Flatbed drivers

Good choices. I looked at maverick and the pay was so close to Melton the deciding factor was equipment. I don't like automatics so I came over here.

 

Agreed everyone!

AND.....occasionaly.You can unload on Saturdays and Sundays if the crew wants to meet you at the Job

Flatbed work is an all around good fit........

 

Get to play with toys!

 

It wasn't the norm hauling freight, but I've had to load my own before...

 

I started in flatbed because of the money and challenge. I've stayed in it because of the respect. Even the shippers and receivers are a whole different class in flatbedding then in dry van/reefer work. No grocery warehouses, no lumpers, no dealing with ***holes rejecting part of a load just because they want it free and you getting the blame for "damaging" it. Well, ok, very rarely any of that last one.

 

because I'd be 300 pounds if I pulled a box

 

Flatbedding is mostly daytime pickup/delivery, so it's easier to keep a regular sleep schedule than reefer or van.
Also, I encounter fewer jerks. They have to come out to unload me. Face to face. They can't hide behind a glass wall andact like a tyrant.

 

well there is a steel plant in east chicago indiana that the shipping office guys hide behind glass and act like nazis. but its not very common at all, most of the time shippers and receivers are at least tolerable

 

I took flatbed over van cause it's what my old man did when I was growing up and he loved it. Its a great workout(paid one to boot) and it gets me home every weekend and sometimes during the week. Van I'd be gone longer and be twice the size I am now.

 

That the one where you have to pull into the building to get loaded, then exit out onto the street? Spent a LONG time at that place waiting to get loaded one night with a load of milled steel. Slippery dang stuff. They did allow me to finish my 10 hour break in the front lot though.