Physical demands of a flatbed

Spend a day working a hay wagon or being the ground man on a car crushing crew and you will never consider tarping hard work again.

 

I've spent my time on the hay wagon thank you very much. 4th cutting really sucks. I would rather be on wagon then in the mound though.
Car crushing would be new.

 

After baling and stacking hay you still think tarping is hard work?

Car crushing sucks. The industry has changed so it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. Used to have to remove every gas tank and tire. Not so bad on the first car, but that pile gets awfully tall to be throwing tires up by the 500th car.

Anytime i catch myself whining about having to tarp some machine with a hundred sharp edges that need padded i think 'sure glad I'm not throwing tires filled with water 15 feet up the pile.'

 

I'm not doubting that you are a hard worker. I'm just saying if you go at it, tarping a load can be made to be a workout. I like to see how fast I can do it. I like to race covered wagons and conestoga's. Sure I almost always lose but not by much. If I'm in front of them in line and get loaded, chained and tarped we are usually headed for the gate together with me following. If you make it, it can be a workout for 15-30 minutes.

 

I had never experienced anything like that so I was worried I had really done damage. Some muscle relaxers and taking it easy for a few days did the trick and since then, I know how to handle it if I hurt my back again. No need to tie up the health care system.

 

Lot of youtube tarping videos you could watch. Google “flatbed tarping”. Always be friendly toward the shipping department, especially the forklift operator. You should never have to lift up tarps off the ground.

 

First off, thanks to everyone who replied on this thread. I test for my CDL-A in 8 days (actually, since it's 7 PM now, I guess it's only 7.5 days away!) and I've been thinking about going into flatbed. It just seems like it might be a more varied and interesting job than dragging box trailers around.

Going into trucking is going to be quite a shift for me, as I've spent most of the last 20 years driving a keyboard in front of a computer writing software. So, as they say, I don't even know what I don't know, yet.

What do y'all think of Werner? I know they're a mega, are they also another job that's just for "steering wheel holders"? I'm thinking that it might be a good idea for me to do 6 months or so of box trailer hauling at first, just to get used to the OTR life, and doing the job in general, before I move into something that sounds like it might be more complicated. And then moving into their flatbed division, if they have an opening.

I've also got congenital joint issues (rheumatoid arthritis since I was a kid), so this post about the physical demands of flatbed work has been very helpful for me. I have to admit that I'm a touch concerned about it, since in addition to the arthritis, I have a bad disc in my lower back.

I appreciate any advice y'all might be able to give me.

 

All the megas are geared towards the lowest common denominator and meat in the seat.

Chinatown on here is a great resource for companies other than megas.

 

No he isn’t

 

Hrm. So, what are some better options for people fresh out of school?