Maverick: Want to hear why people are quiting

If you are talking to me yes. I graduated from Buds class 63 in 1971.
This was towards the end of the Vietnam War. Never got to go over and play...No wars were going on when I got out out in 1975.
I was not a war monger, but I was not going to let others stand in the line of fire without me being willing to stand there with them.

 

I worked 2 1/2 years for Mav out of Laurinburg and left because I was getting fewer miles and shorter runs. Plus I was just burned out running 2 or 3 weeks just to be home 2 or 3 days. I now work with the state and I'm home every night, I get paid holidays, sick leave, and vacation my insurance is cheap. I don't bring as much money home, but I'm a lot happier.

 

That is what is important! That you are happy! Life is all about choices!
After all that is why there is Chocolate and Vanilla Ice cream!

 

Everybody driving a flatbed makes 2500+ miles a week warp speed while spending close to nothing on securement and waiting, it's amazing. It seems I was a lone sorry soul who needed about 30 minutes to just figure out how to secure the pile of tangled piping and 3+ hours more to secure it safely. I guess none of you balanced on the top of unstable bales of aluminum scrap in Oakland Ca, trying to figure how to secure and tarp razor sharp, double stacked, 18 rows of bailed scrap without being run over on a side of a street. I guess I was hauling all kind of crap when your were making big bucks on 1 strap loads in a fast lane. It's quite possible.

Look pals, let's cut BS down, it takes roughly 5 minutes per strap, 12 straps load is already 1 hour (that without edge protectors and portable winches), unstrapping and winding up straps is not much faster than that, chains means even more time (depending how cheap is your company with storage space) some super-truckers save on edge protectors always, let's discount that time. How fast you can put 4 tarps on 13.6 load? How fast you can untarp and roll 4 tarps? 1 hours, 30 minutes, 5 minutes, anybody can do in 1 minute? Looks like everything is possible for the people in this thread. What about poly + 4 tarps in blowing wind? I don't really know what loads you were hauling if you consistently spend 1-2 hours on securing and tarping. Since all of you are in love with trucking, maybe you all shall extend your load horizons?

Anyway, trucking is going medium and short haul, medium range flat bedding will hurt either your body or your wallet in the current wage climate. You make a choice. Pay per mile? It's roughly $2/mile (on a good load), I hauled enough of load to/and from farmers and lumber places (who paid me with a check) to know that western loads paid LESS than $1/mile, a couple years back, and I doubt it changed much since that.

 

This is where I quit reading. Yep flatbedding is not for you.

 

You may be working for the wrong companies. I wouldn't allow my trucks to have anything to do with those types of loads. Generally we haul farm & const equipment and steel. Steel loads are usually loaded in the middle 24' of trailer, less than 2 feet high. Any driver, except the most inexperienced, would easily have the load secured in 30 minutes and tarped in 30 more. Usual loading times would be 2 hours including waiting time. A load of machinery would be secured in 30 min to 1 hour depending on the number of pieces on the load & chains required. Again, up to a 1 hour wait would be normal. My short haul drivers usually load/unload twice and drive 400-500 miles per day. They work about 14 hours/day 5 days per week. Not every day goes smooth, but most do. From my view at the trough life is pretty good.

 

It's starting to look that way!

Scrap???

I wouldn't haul that #### if it was the last load on earth!

What do you do throw one strap and then walk around and secure it before you throw the next one?

It takes about 3 seconds to throw each strap and maybe 30 seconds on each one on the other side to winch them down after they're all tossed over.
Portable winches? Maybe ten seconds to get one out of the box and drop it in a stake pocket.
Edge protectors (rarely needed) another 10 or 15 minutes tops even on a "complicated" load.

Takin' the stuff off and stowing it usually takes about 1/3 the time it takes to put it on.

Ahhhh yes, It was a matter of time before the "super trucker" thing came up...This is the term that's ALWAYS eventually pulled out of the hat of the person that's incapable of learning how to do the job efficiently.

About 45 minutes....Tight, No flapping!

I only have 2....about 25 to 30 minutes.

Looks like everything is impossible for you...

I have a question though....How slow do you walk/move?

Extend them to what?

The cheap freight that you were forced to haul?

Yeah....OK.

This has been being said for years and isn't anymore true now than it was then.

That's the crappiest rate that I will haul for....And then I'll only take that if I had a good paying load out.

A dollar a mile?

Only a fool would run a truck for a dollar a mile!

I gotta agree with you....A lot of words for a guy who obviously knows nothing about the job.

Sounds like he hauled a lot of SCRAP, HAY, LUMBER and other garbage like that....I will not haul SCRAP or HAY on my truck and rarely ever haul LUMBER!

 

really? You would quit on a spot, huh?

Dd you even drive anything or you type on momma's computer? Just walking around will not work, especially in high winds on high loads that twists and blow off straps. I don't know how much strap twisting super truckers tolerate these days, but I know that Maverick, for example, has zero tolerance for that, and frequently the only way to make it flat is to climb a load. And with CSA you wouldn't want to twist and "fray" your straps anyway. Also, you time depends on the setup, one thing to have straps in your boxes (little bit faster and easier) quite another is to have straps traveling on trailer' winches (especially in freezing rain), you need to to unwind and throw a hook first (that requires more efforts, and it twists strap, also after an unsuccessful throw a hook may stuck right on the top of 13 feet pipe load). That's what Boyd did, and I just got tired of changing bad straps after picking up another trailer, because other drivers just don't give a dime (and that's another reason they want you to tarp everything - to hide straps).

And why in the hell do you imply that I meant 5 minutes for throwing a strap? 5 minutes includes everything, pulling out straps from crammed boxes, throwing, re-throwing, flattening, tightening, re-tightening and lots of walking in between (it doesn't include edge protectors on the nasty loads). I challenge super truckers to do all of that in 30 seconds. Actually, 5 minutes to do all what I listed is rather on the optimistic side.

It depends, from looking at some super trucker's equipment boxes it will take them 10 minutes plus just to dig out stuff.

Ahhh, yes, it was a matter of time before the personal failings and inefficiency came up. Actually, more frequently than not I was little bit faster than career owner ops who did a good job on their loads (just because I'm little bit younger). Sure I didn't even try to beat the most "efficient" guys out there. I did it for 4 years, I was doing a good job in good time, the only way to do it faster was to skip on a thing/strap/edge protector/bungee etc. which I wasn't comfortable with. Occasionally I managed to squeeze 5 300-600 miles loads in 5 days, you can't do that while slow pocking. As I said, if you want to spend extra 3 hours/day working more luck to you, after 4 years I would rather do something not work related in those 3 hours of my life. Maybe in a year or two I'll start missing all that extra work, but for time being I just relax.

Looks like nothing is impossible for you, reality be ######. That reminds me something.

If you walk too fast around a trailer, you may spend the rest of your years working for medical industry. Running around a trailer is not a good idea, first, and it doesn't make things going faster, second. I walked at speeds allowing me to look where I'm stepping and to process visual information.

I was a company driver, I hauled 900 miles loads paying $800, and 1500 miles loads paying $5,000 (according to BOL), it paid the same.

So you are really special flatbed driver, you will not haul this, you will not haul that, yet you feel that you are qualified to "judge" someone who hauled all of that and much more? And of course you are an expert on amount of work that less special & specialized flatbed drivers put in.

 

Quit what?

I own the truck and the trailer...I just won't put that crap on it.

No....I just sit here naked in the basement surfing porn sites and eatin' Cheetos!

Seriously.....Is that the best you've got to throw at me?

I suppose you could get one of those scooters that I see advertised late at night on TV.

So you never put a twist in them to keep them from buzzing on a high load?

Twisting straps does not fray them....Letting them "guitar string" in the wind does.

I always thought that the "leaving the straps on the winches" was a lasyass thing...I roll'em and stow'em like they're supposed to be.

As far as how a company like Boyd does things....They're a scummy, rummy company so I would consider anything they do to be in question.

My gear is neatly stowed....Everything in its place and easy to access and then put away the same way every time so that unlike some of these guys everything on the truck isn't spread out on the ground in a tangled mess while they try to get their gear out.

That aint the way I truck!

Good thing I'm not one of those "super truckers" It sounds like a LOT of extra work!

Hey...You're the one that never figured out what you were doing, Not me!

How can you say that?

I don't know ANYONE that takes anywhere near as long as you claimed it took you to secure your loads.

There's the problem right there....Your reality is being superimposed by you onto anyone who unlike you can do the job better than you.

In other words....Since you were not very good at it, No one else could possibly be!

I hustle, I always have...But unless you're fairly slow witted you can move quickly and efficiently without stumbling around like an idiot!

Maybe you don't "process" visual clues as quickly as the rest of us.

Fortunately for me....I'm not a company driver and I never will be.

I have haued all of that junk in years passed and have made decisions based on my bottom line as to what I will or will not put on my equipment.

Yes....I am because I have "Been there, Done that".


The issue that most of us here take with your posts regarding flatbedding is that you come in here and tell all of us that we're idots for doing this because YOU weren't any good at it and chose crappy companies and couldn't make money.

When these statements are rebutted by people that know much more about flatbedding that you ever will...You can't believe them because then you would have to take personal responsibility for the fact that you weren't very good at this.

You'll have to live with the fact that some people are better at some things than you'll ever be....As we all do!

 

Can I add to the entertainment?

[ame]http://youtu.be/-0TZs0Wl884[/ame]