Shippers that dont have a place to tarp and say no tarping on the property really ticks me off. They always act like, and say, no one else has a problem with it. I find that hard to believe. My attitude is that if it can leave their property without a tarp, it doesnt need to be tarped. Typically when i tell them to unload their ####e they suddenly have a place to tarp. Can you imagine calling someone to do work at your house and telling them to go find a neighbors place to work on it so theyre not in your way?
A large majority of this crap doesn't really need to be tarped at all. More services they want for free. Many can weather protect the commodity via shrink wrap etc but they expect the carrier to do it for them. I don't even own a set of tarps except a smoke tarp.
Keep telling to either take it off your trailer, or put no tarp on load. Usually they’ll let you tarp or you go find another load
My guess would be, they don’t want to be liable if you fall off the deck, have a strap break, or somehow the driver gets injured during the tarping procedure, on their property.
No place to tarp, no tarping. Pretty simple. And when you hear “the tarps are in the rate” just get in your truck and leave.
What ive learned from being on this forum is to ALWAYS call your delivery contact and ask if it needs tarped. Even when the shipper gives you a place to tarp. If the shipper doesnt require a tarp then always ask the customer. You would be surprised how many times the customer doesnt care if its tarped or not.
In the long run it doesn’t protect them if they require it to be tarped. When I was pulling flatbed as a driver we did a lot out of a reload yard in Calgary coming back down into the States. The mill who used the reload yard wanted their product tarped, and the reload yard had zero room in their yard. They had room for two trucks at a time. We had a guy fall off the load while he was farting in the street out front and ended up in the hospital in Calgary. And it all came back on the mill for requiring it to be tarped. After that incident we didn’t have to tarp anymore, just had to keep the paper on. The mill in Clarkston WA used to have a tarting area with only a ladder and no fall protection. When they were upgrading to a fall restraint system they wanted everyone to leave the property but all the regulars told them to pound sand and we just kept trapping in the “old” spot while the construction was going on.
Freight pimps have been using the tarps as a sales tool for years, “No worried, we’ll throw in the tarps”. Same as the fuel surcharge. The problem is the tarping charge or the fuel surcharge rarely make it to the person who actually goes and hauls the load. Some guy in his basement with a cell phone and a computer siphons that off.
I agree, it must be the brokers trying to get extra tarp money. Its to bad they arent the ones that have to do the actual work...
