Diary of a current Swift flatbed driver

No it was moly out of green valley. I havent hauled copper since febuary. And haven't hauled anything else out of ASARCO since July. I like going up their, quite a scenic drive.

 

It is right at 13. The "special" forklift "operator" tried to add a complete 3rd lift of lumber on top of the two allready. I looked at it saw it was looking a "little" high and asked him to split it in half. The load is pretty light because its kiln dried pine but it is kinda bulky. I ended up having to move a couple lifts by hand around because the top lift was all crooked and hanging over past the bottom lifts. It was atrocious. I feel bad for the people who bought the other load.
The other driver didn't put any edge protectors on it and the straps bit pretty deep into the lumber. Its supposed to be table tops!! I asked the other driver why he didn't he said the load assignment didn't call for it.
He was just as irritated as me i guess.!!!

 

Only the first overpass. It would have arranged the load for me and i would have been ok for the rest

 

I did get confirmation that i got 200 in layover pay.I look at it is Welfare on wheels.
I figured Swift could have deadheaded me almost 400mi counting fuel and salary to get me into a freight zone. I honestly would have deadheaded without salary just to keep moving.
I get around 8mpg deadheading with an empty skateboard. currently getting 5.6 with this load on an East all aluminum 48ft trailer. 35,207lbs of lumber

 

more i beams for the san diego court house

 

I lost this run of powder river because a fellow flatbedder didn't pre-trip the trailer before dropping it off . I found 3 cracks in its frame. I was bummed out on this one. It was a pre loaded trailer.

 

The ugly lumber i was complaining about

 

The two stacks in the back the forklift guy tried to put on top of each other.....part of the back stack is in the front too