Crst malone flatbed.

i was looking at crst flatbed as well. I have not yet contacted them yet. I want to do flatbed. and although i have done some flatbed. its always been on limited basis as in pulling a flat bed here and there but not on a regular basis. also I own a older tractor. older than a lot of company's requirements. also i want to rent a trailer. seems these things wont be a issue with crst. they seem like they could be a good place to start out as a o/o pulling a flatbed.

I live in ND and want to stay regional how are there availability of loads and rates in my area?

 

CRST does not seem concerned with an O/Os trucks age so you're good there. And CRST will be happy to lease you a trailer for $185/wk. I'll be looking into buying my own trailer as soon as I can. $185/wk could be a payment to buy a decent trailer. If you need a trailer, do you need securement equipment? There is a minimum package they want you to have. You can buy the stuff on your own, or you can buy it from them. If you pay up front I think it's around $1,900. Or They can supply it for you and you pay $75/wk, but by the time you are done you will have paid about $2,500 this way.

As for ND loads, I'll have to let you know once I get access to the load board. But you do not have to use CRST loads. You can find your own loads as well.

 

iv got enough cash to purchase a flatbed right now but it would take a huge chunk of what i have set aside for operating expense ect. so i kinda want to start out renting a flatbed and get the cash flow going and such for a bit before i bite the bullet and buy a trailer.

In the advertisement i saw in the nd Craigslist. says no minimum age requirement on the truck. the only thing that might hang me up with them is i have about 400k miles in 6 years hauling 48foot goosneak trailers behind 1ton dually pickups hauling equipment from job site to job site all over the country left that job for a oil feild water hauling job been doing that for about a year and a half now in nd and mt. in there listing looking for owner operators it says "Qualifications
-MINIMUM 25 years of age - Need 6 months + verifiable OTR Class A CDL experience"
further down it says
"-OTR is 5 states or more with a tractor and a 45 ft or longer trailer"

so weather or not i qualify for 6months of OTR experience is a stretch as far as I'm considered I'm more than qualified but they may hang me up on that. I will call them in a bit and go from there

 

well i contacted Clayton with crest Malone and talked with him for a bit. and he said they can work with me on the experience thing and that i stay out in the oil field for 3 weeks at a time they can qualify that alone as otr because your staying out away from home and also a 48 foot hotshot they can work with as well for the qualifications. he is also going to e-mail me a temporary password to there load board so i can view there available loads and see if what they have will work for what i want to do. he was saying they have a lot of pipeline pipe coming up from tx to nd. as well as a lot of freight coming out of Illinois up this way.

 

VEzrider have you decided what you are gonna do? Does the loads work and has qualifying given any indications or is it gonna take a bit?

 

well after watching the load board it will work for what i want to do, I might have to run a little different area than i was hoping for. Some good paying loads going into nd where i live. will most likely be dead heading out of the state every time i go home, kinda to be expected from anywhere. All in all there available loads looks like i could make decent money with them. filled out a application with them on Thursday. I did not hear anything back on Friday. called Clayton West this morning (Monday) and got the voice mail left a message and have not received a call back yet.

I have a couple other company's i have been talking to as well as some other applications in hoping to get a few approvals and then pick witch company i think is the best fit for me. My truck is paid for I have no truck payment and a good paying job currently driving a company truck so I'm not looking to rush anything.

 

You must have run into a good recruiter, mine told me it was password secured, available only to owner operators.

 

I don't know that I have a good recruiter. He can be a real challenge to get a hold of and bad about returning phone calls. we have one final thing to get squared away to get me approved and have had real spotty cell service where im working currently ill be on reset tomorrow so ill try to get a hold of him then and see if im approved or not or what the deal is. my recruiter with mercer has been much easier to get into contact with and actually follows up on stuff and gets back to you.

 

Let me tell you guys , if you think that a 1.99 a mile with fuel surcharge is a good rate ,you haven't been pulling flat bed freight very long, think about this. , a load that pays crst 1000 dollars which you get 75 percent of which includes fuel is 750 to the truck, now that's for 277 miles, take cost of fuel truck will use, take deductions that crst takes , the tralior rental, and any other that needs to be done, now you load today deliver tomorrow , now you have two days on this load , because load is loaded and then you have a 4.5 hour drive and you have to be there most times by 3pm to get it off, this is not so much a bad company but the freight is being killed 2to3times before it gets to you truck, if you want to see some rates for yourself. Email call me I will be happy to let you see, also now if your new to flatbed , you might think your doing good. Landstart load of the same one I described paid 300 dollars more gross which came out to about 285 dollars more than me
D_roggenkamp@yahoo.com. But you can make a living here if you find the right loads and use an outside agent , or if you can run the circle of Alabama, I'll and areas as they have all kinds of coil loads that should keep you going, not much goes on the weekend, and man trying to get hold of someone on weekend near impossible, a
Also remember you better have a really good fuel mileage truck as they only put fuel on your card when you get a load and they put .77 a mile on your card, then if you née to deadhead you will almost be forced to take cheap load out of the area you might be in because getting fuel for deadhead is like pulling teeth, now one good thing about the fuel is they have a great discount program from ta. Petro and loves you just have to look at the web site and see what it is for the area your at, every load is considered to be Atari load unless it says different on the Bol.
Also. Csa is so bad you can't get on your own or thru crst a prepass, can't be done , unless you have your own authority and mc, which under crst I know they can't even sign off on one for you,
N. from my understanding if you are not in the maintance program I don't think they will help you if you have a flat or something,, I know I was about 50 gallons from being out of fuel and had about 125 miles to get to delivery and was going to have to idle truck all night as it was hot and it was a sunday and I called in to ask for some fuel and I was told sorry cant give you none, so I had to sleep without motor running, it wasn't I would run out but when my trucks gets to low it won't pick up fuel, so that's about enough I can say now. But really wanted you guys to know, I would ask if your a real pro. And want to do what u want when u want give me a call and let's talk, but just like anywhere else it's all what you make it
If you an outside broker or agent then you will have to wait for them to be approved, and that will have to be done each time ,even if you have used them before
409-504-6544

 

Pool here it is in a nutshell. The rates suck, so if you are leasing on a truck , it better be paid off. And get great fuel mileage, also be prepared to get turned down on some loads from an outside broker as there customer won't let Malone haul there freight due to the company's csa record, also you only get so much fuel advance per load and sometimes it pushes the limits, you will only get more fuel after you get yor next load, so if you are low on fuel, you will need some cash in your pocket if you need to sleep with motor running to add some fuel, also if you have no maintance account set up, they will help some if you have problems. But they don't like it,
Now. Don't get me wrong this could be a good. Company but. The rates are the problem and there are too many newbies on the lease purchase. That don't know what good paying freight is, where are all these loads people are talking about 2.30 mile, I may have seen one. In the last month. That I have been lease on,they advertise average 2.00 mile, wrong, it's about 1.69 mile. And let me tell you it doesn't pay the bills and truck note,
Ok you get paid twice a week if you choose to do so, but they take all fix cost out on fFridays. My first check was a little over 500. And the next one was a little over 800, but the next one was 4.58. Now I did deadhead Friday from Dallas to Beaumont on my own as I didn't want to wait all weekend in Dallas for a maybe load out of that area on Monday, I would be more than happy to discuss this with anyone if you would like to, call me at 409 504 6544.
Now I believe if you stay in the Alabama ill, pa. Area triangle you will probably do ok. As that seems to be MaloneD hot area
Please don't get me wrong it's just what ever you make of this is all up to you and if you want a life. Or you want to stay out hope this helps. But before you make any decisions please feel free to talk to other drivers, I have been driving for over 25 years. And I have been shocked to see the rates at the rate they have, it looks to me as if. There has been a couple hands in the kitty before it gets on load board, I saw a couple of agents listing a 816 mile run with a gross rate of 800 dollars. And that was with fuel surcharge, it came out to .94 mile, land star has a different rate for crst as a load I did landstart got 300 dollars more to the truck than I did, now that tells me something isn't right with that picture