List of Items to Make a Flatbed Drivers Life Easier:

I've been running flatbeds for about 4 years now - after years of dry; reefer, belly dump and other odd trailers. I like flat beds because you have to work - it keeps you fit. I'm in and out of the truck all day long - local driver - hauling heavy ductile iron fittings and pipe along with other heavy pipe and fittings. At least 60% of the time I am pulling my own orders out of the warehouse, so I have to also lift that stuff onto pallets or into crates - talking fittings that weigh hundreds of pounds. The stuff that is too heavy to lift I use a forklift. I accredit flatbedding and everything that goes into it for keep a huge gut off my belly. I'm not skinny, but at 195 pounds on a 6'2" frame, I'm not obese, either. That's the single most important aspect to me about flatbedding above anything else.
It can kinda get old being out there in 110 degree heat, or 105 degree heat and 60% humidity - still, I love it. I also get challenges on a daily basis in trying to get into construction sites - huge ones or small ones - that definitely challenge a driver's skills whether backing in or nosing in.

I also have a great employer with awesome benefits, though that has nothing to do with flatbedding - my immediate boss has come to rely on me to figure out how to get stuff on the trailer that everyone else has given up on trying. In other words, how to save having to make 2 trips. Stacking things on top of other things and positioning stuff - I just never had these kinds of stimulating challenges when pulling dry van or belly dumps - I think belly dump driving has got to be the most monotonous, boring truck driving job on the planet.

One thing I do not have to do - which I am certainly not going to complain about - is tarping my loads. It's all local - the furthest I'm driving might be 130 miles to a single construction site - and that doesn't happen very often.

I'm not saying all flatbed drivers are lean and fit - I have seen some pretty obese guys and gals out there too - but after watching what they're doing, I come to the conclusion they are either new to it or just plain eat far too much food, because they are having to put out the energy to get their jobs done.

The only thing I can think of that I come across is when I am going to a vendors or another one of our branches and they are loading material onto my truck in an unsafe manner. If they put something on that trailer that simply cannot be secured safely, I make them take it back off and do whatever needs to be done to it - banding it/taping it/repositioning it - to my satisfaction. You see on city freeways junk that has flown off of all kinds of trucks every day - and it isn't just pickup trucks. Some flatbed pullers simply don't get it and really need to get back to the dry van side before someone gets killed because of their ignorance. If something falls off the side or back of your truck, someone else can easily be killed, maimed or seriously injured because of it. I always overstrap - if it normally takes 3, I put 4 on it. Just the way I am because of the extreme weight of what I am hauling and the fact that I don't want it falling off. If it's something smaller and light and I can't crank down on the winch too hard for fear of crushing the product, I put twists in the strap either on the opposite side of the winch or on both sides depending on the product.

I know - people are going to say twists are illegal, but these are intentional twists, not "lazy" twists. A twist keeps the wind created by simply driving down the road from causing the strap to start fluttering and eventually loosed up. Perhaps those that are using tarps don't experience such things.

Anyway, good luck with it!

 

hey that's a good point about the twist in the straps... there is a thought about not putting twist in straps , I have never had a cmvio say anything durring an inspection to me about a twist in a strap.

 

Good luck with the flatbedding!!! I am also going to lease my truck on to a flat bedding company next week!

 

I think for me flatbed is the only way to go. I love the exercise and the challenge of
straping or chaining the load.

 

I'll agree with flatbedbob, Im going in to flatbedding in about 2 weeks here. I do lots of load securing at my job now, doing landscaping drive a decent sized straight truck. Cant wait to get in the big truck

 

Yeah, but look at your pic... man those tarps have aged you!!!

 

Yep sure did age him. And they do age us all.

 

Not me... I am still handsome as ever....

 

Smoking will also age you......

 

You speak too soon. I've backed my 48', 10'2" spread axle, 102" wide into MANY a (inside) dock, some built for older 96" trailers. And I have been to SEVERAL downtown unload sites. WHY?? Cheaper buildings for these CHEAP-##### receivers. All depends on the freight. IT ALL DEPENDS, remember those words.