Maybe Going Skateboarding (to do?)

I started with a "training" company. Rolled a truck 4 months later. Out of a truck for 8 months. Just long enough to forget all my trainig. Now I've got 2 years safe driving post accident. Sure wish I hadn't had that training

 

From August 2014 -

I am hoping to get some input on the working conditions at Systems Transport. I am still in school and have been offered a possible position with the 48 state OTR division. I have been told to get a passport and a HME. I've heard that they require tarps on ALL loads, is that true?

I believe it was you who poked your nose into my thread on the transition from 10 years as a company driver to an owner operator leased to LS, pulling a flatbed. Your words of wisdom were that "If I had to ask these questions - I had no business pulling a flatbed" - at that stage of the thread securement was being discussed. Thanks for the support.

So - because you've been a flatbed driver - for a little over 2 years, your wonderful contribution to others looking for a skill set change is "Don't do it - you'll kill everybody". You might try assisting others sometimes, you may find it very rewarding.

You can rest assured that I've been pulling flatbed for 21 months now, without a single issue. I have done this by using my brain, other drivers, shippers, loaders, securement guidelines and common sense. I know I'm lagging far behind your vast experience as a securement specialist, and can hardly make it up with the additional 11 years CDL driving experience I've accrued, but I humbly request that you allow me to exist in your world of lofty expectations.

 

No idea about "year round" yet. Only been with em for just over 3 months. But seems to be par for the course for that time though. Yeah, some loads are better. Some are worse.

 

There's "training" for load securement? Wow, whoda thunk it!

My training consisted of a half hour on the "training trailer" BSing with the instructor, followed by getting the key and getting kicked down the road. And here I still am, hauling coils and whatnot.

Guys jump on me for oversecuring. They get too snotty, the cheater bar comes out. My freight don't move unless I decide it's time to unload.

 

really it depends on how your money is and what you can afford I would think. I was reading in another section of this forum that if you have a used trailer that needs to gone thru and reworked that some trailer dealers will go thru it and make it like new. IMHO, if you was to buy a used one I would look for a steel one with old beat up wood floors in it and buy that as cheap as you could get the price down to. then I would strip all the old rotten wood off and replace it all with aluminum decking in place of the wood, this would lower the weight of the trailer and it would be as strong if not stronger than the wood would be. Also go thru all the bearing and seals in the axles and make sure they're right if not replaced along with the tires, which I would put on recapps to save a little till your up and running pretty well.

 

nothing made in china, specially teh chains, lol, they are crap!!!!

 

You may wanna hold off on getting the chains and a few other items, LS may have an account somewhere that you can get thse things at a discounted rate which willl save you money in the long run, just for your sake of getting started!!

 

Hmmmm; don't believe I advocated anything made in PRC

You think LS will have discount programs on domestically produced products?? The blue star is solidly on the cheaper is better bandwagon in most ways.

 

LS drivers get a discount at Tri-City Canvas, which is fairly competitive anyhow - problem is unless you pick it up the freight can be pricey. The LCAPP program is excellent for tires, the trick here is to buy out of state, and pay for the mounting/balancing yourself, as they upcharge it on the back end.

 

I replaced a floor once! NEVER EVER again.