How well do flatbed rates compare with reefer?

only thing that i would say or warn someone whos company driver that is promised percentage is this... ive worked for a guy before i bought my first truck promised me 45% of the load.... but then he wouldnt provide details on the paystub. so the loads making me think about 3,000 to 4,000 per load of fertilizer and getting 45% of it...
but then should be 1,400ish for 3,500... only getting 175.00 per load ish... a guy warned me about doing this kind of pay is that he'll lie to you how much the loads are, then subtract tire, fuel percentage and mechanical expense (saying its a owner truck type of pay).. my suggestion is hourly if youre gonna do grain bc some grain hauling as a company driver and dont go far like nation wide hauling and some do. but if youre gonna do local... dont do percentage or mileage. thats my $0.02...

as an owner, i get 80% of my loads and my dispatch tries for anything over $3.00 or more rate and wont settle for less and ive seen 1.25 a mile and i cant see it work bc of the fuel prices and dang tire prices keep going up. so 80% of the load.. the company pays my fuel but comes out of my pay, then i tuck away $500.00 per check as i get weekly pay to have an account for repair bill on the road or at the shop and my other account for truck only as in goodies i want if i have the money and then the rest goes to my personal as a paycheck to pay the bills and put food on the table for my family.





some love cattle hauling, some love flatbed and some love van.. ive done just about all trailers except van over the road. ive pulled a van to move it to a different location but never otr. i couldnt do cattle hauling all spring or fall... those guys are nuts driving all night and having 2-3 hours of sleep and go at it again. i can do it a few times but cant all season. flatbed is what i love and never want to haul anything otr.

 

80% of my reefer pickups and deliveries are less than two hours. My customers are usually open 24x7x365 so I have the option to run as hard or light as I want. The beauty of not being a company driver is you get to pick your customers. If they get abusive or detention happy, my rates go up or I refuse to load them.

I would agree the potential upside on specializing open decks is as high as you're willing to take it. Risk == reward. Bankers hours and not dealing with docks and whatnot certainly a plus too. I'm sure there's plenty of jerks out there loading open decks too though, so certainly not a guarantee.

 

I made pretty good at .38CPM plus drop pay and tarping pay at Melton. I went percentage for a local company hauling 48 and was getting screwed big time. How I went from$700-900 a week to $400 or less is beyond me. Then finally given the chance is when I finally said ###### making someone else their living for them when I can make my own.

 

Yes! You must be careful when on percentage. With most they either won't allow to see the rate or they will make fake rate papers to show you so you don't see what the load actually pays therefore you get screwed. Either way. Its hard to find an honest employer these days.

 

Ok. So it looks like the best option right now is to stay company but go reefer or van for the winter.

What I'm hearing is that flatbed only pays good on percentage, and the only reliable percentage pay options are for O/O and *maybe* fleece operators. But also it sounds like flatbed is pretty lean in the winter, so now would be a really bad time for me to try and make the jump to any kind of owning of a flatbed.

So maybe be patient, continue working company side and move after I get my tax return in the spring to help me with a down payment on something?

Only trouble is I feel bad hopping to a new company if I don't intend to stay there long, Feels kind of dishonest or something.

 

if you got experience in say hay hauling.. flatbed in hay is NEVER dead. farmers and feedlots are always taking hay. i wouldnt say you have to narrow it down to percentage. if youre gonna do flatbed as a company driver.. go mileage if you do over 2,500 miles a week. if youre hitting say 200 a week, go hourly. flatbed otherwise is dead from end of nov to say march. thats my down time and time spent with my family. most ive been gone on the road was 3.5 weeks and its made me over 30,000 with load going and back loads. so im good for bills til march. this doesnt mean i park my trailer and done til march though. there are always steel going in or out, there are always hay going in or out... always something but as owner operator, be careful what rate youre gonna get hauling something ridiculous at 1.35 a mile. truckers cant live on 2.75 or less.

 

Sounds to me like your doing shorter hauls now that when you were reefer?

You should be able to get secured in an hour...so you are getting paid $15/hr to secure. Nothing wrong with that IMO.
You should be loaded in an hour but you can log that off duty just like reefer.
I pay more than $30 to tarp....unless it's a small tarp, that is a little low.
If you are waiting you should be getting paid to wait.

That 3-4 hours loading time....are you getting to the customer EARLY AM or even the night before? That makes a big difference once you learn your way around the customers.

 

How much does a flatbed DRIVER get for %?

 

If it is like farming in that it is a business, then yes. But it is a business first and if you are more worried about what your friends think of you vs. making a profit then that seems like an issue.

With winter comes increased capacity and much of the freight is still controlled by several key players that have to keep their capacity moving.

So if suffering the indignities of swinging a door open and closed is the price that needs to be paid to feed your family I hope for most it is an easy choice.

 

If you are going flatbed then you need experience and sounds like right now you are paying for that education with lower wages. Regardless if you do it now or later you are going to have to pay for that education.