looking at flatbed companies.

Sorry, you didn't quote anyone and you don't give info. Your question showed up, right after me. Do you mean, http://www.americantransport.com/index.php?

 

Check out Sammons Trucking, Missoula, Mt. www.sammonstrucking.com
I can't tell ya how happy I am to be leased to this outfit! Best buncha folks I've ever worked with. Like the landstar folks, I choose when and where I go, have agents all over the country or can book my own freight if I want to. There's only 300 +/- of us and we are all o/o's.
At STC it's the people!
I too live in AZ.

edit; when they say that the liability & cargo insurance is provided, that means there is no charge-back to you. STC pays it out-right! When they say that you get 100% of the FSC, that means that that ammount is subtracted from the gross (price customer pays STC) on the load and given to you. STC gets 25% of whats left, then they add the fsc ammount & your 75% together for your payment on the load. Every load, every time.

 

Yes the people at stc are great and treat you very well, but they lack on freight of their own most is brokered and some triple brokered,

They do have "some" of their own freight and that pays well but not enough to go around

 

Yea,,you are right about not having alot of direct customers but the ones we do have are large accounts.
STC is primarily a heavy-haul & stepdeck oriented company but there are a few of us pulling flatbeds.
In the 10 top grossing trucks at STC, one of them is a flatbed. I'm not in that top 10 but I don't work real hard either.
Where the freight comes from (brokers/dirrect) doesn't mean anything to me as I don't haul cheap either way.
With the flatbed for example, when we do a "rig move" there may be 50 steps, 10 rgn's, and 5 flats all empty in ND at the same time.
I've been able to re-load my flat when the steps sat or deadheaded out.
Anyway,,,I do well with STC and am happy.