Owner Operator Finding Conestoga Loads

I just tell them to stay off my trailer in a nice way right off the bat. 2nd time they act like a cowboy banging stuff they get to meet the other side of me.

Most forklift operators are dumb ##### that think because they can start the machine, they are automatically an operator…


Oh and a side note…. Although I have bumped the dock and loaded a few van style loads, most will refuse you right there. They are afraid of going over the side….

 

To the To the OP… I just did a short gig ig with Ideal Transport out of Burton Michigan… they run step deck conestogas for landstar…. you might be able to give them a call and get some suggestions or just contact landstar directly.

 

Steel service centers. They’re almost all multi-drop loads, but they should pay pretty good if you’re not being robbed by a freight pimp.

 

I know this is a 2 year old thread, but it's worth reviewing, revising, and revisiting.
I have been driving for 25 years. Half of it has been flatbeds and half if that has been Conestoga. With that being said, another person/driver stated liability.

Yea, that's part of it. The other part that I've ran into is interior dimensions.
Interior height on mine is 98 inches max. You have to leave room for straps or chains.
I've also got a more narrow bed than the average flatbed/stepdeck.
Is it cool to not tarp? Certainly.
Does Conestoga have disadvantages?
Just like every other trailer or truck does.

Tarp kit for Conestoga is touchy, your gonna figure out how to patch a tarp REAL QUICK with a Conestoga. And not just the outside, the opposite of the tear as well. Not duct tape, but vinyl cement and tarp material and or a really great rubber tape, finished off with flex seal paint.

A windy day can be a nightmare to close one, or driving empty. I've had to completely open my tarping kit to the nose, tuck all the tarp into it's self and use 2 inch portable ratcheting straps to save my tarp from very high winds.
Now after reading all this, a reader or another driver might think to themselves why on God's green earth do you even want to consider pulling a Conestoga?

For me it's a personal preference, long story short, I was hit by a foreign driver back in 2008 and it has made it very hard for me to tarp a load with a tarp. It's not an excuse and I'm not lazy you don't come back from dying three times on the table just to go back out here and go flat beding again.

When I could move around good I didn't mind tarping a load at all, to be really honest with you I actually really prided myself into making that tarp look near perfect as possible. And I never used bungee cords to hold the tarp down I actually used California rope.

In closing, I have found that if you contact a broker who's offering a flatbed load and ask them hey do you mind if it's a Conestoga and talk to them about the load, that a lot of the times as long as they have a heads up, and you talk to the loader if they happen to be a Fork truck driver and you tell them flat out if you hit this trailer the damage starts at $10,000. That puts it in to ramroding real quick.