Prime Reefer to Flatbed?

I am sooooo glad I fell out of flatbed and into a tank of milk.

All my buds I went to school with bailed on it because of the tarping in winter BS.
Problem is now I am Ruined. At one dairy they make me hook up my hose and pull my valve and than button up my cabinet when they are done washing.

Oh the Horrors of hauling milk.

Plus that big long shiny thing I pull shows the ladies I know how to make up for my inadequacies.

 

Sorry, I did not drive for prime I was just trying to make a joke! Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

This is definitely a plus. You may want to pull some nails out of the deck, or brush some rocks off the deck, but you basically just go straight to the next pickup.

 

she could loose another 50 pound if she got rid of all that makeup. That face could grease a fifth wheel

 

Aww, sad. Keep trying little buddy!

 

I won’t put her down for trying. She’s still got it.

 

She does have it. She dosn't need to try so hard.

 

reefers running continuous are better than an APU cycling on and off all night. The reefer will drown out the APU and you can get a good nights sleep once you are accustomed to it. just give it some time.

 

I started at Prime pulling flats. I started as a company driver, then switched to lease. Looking back on it, I left about six months later than I should have. I have a few thoughts, fwiw.

1. Prime will charge you roughly $3500 for your equipment. Some or even most of that equipment will be used. If you complain and ask for new, Shawn will say, "We've had a lot of quitters lately!" If you decide to flatbed at Prime, pitch a fit and demand new equipment. (That worked for one guy I know, anyway.)

Yes, they say they'll buy it back if you decide to leave, but after talking to at least 10 former drivers about it, I haven't found one who got more than 25 cents on the dollar on their initial investment. And I don't know of any other flatbed outfit that makes you buy your own equipment when you're a company driver.

2. If you get a good trainer, you will get good securement training. If you don't, you will have to teach yourself. Most are good, some really suck, and some will teach you the wrong way to do it. I had a good one, thankfully.

3. Don't lease a truck with Prime. Just don't. When they say "it's a walk-away lease," you need to translate that to "we're going to take your last two weeks' pay so you can walk away, regardless of how well you maintained your truck." I could go on about this since there's a lot more reasons not to lease there, and why it's a bad idea even as a reefer driver, but I already know it's a waste of breath if you've already made up your mind to do it. The only point of saying it is a) maybe you haven't made up your mind and so you won't lease with them, or b) I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that I told you so when you realize down the road that this was good advice.

3. As has been noted, you'd better really like to be outdoors if you're going to flatbed. That includes tarping hot steel with sharp edges when it's 105° in Phoenix and banging on frozen winches to get them to move when it's -20° in Nebraska. I'm not going to say much about tarping in 35 mph winds, snow, rain, mud, ice on the deck, or hay loads, since that's all included in "outdoors."

4. On the good side, flatbed shippers and receivers generally keep good hours and are nice, and the work pays OK. Flatbedders also generally tend to help each other. Also, you'll immediately see what is wrong with loads when people post pictures of bad securement, which is satisfying in its own way.