Pros vs. Cons. Refer,flatbed,van,tanker

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by spokman, Jul 24, 2006.

  1. Driveshaft

    Driveshaft Bobtail Member

    2
    0
    Jul 30, 2006
    0
    Well I actually pulled a Reefer for a while and Flatbeds but mostly van.

    As for the Reefers we always had lumpers but yes allot of stops and long runs. Dont care for them.

    As for Vans. You usally dont sit allot with vans frieght going everyhwere with these. Doesnt always pay well though. Yes u may finger print loads and sit at docks for hours much like Reefers. But you dont need to worry about freight falling off deck like flatbeds.

    As for flatbeds. My favorite. I will miss it cause I really messed my back up a few weeks back and Doc and Wife asked me to please get out of it.

    So I am working on getting into the van Divsion at my work.

    As for flatbeds easy loading and unlaoding hardly any detention time. Yes you get dirty, body gets sore, You get wet cold hot u name it happens.
    But it keeps you moving you gotta get out of truck more to check load and securement. Tarping not hard at all. Chaining the best straps easy to put on. I hate rolling them up for some reason.

    What about a Bull Wagon. It has the best benifit ever. Not only does ur dispatcher crap on you so does the load:laughing8:
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. Duckie

    Duckie Light Load Member

    98
    15
    Jul 21, 2006
    Alabama
    0
    Flatbed is always going to be my favorite, if you enjoy working outside its for you. You get your daily excercise Flatbedding.
     
  4. Truckin Juggalo

    Truckin Juggalo Medium Load Member

    606
    125
    Aug 5, 2006
    Madisonville, TN
    0
    Man i've been haulin Dry Van for 2 years with US Xpress its Simple but one thing people have forgot to mention about Dry Van is some Shippers Have mandatory Driver Verification where u have to Count the load as they are loading it and sign a pice of paper verifying that you counted.. Most of the time its on Shrinked Wraped Pallets with the same number on each and u just count the pallets thats perty simple never going to count higher than about 56 pallets..

    Now there are Exceptions Once i was in Laredo Texas getting loaded with some Dishes for Wal-Mart and the guy told me i had to verify the load i said ok no problem (thinking it was shrinked wrapped pallets) but he said start counting from here and we walked about 30 feet to here there were rows and rows of boxes some on pallets.. they expected me to do there work for them. (Thank god i was on Walmart Account we have it in our Company Contract that we arent responsible for the Count and are under no circumstances required to count even if the shipper demands it just 1 simple phone call in my experience and they wait on u hand and foot) just to let u know there were 3870 boxes according to the 12 guys they had counting them

    But never since i Started Trucking have i Ever unloaded or Unloaded a Truck there are Always lumpers and i have noticed that U only deal with lumpers when u haul to Store Wearhouses.. and Espically in the north East its expensive but you will never pay out of your own pocket.. the most i have ever been charged was in windsor locks connecticut.. about $375.00 bucks to unload.. all u do is send a satcom msg to the company tell them how much and they deposit the money into your account and u pay them..

    Umm lets see on Average B4 i was on Walmart account i ran about 2500mi a week made about 500-600 a week.. on this Wal-Mart account i Average between 2900 a week with my best week being 4300mi. and i bring home after deductions and 401k and stock purchase about 1200 gross and a Average of 700net..

    Another thing to watch out for when u get into trucking is a mornon for a dispatcher one of these guys where u drive for 11hours nonstop through the night and get to the dock at 5am send a msg like dont dispatch me on another load till 3-4pm im tired and when u get your next load it Picks up at 4pm (great!!) dead head (300mi) and they close at 5pm its friday and they arent open on the weekends..

    One of the perks on the walmart account is u dont run into that B.S... you have preplaned weeks every wednesday u send if u need a 34hr restart on the weekend and then on thursday your satcom gets loaded with all the preplans for that next week.. dont worry if your early theres always freight with walmart at least in my experience.. and also every load is Guarenteed to be a Drop and hook at the consignee which normally takes about 45mins if u move Quickly from checkin to finding the space droping waiting on PU number and going to Wal-Mart Dispatch getting Seal Card and finding a mt hooking and pulling out..

    umm i guess i babbled on alot but i figuered i put in a pice about running Dry Van..

    Again never have i ran into a situation where there wasnt a lumper
     
  5. Redneck

    Redneck BANNED

    176
    96
    Dec 5, 2005
    Chillicothe,OH
    0
    Ok I am gonna chime in here I missed this somehow. I have pulled everything mentioned here except a refer.
    I will have to say that there are easy loads in all of them, but there are HARD loads in all also.

    I will not go back to a VAN because it is to easy to stick a driver with a hand unload.....load of car tires I did this and will never do it again.

    I liked flat bed because you did not haul the same thing all the time or I didn't anyway. Usually it is a unusual load also, it can get interesting I have hauled just about everything you can imagine and some thing's you can't imagine on a flat bed.

    But I must say tanker is the best job I have had when I was pulling freight. I pulled food grade and also HAZMAT (2 different company's).
    Food grade is not that easy depending on what you haul. I pulled liquid chocolate for a year, and I must say it is sometimes very hard work.
    Some places I pulled into required the driver to unload, meaning you hooked up the hoses and pumped the chocolate off. When the tank was empty they would bring a very long handled squeegy out called a scraper. The driver had to get up on top of the tank and open all the dome lids usually a 3 or 4 hole tank. Starting at the front you would scrape the chocolate forward from the side and bottom of the tank. Working your way all the way to the back. This sometimes would take a hour to as long as 3 hours depending on the thickness of the chocolate.
    The hoses full of chocolate are VERY heavy, and you can get burned by the chocolate as it is a minimum of 150 degrees with some being hotter.
    As already mentioned SOME food grade tankers are baffled but pulling chocolate required a smooth bore tank (one without baffles) as the thicknes of chocolate would hang to the baffles and you would be unable to unload the entire load.
    Depending on the thickness of chocolate it's reaction time to movement is different. The thicker the product the slower the reaction.
    I have had my tank move me into a intersection before after I was already stopped and my foot on the brakes.
    I have also had a full load of chocolate completly stop me before while making a turn going uphill when I tried to shift gears.

    As for turning them over, you just need to remember what you are hauling going down the road. Pulling a tanker is almost like pulling a flat bed, because of the load being top heavy.

    Now as for pulling a HAZMAT load this is completely different from food grade.
    Most of the products in a HAZMAT tanker are all pretty thin, kinda like water. But some can be very heavy but still look like water.
    Most hazmat tanks are smooth bore also, except for gas, and diesel. There is more work to unloading HAZMAT because of the safety equipment required to wear while unloading.
    The safety equipment I had was: A pair of Flame Retardent Coverhauls, a hard hat with a splash shield, a respriator, goggles, safety glasses, chemical gloves, and chemical boots. Also we were required to wear a Flame retardent Rain Suite sometimes.
    Depending on where you were loading or unloading the company would tell you what to wear.
    But you can and most certinly will get loads of resins and paints also while pulling a HAZMAT tank. Resins I do not like because they are messy, paints I do not mind because you usually do not do anything.
    Poisins we were required to suit up for unloading, but not for loading (we did not load poisin). As a matter a fact we did not unload poisin either we were required to suit up in case the unloader would get into trouble we could jump in and remove them from harms way.
    Most places you went with HAzmat required you to get up on the tank and vent it for unloading.
    I would reccomend you getting a BRASS hammer to carry as brass will not spark (great for Flammable loads) and some of the dome lids are hard to get loose.
    Usually you get more money per mile for HAZMAT also.

    Good luck in whatever you decide to do, and Be Safe!
     
    LoneCowboy Thanks this.
  6. wannachew

    wannachew Bobtail Member

    5
    0
    May 5, 2007
    0
    Yes, coast to coast, go go go, but remember, we reefer haulers (well, this one anyways) has to follow the same HOS that flatbed,dry,and tanker drivers follow.

    As for product spoiling, my responsibility is ensure the reefer is operating within the temperature zone stated on my paperwork. I have no control over the fact that a shady shipper may have loaded product of less quality than should be. And it can be a pain in the butt returning bad product, but a mentioned in another post, I am paid hourly for stuff like that.

    I 've only had 1 major claim thus far towards me, it was a meat load, temperature sensative, part of the load was refused, hours at the csgn. When all was said and done, I returned my reefer to our yard, reefer was hooked to the computer and analyzed(SP?), temperature inside the box stayed within required zone entire time, reason determined to be, the shipper loaded fresh meat (still warm) as opposed to loading pre chilled (not frozen). I lost some driving time, however I still was paid for my time...
     
  7. GasHauler

    GasHauler Master FMCSA Interpreter

    6,257
    4,365
    Oct 23, 2005
    Vegas/Jersey
    0
    I've done my time in different vehicles since driving from 1978. Tankers by far was the best for me. I was lucky and got on with a major oil company and only did local driving. But that driving was in Las Vegas NV and I laughed when the other poster said tanker was lazy work. We'd pull 6 loads a day in over 100° heat and if you weren't condition for it you'd pass out. It was the hardest work I've done but I liked it. The day would fly by and I'd be home before you'd know it. The pay was the best and the benefit package was unbelievable.

    But just like any other job that was just one aspect of the work. I took a road trip/test in a bulk tanker that was loaded with gypsum rock and then we'd back load with bulk cement. There is no way I'd work for that company. They might have paid good but they were the type of company that would trap the driver in working for them. They'd push the driver by offering money so when the driver got tickets he couldn't go anywhere else.

    I've hauled heavy construction equipment across the country. You'd load the dozer or whatever by yourself and chain in down and away you'd go. That job was hard too. You always worried about the load shifting no matter how many chains you used or how good you blocked the load. Most of the loads were over loads so I only drove by day. You really had to have your paperwork straight because you could count on everytime you pulled into the scale you'd get the red light and told to pull over and bring in all the permits. Pulling a 110,000lbs always got on your nerves.

    I started pulling van trailers but it was team driving. I was in the Navy and the Navy only worked 4 days a week. So every Friday to Sunday I was running the southern states hauling tote boxes that held all the junk you'd buy in a fast stop store like 7/11. No pallets, all 1300 had to be off loaded by hand. We would leave Jacksonville FL and have 5 to 8 stops then back. Once you closed the trailer door there was no worry about the cargo. They didn't pay all that good but that's where I cut my teeth.

    So the whole point is the only good job is the job you like. Some drivers want to be home everynight then some want to out all the time. You really have to do your own research to find the jobs that fits you.
     
  8. Powder Joints

    Powder Joints Subjective Prognosticator

    7,657
    7,739
    Sep 25, 2007
    Rosamond, SoCal
    0
    Loading and unloading was never in my mind as far as what I drive. I dont mind unloading or tailgating, in fact I kind of like the exercise. My problem is how the warehouses treat the refer like its a storage and detain you. I dont like waiting, to get loaded, unloaded, etc... I pull a tanker because the loading and unloading is fast and it is real unusal for me to have to wait at all to load or unload.

    I delivered my load and reloaded friday night in the plant at 16:32 out # 17:05. And this is normal for us in the bulk powder world. Shippers and recievers treat us fairly well, which is different than what you will experience at a Walmart DC. I get home for every weekend, and get by the house several times during the week. The truck is always with me, always. I dont share tractor or trailers. If there broken its because I broke it, no one to blame.
     
  9. Powder Joints

    Powder Joints Subjective Prognosticator

    7,657
    7,739
    Sep 25, 2007
    Rosamond, SoCal
    0
    I would like to invite the guy who thinks tankers are for fat lazy drivers, out to the mines with us in Nevada during the summer. Or to the job sites like in front of the hoover dam, etc... Every job has its pluses ans minus, but dont second guess the other guys. When I transfer dry product my compressor produces Hot ( 160 to 300 degrees) Air to keep the products dry. The hoses and trailers come up to this. So in the 20 minutes to unload a trailer you could loose 1/2 gallon of liquids or more. And no you do not get back into your cab while unloading, you have to control pressures to keep from blowing up your trai;ers or the customers plant. Then when its empty you have to handle those 50 lbs hot hose to roll them up and stow them. All the powder driver have nice burn scares on there forearms. But its the Hot asphalt guys I take my hat off to, thats just more balls than I have/ Hot Asphaly can blow up just by sweating into it. Bad Stuff.
     
    LoneCowboy Thanks this.
  10. Truck Driver

    Truck Driver Medium Load Member

    330
    136
    Dec 5, 2007
    Sacramento, CA
    0
    Tankers can be very frustrating to drive. The other day I had to back several miles up a steep narrow hill so that the weight of the load would be on my drives rather than on my trailer tandems. I could not get up the hill with no weight on the drives. Any other type of truck wouldn't have had a problem.
     
  11. DDiesel

    DDiesel Light Load Member

    93
    6
    Jun 22, 2009
    Fresno
    0
    what pays the most can someone with exp put them in order seems like tanker than flat bed but i dunno??
     
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.