O/o tarp pay??

As an owner/operator with own authority you include everything in the rate. It makes no sense to divide it into tarp pay etc. as you are getting it all.

 

I dont treat tarping as a 1 part job. Its a 2 part. I get $75 for simple stuff and it goes up from there. I can fold up my big triple drop lumber tarp in about 20min in 95 deg heat.

 

As an o/o why bother carrying any tarps over 5 foot drop? I just carried 3 x 4 foot drops, 1 x 5 foot drops, (well, and the front 8 feet of an 8 foot drop with flap) worst case scenario I had to tip tatarps sideways, best case scenario, turn down loads (that dont pay) because you don't have lumber tarps

 

My tarp policy is very straight forward; I don't carry any around on a trailer. They are covering the firewood pile at the house. I wasted way too many hours of my life dealing with tarps and wind, rain, snow, ice...to have them set the freight down on the ground outside after I busted my butt covering it. I'm all set with that noise.

 

The way I see it is if the shippers care so much about their product getting wet then THEY should take the steps to protect the material like shrink wrapping the freight. Of course there's stuff that needs to be tarped but a very large majority of commodity could be wrapped by the shippers. Also, brokers love to sell tarps to clients to get their business even when the material doesn't even need it. Only took me a few times of getting burned by that trick before I learned to ask both the shipper and receiver directly if it REALLY needed to be tarped. At least 75 percent have not needed to be covered. ROI is important to me. It was a major factor in deciding to buy a truck or not and it's certainly a consideration when tarping. Is a $100 tarp fee worth falling off the load from 13 feet in the air? I'll pass.

 

That's right.

Perhaps that broker had a load get damaged because there wasn't a tarp. Therefore they require tarps on everything.

A while ago I booked a broker load that paid really well. Tarps required of course. I questioned the need for tarps.

It was a Hazmat load!!!???

I quoted a price to add tarp pay. He took it.

I arrived at the shipper and found out it was a load of flammable liquid in totes. I asked the shipper if the load required tarps. He looked at me as if I was a complete moron.

"You plan to trap any flammable vapors under a tarp AND cover up the placards on the totes!!!???"

I laughed and explained the broker insisted that the "shipper required it".

That's the best I ever made for "tarping" a load.

 

As an owner operator, i dont care about tarp fee and fuel surcharge. What matters is the total amount i am getting and where the load is going. I do not tarp short runs 400 miles or less because rates will not be high enough for me to tarp. I only take a tarp loads when i want to exercise.

 

That has got to be the best example I've ever heard of. Perfect!

 

Very good post, excellent point...thanks for the sensible post. I couldn't agree more. EVERYTHING falls onto the shoulders of the carrier; everything. Not fair at all.

 

I must be weird. I like tarping. Always have. But then again I’m usually doing it every day.

 

Do you do it for free?