Do flatbed guys make more?

Simple answer: yes...sometimes.

Long answer: Yes, flatbed pays better than drybox, but only IF you are getting paid percentage of freight rate AND your carrier is commanding decent rates. For example: I pull flatbed, run regional, generally work about 4 1/2 days per week, and average a gross pay of $1,200 per week. How do I get paid so much on such a short week? I get a piece of the action on every load I pull, and hustle my tuckus off during those 4 1/2 days, generally kicking 4 or 5 loads off the deck. And since my runs are generally around 250 miles per day, I'd take a serious beating on a cpm pay package.

Mileage pay works IF you stay out two or more weeks at a time, or get really good piece work pay on your stops like the food service guys. For a lazy cat like me who likes to see the inside of his house more than the inside of his truck, percentage is the way to go every time.

 

Pretty much as with all things. The more responsibility you have the more you get paid.


And you will always have the people who work for almost free.

 

If the world was black and white, yes.

In a nutshell, yes.

Like everything it will vary by a case by case basis. But, I'm willing to bet across the board, flatbed drivers make more than their dry van counterparts.

 

I'm a new driver and I'm making gross 1100-1200 per week and I'm SLOW at loading/unloading because I'm new. I expect that number to go up to 1400-1500 per week as I speed up. Already (in 6 weeks) seeing my speed double. If you can do better than that, more power to you. I work my Butt off, usually peg 600 miles a day or so with a 63 MPH governed truck, depending on circumstances. Stop pay and tarp pay and increased pay fpor short runs also jack up the paycheck, depends on who you work for.

I'm convinced that unless you work for a crap company, how hard you work is the main determiner of how much you make. If I was really looking for top dollar, I think hazmat loads/tanker would be a better place to go, but I don't want (for now) to be driving to every craptastic gas station with a bomb, no maneuver room and backing, backing backing, with no room. That's my impression of tanker driving with high pay, though it may be inaccurate.

Flat bedding and happy with it.

 

I think flatbedders make more babies.

 

More money less driving and not as fat .

 

You can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear. Us lazy door slammers wear $2 flip flops, them crazy flatbedders have fancy $100 steel toes. Based on averages and spending habits it appears that flatbedders make about 50x what dry van guys make

 

Inaccurate except the part about pay lol

 

Rates r almost the same now for flat and box. I'm talking about owner-operator, not sure about company driver.