"Do not ever drive flatbed"

Well that's a plus concerning flatbedding no lumpers,very little waiting.Customers are happy to see you and unload you right away.I use to pick up at this huge plant that makes steel long plates and it was fascinating watching how it was done.I think the hardest flatbedding is hauling coils or anything that needs chained.You really have to be strong.

 

Oh there's easier ways of doing it. Just jack knife the trailer, put it reverse, and dump the clutch. You'll have that deck open in no time.

 

Yeah handling chains and climbing up and down on a trailer wears on your muscles quick.



This load is only 12'-13' tall but I had to climb up there on top of those dock plates 4 or 5 times in the rain to throw those chains over. We only use 3/8's chains so those and the ratchet binders have some weight to them. I thought it was funny, I had to bump a dock to get loaded then had a mini-crane unload me at a new warehouse

 

I didn't mean for free. But expecting to get paid 200+ dollars to simply roll some pallets off the trailer is a bit much. Most driver unloads I would be more than happy to do cheaper then the lumpers would have done it. Break downs are a pain, ya and I can see why they charge more for that. But I've seen plenty of straight pulls that they wanted 200 or more to do. That's crap. Hell, I had one place that wanted 175 to unload a full load of bubble wrap rolls. The entire trailer was full of them, 160 if I remember right, at 10lbs a piece. On top of that I was early and they wouldn't be able to get to me for another hour or so. I told the company I'd unload for 50 bucks. 45 minutes later I had my bills and was gone. I saved my company more then that extra 125 bucks because I was rolling much sooner, and I still made more money to boot.

I have never touched freight for free unless it was to fix a mistake I made. But that doesn't mean I should expect an outrageous amount of money just like the lumpers do either. Seriously, some drivers seem to think that they own the truck, trailer and freight even as a company driver. Sorry folks, but you are part of a TEAM. Maybe if more of us acted like it so would the folks back at the office.

 

IDK about being really strong, I chained and tarped one by myself, 10 chaines, tarp, 2 straps and all those flippin bungies. My husband had pulled a groin muscle (his discription), he was barely driveing. I did all the strapping, chaining, tarping etc for a week.( I always helped, just did it by myself that week) Coil to Fl, hunter pannels from Fl. I would have rather chained 4 of those coils to that one load of hunter pannels.



I probably miss flatbedding more than he does and I do less work now. Qualcom, transflo and dealing with. . . well ppl, that's all I do. He drives, does the little bit of secureing that needs to be done and messes with the doors.

Edit: quoted the wrong post somehow. Lol. Ment to quote Pattij, deleted wrong post as my reply made no sense

 

Naw.....Just back up real fast and hit the brakes....Lumber Yard Driver style.......

 

"Side-Dump Flat".....New category for my Handwritten B/L's.....Thanks for the idea....Now I can charge the customers even more.....

 

Many years ago, you unloaded your own trailer (and sometime loaded it too) because it was part of the job. Now-a-days everyone is all fragile and can't do any manual labor and they have to be paid to do it. Get you're lazy arse out of the seat and do something constructive..... get it unloaded and get on to the next load geez

 

No problem, be happy to do it...but not without compensation!

 

I agree,lumpers are crooks I use to cringe everytime going to a lumper place.But companies and brokers know they have lumpers and approx what they charge.If companies paid a decent wage to drivers and appreciate them,i'd be more then happy unloading cheaper.Trucking companies are out to make money and so are the drivers.But usually its a one sided deal.I have drove for some bad companies and I do have a grudge.I do like where im at now but im not OTR either.When I go back over the road,companies are NOT going to take advantage of me.I don't kiss ### unless they kiss mine first.