MY EXPERIENCE AS A Mercer FLATBED DRIVER

Yes, it is mostly common sense. There are some specific rules regarding different commodities that you must know. They will teach you those, and give you a very informative book. When I started here it was my first time as well, I was worried about the same things that you are, in the end it was all worring for nothing. It has been said in the flatbed forum many times, if your not sure how to properly secure something ask another driver or the shipper. I have done that many times and I have never found anyone who wasn't willing to answer my questions. My honest opinion is only you will limit yourself as to what you make for money. By that I mean don't be scared to try anything, take the challenge head on and overcome it. Trust me, you are starting to over think it.

 

ISX 435

Its not my dream truck but it will do the job.

 

All that matters is if it makes more than it costs you.

 

I agree. Just ask. Most peeps are willing to help. You can call me all ya need to. I do that now for former students. My best guy is a disabled vet and a Marine.

 

The learning curve isn't that horrible. I did it straight out of the Army, bought a truck leased a deck and started calling brokers. Loading and off loading, usually you just stand and watch to make sure they don't damage your trailer (bend/dent rubb rails, scrape the deck). You can tell them where you want it to be exactly if you want more room on the nose or tail of the trailer because you plan on picking up a couch your wife bought on craigs list or something, but for the most part the shipper has loaded out so many trucks they no where to put it to make the weight work with your axle config. Depending on the weight, i would always tell them dead center, just so i wouldn't have to scale.

Unloading is even easier. Pull up check in, untarp/strap, and wait. They take it all off while you roll tarps and straps. Just don't forget to keep an eye on the unloader to make sure they don't bend those rub rails or put gouges in your floor. A bent rub rail will cause a lot of heart ache. Tarping i never really got the hang of, it would always manage to catch air somehow. One driver told me it was because i was using 8ft drops on a 4ft load, another said it was because i had the extra heavy duty tarps that were harder to manipulate that i couldn't get it as close to the load as i was supposed to. I did alot of green lumber for one broker so i never tarped. Usually only tarpped shredded plastic or salt.

Securement is actually the fun part to me. Securing a load is like following a trouble shooting tree. And the keys are (it's been over a year so correct me if i'm wrong drivers) total securement can not be less then half of load's weight, must have one form of securement (strap/chain) for every 10ft of cargo, and two forms of securement at front and two forms of securement at rear of load. WLL of securement is only full if it crosses cargo, if it connects to cargo it is half'd..

I hope i just didn't "F" that all up., I know for 47klbs of lumber in 12ft sections I'd have two straps on the front of the first section of lumber, then one in the middle, and one at the end. On the second section of lumber i'd have two straps, one at the front, one at the end, and it would be the same for the third section of lumber, then the last section of lumber i'd have one at the front, one in the middle and two at the end for a total of 12 straps, and number 13 was used to strap my rolled tarps to the top of the load so i guess you could say i had 13 points of securement. security

You can never have too much securement.

 

wow, it didn't seem that long when i was typing it out, sorry i got carried away.

 

You are correct on all, but the rear. Double is not required at the back, only the front, as we're concerned with forward movement, not rearward movement.

 

guess that was just me being an over achiever again

 

No such thing as to much securement, I always put two straps at the rear also.

 

Absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. Just not required, by regulation. The regs get mis-quoted a lot.