Thinking of trying out flatbed

Give Melton a call since they're an option. Maybe Roehl could work for ya

 

Well, yeah.

Who's hauling that lumber? Somebody's puttin it on a flat

 

Well nearly the entire state of Maine has been logged and a lot of it several times. That’s a lot of lumber.

 

Well, if you are just "thinking about it", you may be in for a big surprise, work wise from a box. Flatbed has several advantages over a box. Loads usually waiting for you, and customers are usually waiting for what you have. No pallets, no docks or crabby warehouse workers, and usually no real weight to worry about. The downsides, are making sure the load doesn't fall off, and sometimes requires some creative strapping. Checking and adjusting straps, and of course, the biggie, tarping. While waiting once with a container, I was watching a guy trying to tarp his load of sticks in a high wind, and the wind was winning. I finally got out and helped him, he was almost crying. In Colorado, I'd say flatbeds outnumber boxes by 10 to 1. Flatbeds seem to cater to rural areas, and boxes more for the masses in cities. Not sure about pay, flatbeds obviously severely limits your loads, and dead-head and sitting are normal. A box has freight from just about anywhere. Good luck.

 

It's all fun and games until you're out there tarping in 0° temps, -25° wind chill, freezing rain and a 20 mph crosswind.

One the flip side, unless you have a big load with a huge cross section, you're pretty much immune to the high wind days and you don't have to worry about getting blown over as much as the others do.

 

Melton is a good starter company, they have great training, however you get your experience and run. you’ll work for below minimum wage, and they will give you something stupid for home time. A coworker used to work for melton and showed his pay stubs, he went from making $1200 a week being home for 34 hour reset after a month of otr, to $2600 consistently and being home 1 week after 4 weeks.

 

Coming up on 10 years experience in open deck only and i still cant lift a tarp much more than from the ground to the trailer. Id prefer not to throw my back out. Always ask the forklift guy to throw it up there for you . I know some companies want you to lift and walk with it, but really outside of training theres no reason to do that. I roll it on the ground to get it to the back of my trailer