Flatbed Work ?

Yep, flatbed is work. It is known as a working man's truck. But, the pay is better than van or reefer (for example: Arrow pays .32 to start, Schneider .28) and you get tarp pay (last year I made $5000 extra in tarp pay...Prime).
Each load is different and you need all kinds of extra gear to meet the needs of flatbed work, i.e., straps, chains, binders, strap protectors, tarps, tarp repair kit, extra padding for sharp corners, corner protectors, v-boards, bungies, winch bar, strap roller....
Lots of seemingly extra junk to haul around (until you need it !)
And tarping/untarping in the wind (with no help), breaking free frozen straps from winches, throwing chains, and well, you get the idea.
But, I like flatbedding and my wife can tell when I've been throwing chains cause my shoulders and chest are stronger, not my belly getting bigger...
There are several good companies to learn flatbedding: Arrow, Roehl, Boyd Brothers, Maverick, TMC, etc., but you keep learning every day..
It's tough sometimes and many don't want to mess with it, so flatbedders are in their own catagory, and many times help each other at shipping docks, but even then, can be challenging.
I am retired USMC so challenges don't bother me, I seek them out.
Good luck to you.

 

Sounds like another way to get that blood pumping. Something a lot of us could use.

 

I have done it all, van, reefer, and flatbedding. I would rather pull a flat bed hands down over anything thing else. I don't mind having to work a little extra. It's better than sitting at a dock bored to death while you get loaded or unloaded. It has it's down sides but more upsides. Like me, I went from a flatbed to a step deck a couple of years ago and won't pull anything else. Plus, I can haul some specialized freight which pays a lot better.

 

I started with flatbeds and have only pulled vans and intermodal containers a few times. I hated the vans and containers. I did dumps and rolloff containers for a few years and I liked that too. Now I haul machinery, forklifts, and construction equipment on flatbeds, Landolls and Detachable goosenecks. The only downside to this kind of stuff is tarps, but I think I have only had to tarp 2 loads in the past year. Both of them were electric stand up forklifts.

Personally I like what I do because it requires a higher skill level than hauling truckload shipments in a van. Most days I spend more time chaining down and disassembling and loading equipment than I do driving. For a local O/O that gets paid by the hour this is great. I don't burn much fuel or put a lot of miles on the truck. For example Friday I got stuck on a job in NYC. The crane wasn't big enough to pick some of the heavy pieces off of my trailer. I sat for 4 hours before they even touched my load. Then it took them another 2 1/2 hours to unload me. I got paid for all that time and made about $450.00 for just standing around drinking coffee and BSing with the crane operator. In fact the IBEW guys even helped me unstrap the load and wound up a bunch of my straps for me. Stuff like this is why I like flatbedding.

 

Yeah I hate stand ups. There is never a good place on them to grab with a chain. Most times I pull forward with a couple of chains from the battery box and another pulling backwards around the forks and outriggers. The other thing that sucks is sometimes they are tall and you have to be careful about your height. Not to mention you can't get them wet. I'm not so fond of pallet jacks either.

 

Would you mind if I ask what you are doing now ? I too was looking at flatbedding but if you know of a better gig............. I am directing this question to Mack