New to owner/operator and flatbeding

Yes Mercer does have their own board. You pick your own loads and have a coordinator to help.

 

I was in a similar boat. Owned my truck and was tired of dry van and wanted to do flatbed. However I did not want to go back to a mega carrier. I just looked for a small company and they put me on with no issues. First few weeks I just snapped pics and had a quick convo on what to do and easy as pie.

 

In the same boat. Just got a tractor head and flat bed and friend let me use. Is kind of confusing on which company to lease onto. Anybody know of good companies that will pay decent in ga. Were looking into UNIVERSAL TRUCKLOAD. Anybody heard of it ?

 

In alot of these securement classes your expected to soak it all up like a sponge in a few days or hours or whatnot. You may be out working all day securing something. But it will get easier. I asked other driver's, shipper etc and used my point of contact when I was unsure on how to secure something. Some places inspect your securement or tell you what they require or tell you where to place securement as not to damage the freight. I struggled on getting the hang of it but with time you will get better and better.

 

You will figure out a setup that works best for you. The guys that go to the same place all the time will have chains and straps that they cut or modified. Shorter chains and straps, specialty tarps and padding...etc, all speed up the process. When you're new, you feel slow as you see guys blow in and blow out in a fraction of the time you do. If you look closely, you will find that many of them have modded their equipment.

 

I asked more then one shipper how people normally do it. Some have diagrams to show, others will give you a general idea, others still will show you everything if it's something complex

 

Take the shipper's advice with 10 lbs of salt. As an example I hauled a 20,000 lb diesel motor and asked how most drivers secure it. He said to run one chain on each side from same rail to same rail, looping over the lift attachment points.

Screw that, you only get 1/2 the working load limit of the chain or strap if you start and finish at the same side. I figured out how to get chains in front and back of that engine going from one side to the other, then added two straps.

On the other hand loaders can give you some really good ideas how to approach dunnage and securement. Keep an open mind, but be prepared to over ride stupid.

 

I would still occasionally ask after 15 years of flatbedding, I'm offering a starting point

 

Been flatbedding for 9yrs now and 1 of the best pcs of advice i got in regards to securement was if your not sure than ask the guy who put it on the trl and there's no such thing as too much securement