No Tarping Station-No Tarping?

SHC - About 20 years ago I picked up some crated machinery at the port in Tacoma, same thing, broker said it needed a top tarp but the weather was perfect and we rolled without them since the long shoremen could care less. The receiving customer on the other hand was less than impressed and we (there were 3 other trucks besides myself) wound up not getting paid a cent for taking them to Chicago. Don't remember the dollar amount but they were 11' wide and 12' high. The machines were in fact CNC milling machines from Japan and the crates were completely water proof but the customer did not care, no top tarp, no pay and very VERY close to being fired from Inway (Landstar).

 

I can understand not wanting to tarp if it for some reason really is unsafe. But guys that just whine about tarping to whine annoy me. If you will not tarp you should go pull a van, reefer or tanker. If you take your companies tarp pay, and do not tarp, you are a thief. Sorry if you disagree. Just because something was sitting outside somewhere is no reason not to tarp. Sitting in a lot, if it rains, it is fairly clean water. If it rains while you are pulling it up the road, you end up with dirt, grease, oil, fuel, and whatever else was on the road on it. I get 30 bucks for a steel tarp load, and 50 bucks for a lumber tarp load. Not counting strapping/chaining, which has to be done on every load, I can usually tarp in 25 minutes or so. So, I figure I get paid 60 to 100 bucks an hour to tarp. Not bad money, and nothing to whine about. And I know that large machinery or oversize crates are much more difficult to tarp, but if you are getting a fair tarp fee, then tarp it. If you aren't getting a fair tarp fee, then that is an entirely different issue.

 

Bottom line, if I know up front, the load requires tarps and I agreed to pull the load, it gets a tarp. Tarp station or not. If the circumstances make it dangerous to tarp, I sit right there until the situation is rectified, but I'm not leaving until the tarp is on, or they take the load back off.

 

Good way to get in trouble and possibly jeopardize your lease! Think about it.
Do what you want, but here's a word of advice from an old fat, fart, that has been doing this gig for decades. Provide the service that you agreed to provide and it will reward you in the long run. Don't provide the service, you agreed to and it will come back to bite you, in time.

 

......and lumper fees!

 

You laugh but there are several conestoags with reefer fuel tanks under them and heaters on the bulkheads. There was one on truckpaper for a while. The one guy I talked to hauled rolls of rubber and they had to be kept at 60* and were loaded with an overhead crane.

 

I have no doubt SHC will make the right decision based on the information available when he picks up. He didn't come this far, this fast, to make a rookie mistake like that....