Pros vs. Cons. Refer,flatbed,van,tanker

Once you flatbed, you will come back to it I promise.

 

Well I will be 100% honest it is hard work and most people dont believe it is worth it. It is like everything, the harder you work the more you reap. I run maybe 3000 miles a week, and that is running hard for me on average more like 2300 and take home over 1000 every week. If I kick into high gear and haul some but I have taken home $1700 paychecks. There are more ways to make money in flatbedding than in any kind of trucking. Tarp pay, dentention pay and you will have detention in steel mills, early delivery pay, hot loads, oversize, you can bring home the bacon if you want to work for it.

 

Hey Spokman, FB aint a bad gig. I have driven dry vans and tanks. Heres something to think about...TANKS CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS. Food grade tanks are divided into baffles but the liquid still sloshes around inside the tank while you're driving making the load shift every second you're rolling. You take the exact same turn too hard with a van vs. a tank, your chances of making it out of the turn still on rubber is MUCH better with a van. One thing to consider is pneumatic tanks. They pump out dry goods, ie. dry cement powder. You drive up to the plant to pickup a load, sit in your truck and it takes about 10 minutes to load, drive to the silo where you're delivering, hook up your hose and pump off. Just have o make sure you watch the pressure gauges, it can be tricky but its cake once you get used to it. Its fun too, once I had a clog in my product line so I had to disconnect my hose and blow the line...dry cement went all over the place and covered half the wall of the building behind me. LOL...fortunately the people were cool about it. Its all about what you want though, I dont mind vans or tanks. You'll figure it out though.

 

Ive run Ref, Dry van out of those 2 I prefer Ref. Dry van is easier loads most of the time the lumpers are prepaid so you dont hav to worry about paying lumpers as much. Ref you run alot more not much down time people have to eat. And in case theres no ref loads you can run dry loads to. So theirs no sitting arnd in different seasons. Flats I see them taking half the day to unload and then drive alittle while and load then their 14 hrs are up.

 

Creative logging is a must in flatbed, I forgot to mention that. I know someone will disagree, but that is the guy that doesnt make 5 loads or better a week.

 

Go to the Good Companies section, and read the thread I posted about Bulkmatic Transport. We are a food grade hauler, and I haul food type products in a pneumatic tanker.

Slim, why unhook the hose? I always use negative pressure in the tank, and I can clear any clog that I have ever encountered. I know it works with concrete, cause I have heuled than and plugged up before. Just takes a few minutes and a couple of swings of the valve handle, and everything is back to ready to go.