Flatbed questions

Right now I pull my own dry van trailer with my own authority.

I recently received an email asking me about doing flatbed work. It got me thinking so here I am. I have done flatbed work before but it's not something I'm the most experienced at, especially tarping.

I have recently taken some time off from working because I had things to do for my family and things at the house, et cetera. In the time that I have been off I have slept every single night and my body feels incredibly good.

So I will be back to work soon but I almost am dreading it because the loads go out all different times of the day 24 hours A-day. Even if I wasn't looking for the best paying loads which I always am, I would think it would be very difficult for me to find loads that I work only during daytime hours. Now bear in mind I really don't go any farther than 3 hours away- generally I am about an hour or 2 away from home base but I can't see how to time these loads that I only work during the day and sleep at night.

So when I received the solicitation for flatbed freight it got me thinking back that I thought I heard some guys say that they generally work daytime hours. Like the receivers are generally Monday through Friday 8 to 5 or whatever daytime hours they operate.

So my 1st question is, is that accurate?

My 2nd question is what does a decent flatbed go for? And what size flat bed do you buy? 48'? Bear in mind that when I bought my dryvan I paid almost nothing for it but it was solid and needed some repairs and I worked it over.

And at this point in the economic swing of things how does flatbed work pay compared to the dryvan?

Maybe it would be good for me to be able to switch from one to the other?

 

Can you do that with your own authority? I am careful about what my limits are and I know there is a lot to know about permits and all of that type of thing.

Also, my truck is a regular sleeper tractor with 12/40 axles.

I am in the suburbs of Philadelphia PA.