"Anyway Around The System?...Help Me Out!"...

If You can get on at ROEL it is a good company... They don't put up with any BS though

 

If all companies were that way, they wouldn't have the bad rap that some do...

 

Minus - I think somebody else answered this, but I'll make sure because I like to hear myself talk.

Unloading / loading a reefer is company related. May, for instance, hauls a fair bit of reefer, but they actively discourage the driver from handling the load (the one exception is the nursery loads. Not sure why that is, but it is). Everything else, they want to pay lumpers.

(If it was simply loading/unloading, I might have bucked the system a bit, but when unloading, there's typically a lot of sorting/restacking etc going on. I'm not interested in spending umpteen hours moving boxes from one pallet to another.

Other companies - I'm told Stephens Transport for example - are produce haulers. I hear there's lots of opportunity to unload yourself.

Personally, I'm not at all interested in touching the freight unless I'm paid as much as the lumpers are paid

 

depends on the company. May paid the same for reefer drivers as dry van.

At a guess, I'd say places that pay reefer drivers more expect them to take a hand in loading/unloading. Or they are expected to pay lumpers out of pocket? Dunno. I've paid lumpers as much as $300 to offload a fully palletized load. Lord only knows what produce loads cost. (May pays for lumpers, so it's not out of driver's pocket)

Other than that, yeah, you pretty much hit it. Make sure the reefer has fuel, make sure the temp is set right, make sure the temp doesn't go out of range, drive.

 

When I started at Roehl, three of the five people in my class provided the company with an address of a relative or friend so they could get hired. Renting something would be dumb, but if you know anybody in a flatbed hiring area you might be able to use their address and change it later. I wanted to be a flatbedder too, but was told they only hire van drivers in my area. Well, a month into it I got an offer from a flatbed company and suddenly Roehl let me switch to their flatbed fleet. So the option to switch is there. I would recommend you take the job with Roehl if you can. It's a good company and you'll be treated fairly. Once they see you are a good hire, I doubt you'd have any trouble switching fleets. Just my .02 worth. Best o'luck.

Dr. V

 

Flatbedding is good here. I started with them in February and left in August for a local gig, but I am back now. The equipment is decent, and all the dispatchers (except some of the weekend/night goof troop) are awesome. The miles were good as well, I can't recall ever sitting too long. Basically, show them you can run legal and safe while being productive and not complaining and they'll take care of you. With that being said, don't let them think the push you around either. Firm but flexible when need be, if that makes sense. Maybe Cmoore or MoMan can chime in too, they have been around the 'Power of Red' longer than me. Also, I was a salaried driver before so I can't really comment on checks but we'll see this time around. I can tell you that freight slows in the Winter, so keep that in mind. From what I hear, they are good about getting you van or curtain side loads to keep you running though.