FlatBedders complaints I wanna hear em

ditto.
One thing I do love is I cant even remember when one of my flat bed loads had an appointment so I was under little pressure to get a place and make my appt or lose it and have to sit a day or 2 for reschedule.

 

Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time Hurst.

 

OK I guess your right its your definition of lazy. To me lazy is would rather lay back in the bunk and play games for those 6-8 hours instead if getting out tarping strapping/chaining.
Less work I would not say so I would say less time for sure though. I count work as activity pulling van I had about 3 min of work/activity pretty much everywhere flat-bedding 20min to a couple of hours depending on the load.
So I guess if you count time sitting twiddling your fingers as work then its lass but if you count physical activity as work then its more

 

Well what I was referring to is those that cut corner's when securing. Load's breaking loose and leaving the deck, tarps shredding and landing on someone windshield blocking all visibility causing a major accident. I'm not referring to how long one takes because it doesn't matter, that is their time, not mine. My concern is a poorly secured load no matter how long it takes because that lack of securement could mean my life or yours at any given time. Poorly secured loads can be/are just as dangerous as these new guys being pumped through CDL mill's pulling a box IMHO I've seen some of these guy's who have picked up 30K+ coils and only put on 2 chains. Flat steel with 3 strap's, no edge protector's and no fore/aft securement. 46K LBS of drill stem, 4 strap's over the very top layer with nothing else in between or no belly wrapped pyramids. These are the guy's I try and stay as far away from as possible. Another thing I don't understand is throwing hooks first. Saw a guy last year get nailed in the face trying to tarp a load of lumber when another guy was throwing hooks first strapping his load. That #### is dangerous! It was a cut corner that caused an injury that could have been prevented because someone was trying to save 10 minutes of rolling and packing side strap's. I look under the trailer to make sure no one is standing there and then throw the roll with my hook hooked to the underside rail. That accident could have gone either way as either in to big of a hurry or just simple laziness to cut down the amount of work. Doesn't matter how long it take's, just do it right the first time.

 

But you are leaving out a big part, that running all night thing cause it took 6 hours to load? I think I ran after 8pm once last year. I get much more rest than I ever did pulling a van or flatbed. Maybe part of that is the extra physical activity, but the normal sleep pattern has got to be a big part of it. Also for me, I only run about 1800 to 2250 miles a week now and make more money than when I was running over 3k miles plus all the extra wait time pulling a reefer

 

My number 1 reason for not pulling a reefer or van - never, not ever paying to get unloaded. Whoever devised the lumper system and the tipping sytem that causes you to pay for the labor of another person's business was a genius!

 

I hear that less miles more money. better sleep I got to admit I still run at night just about but not very often till 3 4 in the morning

 

Yeah, I sit around a lot all week. Sometimes got 4-6 hours to myself, not to mention often having whole weekends. And yet, I make as much as I did anywhere else. Tarp pay helps make up for it, high mileage pay helps a lot, too. Another key is detention pay. If you can get it, you can make a killing if you have to sit X amount of hours - if you're a company driver, anyways. O/Os probably have a much harder time getting any kind of detention pay without the threat of a fleet of a thousand trucks packing up and serving competitors behind them.

 

I understand what your saying about hooks first but the trailers I pull all straps stay with the trailer but it don't have boxes so unless changed never pulled off I don't want to pull them all off reroll them to throw them so I throw the hooks but always make sure no one is around if there is I holler coming over on every hook tossed last few feet rolled so hook is not exposed till it gets to the end of the toss. its one thing to do them if they stay on the trailer and it has boxes or if you keep your straps and therefore store them in/on your truck.
What are these drivers thinking securement is always most important I know I have seen a few I was amazed at but not that bad.

 

Ive done it all except car hauler and liquid tanks.. I'm not changing flatbedding for anything.
Nothing to bish about any than the others would
Flatbedding is not for sissies, I've seen guys pulling over and walking back on the side of the freeway to pull back their tarps back to the truck after they flew off lol.
Lazy about throwing an extra strap or chain? Stick with dry vans.
Afraid of getting on top of trailer or load to tarp? Stick to reefer or other
Good luck with your decision