Dry Van vs Refrigerated vs Flatbed - Pros/Cons?

Refrigerated runs all year round. Dry van generally slows down big time in Jan, Feb and March. Not all companies but a lot of dry van slows down. Refrigerated has some weird hours and there can be long unload times and a lot of time in docks. Dry van can have a lot of drop-n-hooks. Reefer usually has longer runs.
Don't have flatbed experience so I won't talk about that side except that you do usually make more but you work more.
Good luck

 

what about?
tankers, absolutely NO cons

 

Who runs team tankers and allows pets and has a 1500w min inverter ?

 

I loathed the way refrigerated shippers would treat me as a driver. I know it's because many drivers before me had ruined the path, but it just became tiresome being treated like an animal. Not all were bad, but certainly a majority.

LTL was obviously a breeze - if you got attitude, there was a process to adjust their inability to be 'productive' and you saw the same folks all the time.

Flatbed - much happier. Shippers and recievers actually want to see you, help with your loading, and I can't tell you how many times I've been told to 'have a good day', or 'drive safely'. Totally different attitudes.

Miles/pay/consistency . . . another topic.

 

I have a little bit of a different experience running dry van as I run for a private fleet......but we have little of the usual cons the common carriers do. if you're gonna pull a van a private fleet is the way to go if you can get in. almost all of it pro and few cons. way better money, better equipment, get your load and get left alone to do your job. do your own routing and manage your own fuel stops.

outbound loads are usually relays to the dropyards or dc to dc transfers

even the backhauls are usually easier to deal with because they're raw materials from the vendors to the plants. the number of outside backhauls we have are a low percentage, but even though I run many of the same customers on outside backhauls as I did with my previous common carrier, I get treated much better just due to the fact of the carrier I work for and the caliber of driver they hire. funny I thought when I came to the company I'm with now I'd never see those places again and find myself going to them from time to time lol

the previous common carrier I worked for it was a different story though. low miles, micromanaged, attitudes from customers, typical bs you hear from most common carrier dry van outfits

 

low pay on the foodgrade side is a con for many of us..