip on the strap?

 

Man, I know that feeling. I started clawing back some volume I lost for similar reasons. Gimme back the weirdos in flip flops and trackpants that at least knew how to secure stuff. Yeah, they looked unprofessional and janky, but I wasn't getting a call every other week with, "Hey man, you'll never guess how many chains this guy actually had..."