Drop n Hook companies

the company i am with USA Truck (AKA U Slow ### Truck) is mostly d/h

 

many companies will advertise 'drop & hook" just to get you in the door and fill out an application. yes, you will "hook" to a trailer. then you will "drop" the trailer.

but "in-between" you will load and un-load as well.............

unless its an LTL carrier, and you're doing linehaul, drop & hook jobs aren't everywhere, and frankly, the more experienced drivers get those over drivers with lesser years of experience, most times. but, that shouldn't cause you not to go out and look either. you just gotta be in the right place at the right time..............

 

Drop and hook can be a pain sometimes as well. Most of the time the lights won't work, might have 3 flats. Always something to worry a fella and take away drive time. I picked up a brand new air ride once and ran it for a couple weeks. Almost had tears in my eye when I had to swap it for some nappy ole trailer.

 

I hate drop and hook flatbed stuff, You never know what kind of idiot loaded it or chained it down.

 

many of your larger companies are now mostly drop and hook. Not all drop and hook, that would be just about impossible to do and keep good customers, but for the most part, they tend to search out companies where the trailers are put in the docks by the shippers and receivers.

I like it to an extent, but as stated, drop and hook does have it's drawbacks as well.

 

The key isn't to find a job where the work is all drop and hook. The key is to find a place where they adequately pay you for the waiting times and things that you do other than holding onto the steering wheel. drop and hook is only effective is you are being paid by the mile and have an interest in maximizing your mileage. For example, though some of our loads are preloaded and I do drop one trailer and pick up the next, when I load a trailer myself, I get paid 25-35 dollars for the work, depending on what product I loaded. So 4 times this past week, I loaded myself, and collected $105.00 for doing so, in addition to what I got paid for hauling the loads. I had less than 4 hours tied up in the processs of loading those 4 loads, so I made about 25 per hour doing that.

Drop and hook flatbed loads are real few and far between because each driver is usually responsible for his own set of securement devices. In the van world it's more common, but just having the ability to drop and hook isn't the way to make out the best. Drop and hook has to also be tied in with realistic delivery scheduling, distances that make good use of your time, and a lot of other factors.

 

To me, it's all about the flexibility aspect that makes it attractive. The attraction is not for the "supposed" easiness of drop and hook, because, as we know, drop and hook can be work in and of itself for many reasons.

Based on my limited knowledge of OTR drop and hook, it seems more flexible in terms of delivery and pickup times?

In other words, there is no loading/unloading crew waiting for you to be a certain place at a certain time?

 

One variable in this is the need for an empty trlr. Sometimes the reason for the D&H is the company that takes forever to unload. Especially drop trlrs. Drop & hook can be like the alligator. Sometimes its not the teeth that get U but the tail.