Flatbed Vs Van

There are a lot of things to consider, and only you will know the answers to some of it. First is your home location. Where you live plays a big role both in freight and in home time. I for example live on the west coast (Oregon) and I am a flatbed driver. Flatbed freight out here is plentiful and pays well (with the right company). I also live along the I-5 corridor so home time is generally every weekend for me unless I choose a load that goes back east (which I do on occassion when I get tired of California).

My Experience is this: Flatbed freight works well for me as I stay in better shape because I'm tying down loads and yes tarping. Some folks don't like to tarp, that's really the only downside to flatbedding. I have ultra light tarps now, but even when I had those heavy #^%$^%'s I didn't mind much. There's no waiting to get loaded or unloaded as everything is power on/power off....either a crane or a forklift loads and unloads you. They are pretty quick about it, I'm usually loaded/unloaded in 30 minutes or less.

Hope that helps shed some light on the flatbedding side of things. If you have any specific flatbedding questions, I've been flatbedding since '92 and would be happy to help any way I can.

P.S. I don't know a thing about vans/reefer's or tankers, but if you're flatbedding for less than .40 a mile you're getting screwed. I know, I've done that too. Best thing for you to do is to talk with drivers of perspective companies you're interested in.

Brian

 

I have to agree with nuthin special. You would be better off learning to flatbed, because it gives you a skill that someone who pulls dryvans and reefers (your truly) doesn't have.
If after beddin' for a year or two, you decide it's not for you, go and pull a van. The only thing you will do more of with a Van (that u won't do w/ a flat) is drop/hook and wait to get live loaded/unloaded. Oh, and you may need to slide your tandems, but there isn't much to learning any of that.

As far as tankers goes, I have not pulled one but would like to learn how, again for the same reason I have already touched on.

Reefers require a little more knowledge than Van, but it's mostly about procedure (washouts, precooling, monitoring temps and pulping product) and being patient, because unless you pull reefer for say a Pharmaceutical co, you will be facing waiting times that can get LLLLLLOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG.

Personally, I would go with Roehl, because of the positive things I have read from drivers here, and from what I have heard from their drivers on the road. Plus, USX is all autoshift/automatic fleet, and I have no interest in driving one of those.

So best of luck Satman!

 

No problem. You would be suprised, when I was running dryvans for Covenant (midwest regional) I really didn't sit around much. It was a select few TYPES of customers that I could always count on wasting my time. Mostly it involved grocery warehouses (except livonia,MI kroger, all our drybox freight was d&h).
Where you live, you could easily keep rolling pulling dryvans. And the X endorsement will open more doors, however that background check is expensive and time-consuming.