Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

I'm not sure about you guys, but I love consistent work. You get to know the customers, the product and can make quick work of a load/tarp or untarp/unload. Assuming, of course, the people doing the loading/unloading can keep up with your pace.

When I first started this job, I loved doing lumber because it was super easy to strap and almost never required tarping (OSB and hardwoods notwithstanding) but now I find great joy in loading steel and getting that perfect tarp job done. Or like yesterday, going to a new customer with something we've never done before, and having the challenge of how to secure it not only legally, but to company standards (which are well beyond the bare minimum).

 

Fixed boom. It picked up the mixer, then drove forwards about 100 feet, then I backed underneath and he lowered it onto the deck. Worked surprisingly well.

Looking back, I wish I took more pictures.

 

I sometimes wonder if I should even post some of these pics, because I agree with you!

Coincidentally I am reading up on oversize laws while I reset in Québec right now. I will be letting my boss know I want to do some oversize loads when they come available, but with a dedicated set of trains... I don't know if anything will come of it. We do have a couple step decks lying around somewhere. Hell, send me west with a tridem stepdeck! I wouldn't mind...

Maybe one day I'll get into true OS/OW. Maybe...

Here is the one and only oversize load I have ever done. While in training, with a trainer, 8 months ago.



(actually, we did two of those same loads, a couple days apart)

 

I ran a couple 60' loads into Alberta while OTR. First time out was really stressful since I had no idea about the different trailer swing (and that 10+ feet of overhang off the back) but it all worked out. Liked that extra 3 cpm premium as well.

 

When I did reefer work, had 2 dedicated customers on each end of the coast. Thats all I did,... yogurt,.. yogurt,..and more yogurt. Same basic route back and forth with a few different DC's in between,.. but mainly the same routine,.. over and over.

You knew which DC had slow lumpers,.. you knew which one you had to get out and lump it yourself or you'd never make the next stop in time. I knew exactly where and when I needed to be on the road. It got to the point I could almost dictate which mile marker I should be passing at a specific time. Same fuel stops spread out to maximize efficiency.

The good thing about running like that, you know immediately if there was going to be a problem and what to do about it. On the other hand,.. it was so monotonous and boring,.. I grit my teeth every day.

I think what helps me the most and keeps me on my toes is the constant change from day to day. Be it the load, roads, traffic, weather, shippers,.. it keeps me thinking. No 2 days are ever the same for me. I have set routines for how I handle different types of loads. I've pretty much developed my own set patterns and habits on how I do things. How ever,.. I do keep an open mind and eye out for anyone I see doing something I can learn from and make my job easier.

Hurst

 

@Hurst: I can understand the monotony thing. If all I did was run back and forth between two customers every day, it would drive me insane. Fortunately, us regional guys do pickups for shipping to western Canada, the US and Ontario.

We have a couple big contracts (like the steel mill) where some days more than half our crew is loading there, but since we specialize in lumber and steel, we don't have a shortage of delivery customers (that and Winnipeg is a huge manufacturing/distribution hub for Canada). While the big ones I visit 1-3 times a week, there are some I haven't seen for months (it helps our dispatcher keeps us all rotating between everything).

But that's the thing about trucking, everyone is different and loves different things.

 

Monotony....
End Dump, Bang half a dozen to a dozen loads a day, into the same site for a few days to a week!!
Next week maybe a new site, may not. But guess what? All them loads, all come out of one of three big holes in the ground!! for the most part..

Routine is nice, but not that nice!
It's nice to have similar work and to have been somewhere before, so it's somewhat familiar but when I can navigate the potholes without looking, it's getting old!

 

HA HA HA, same thing with belly dumps. You only stop to load and go home. There are two of us that kind of challenge each other with how tight we can string the loads together. Especially fun when you are pulling a train. with most drivers and the way most pup trailers work you blow the pup trailer then the lead and your pup should empty when it hits the pile left from the lead.

Well sometimes that does not work so well. The pup I was pulling last year was so fast to open that I would blow the lead and then count to 3 before blowing the pup gates. This would leave a perfect string every time the pup worked... I had one load that the gates on the pup did not open at all so I had to drag that loaded trailer over the pile left by the lead. I spent an entire month on one site last summer.... Boooooorrrrrring

 

Y'all sound like you're hauling frac sand. The same circle two to three times a day for two ore three months in one field is super boring especially if the road in and out sucks.

 

Ha Ha... nope, just dirt and rocks. I normally don't do it for long. We have one road construction company that we haul their equipment for and some times we give them a hand with the dirt hauling. That is ok though because I am hourly and these jobs are usually prevailing wage, I get a raise for that period of time.

2 years ago I was on a job making nearly $40 an hour and sat about half the time. They would fuel and change the teeth on the excavator that was loading us in the middle of the day instead of at the end of it. We had 20 trucks one day sitting and waiting for the service on the excavator. Heck, some of us broke out the lawn chairs.