Flatbed Questions

Normally...not always, but normally...you'll unload in the morning and reload in the afternoon...Alot of the places I have gone to are FCFS, no appt. needed.
I have pulled a box and flatbed. i prefer the flatbed, for normally the load and unload times are alot faster. Now, you may get stuck at a shipper or cons. at times for hours on end. It typically takes less than 1 minute to set a coil on the trailer, or 15 minutes to get a load of lumber. But, the line may take a few hours to get to your turn.
Pulling a box, I have went to alot of warehouses, big warehouses, usually not that hard to get to.
Flatbedding, be prepared to run alot of country roads. usually lumber mills dont sit next to the interstate.
I have had a few 2300 pickups, or 0400 deliveries, but not many. Usually that happens when dealing with large plants.
Most of flatbed loads are live loaded, versus preloads. I prefer the live load because you can usually direct the loader how you want the cargo put on the trailer.
Most loads can be chained/strapped and tarped in an hour or less. (if tarping is required)
As far as your 11/14 hour rule, there is a joke you may here at sometime, "first shift is for unloading, second shift is for reloading, and third shift is for driving"
Flatbed freight drops off in the winter, and runs pretty hard in the spring and summer months.
My personal experience, what I tell others when they ask if the tarping is hard, I always tell them, the weather is the worst part of flatbedding.
Wind is not your friend.lol.
Alot of steel mills require long sleeves, pants, boots, hard hat, gloves, saftey glasses, etc. Even in a Deep southern summer.
And of course trying to roll a tarp, that folds like thick cardboard in a northeastern winter on top of a foot of snow.
Dont let this discourage you, many people pull a flatbed are very happy with it. You will get to be out of the truck for a while, not just stuck in the cab.
Then theres those 60 degree spring days when you get a load of pretreated lumber that doesnt have to be tarped.
Alot of your loads will probably be heavy. Close to 80k gross. Some shippers ship according to weight, not quantity, so they will load all they can.
"Load it like a freight train, fly it like a airplane"

 

As a female flatbedder, all I can say is I love it! Although I do have to give credit where credit is due...my husband does most of the heavy tarp lifting but I am proud to say that I can secure a load all by myself. I've never driven van or reefer and don't think I want to, we usually offload in the am and reload in the afternoon. Good luck to you.

 

I do flatbedding, but we haul concrete pipe and home every night, and no tarping.

 

I pull a flatbed as well. I do 75% of my driving at night, I get loaded late afternoon/early evening and I'm usually unloaded within 20 mins of arriving at 7am. 99% of the places I go do not require an appointment. Everything I just mentioned obviously varies to some degree, it all depends on if I am hauling lumber or coils, bridge beams or sheet iron... All in all...there is NO WAY I'd go back to a van or refer!

 

The choice between PGT and TMC??? Well to be honest that all depends on you as a person. To me right now PGT seems like the better company but only because it's a smaller company only about 900 trucks everyone knows each other. Just continue to do your research TMC is very structured(Strict) with alot of things that in my life experience I don't feel like I have to deal with. Either or I think they both have more positives then negatives. But my choice is PGT as I was going thru the same decision recently and am going to orientation on the 3rd.