Post flatbed load photos here V2.0

Yeah, everything is ok, thanks for asking. Up to a month ago the loads were all the same, those loads of steel railway sleepers, or railroad ties as you call them, going to the rural grain rail network of NSW.
The last month I've been doing some work on the truck and putting new axles under the converter dolly.

 

Moved some equipment around today for my outlaw/in-laws. The guys a mechanical genius. He could build anything you would ever want out of a scrap iron pile. But on most day's break an anvil barehanded. I took pictures to show him in a few weeks what it used to look like.
Little baby loader on a baby trailer.

And the trackhoe that's about to wish it was somewhere else.

 

This old trailer was built in Jan of 1956. Not very big, but it's built like a tank. Double framed and Heavy.
Gotta love the 30 tons at 20mph part. I'm thinking in 1956 a 30 ton piece of equipment would be quite a load on a gas truck at that time.

 

And how long ago did that company close.. I don't think they are in Ia any more let alone is business
But that steel then was virgin steel, not recycled pop cans

 

Back then they were tin.

 

Just a big ol walking beam.
It has cam brakes, but no spring brakes. So after the air bleeds off its got no parking brakes.
It gets dropped on a railroad tie. And at least once a year somebody forgets about this and knocks the thing off the blocks trying to hook up.

 

*shrugs*

I came into trucking through a government-sponsored funding program (where they take the costs and put them on the company's that participate, rather than taxpayers) and this was the company I chose to do my two year stint with (you have to stay with them for two years, or you get to pay a portion of the cost for the program back).

I have a cushy regional position that has me making money more than I ever dreamed possible (before this, my take home was around $1500 a month, now I make that bi-weekly sometimes) and has me at home with my wife every night (not seeing her when I was on the road ate away at me to the point I was losing sleep and driving tired).

And the company treats me very well. I get tons of new opportunities (just this week, I was offered training in their bulk equipment, to cover for their drivers when they take holidays and such, I said yes of course, more skills are always better) and they are very quick to give me a day or week off when I request it (there is no humming and hawing like I've had at other jobs).

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As for the guy sitting at the desk dictating securement, what company besides an owner-operator doesn't have one? And which of those companies operates in Manitoba, in flat deck (the only career I'd consider at this point in trucking, everything else would bore me) and offers regional work with as much variety as I get where I am?

My wager is probably none. Drivers, I've noticed, tend to be very fickle. They are always looking for the greener grass and specifically more money. I make more money than I ever have in my life, I get to drive my dream truck (as close to it as I can get, just missing the long hood), and get to work locally in the place in the world I like driving the most.

If they want me to put the chain through the pocket rather than around it, then that's what they'll get.