Rolling into the Flatbed side, any tips or tricks?

Best of luck to you.

 

Essential information for flatbedders


New to flatbed

New to flatbed. Tarps

New to Flatbed, Not new to trucking

Brand New Flat-Bedder Here!

 

First bit of advice don't go with prime. Or any other mega. Second, thin is better than fat. Drink lots of water.

 

I agree.

If you already have driving experience, why go back to an entry level company that trains rookies? That's taking a step back, not forward. Drop Prime. Try companies like Systems Transport or Combined Transport (I would go with Combined over systems...Combined has a better looking football program if you reaaaaaally want to play football.)

 

Even keen would be better. Or rhinado. 84 lumber would be better. All the equipment yards at the house are hiring

 

You lurkers and people interested in heavyhaul, can you see the difference between this poster and that goof that wants to buy a truck to pull 400k? One wants to learn, and the goofs all want to buy heavyhaul trucks. But how do you know what to buy if you don't know what to pull?

New people always read these forums, hear all the bad things about companies and decide to buy a truck first. Bad idea, even pulling general freight. Why? Because no one is going to trust their freight with an untrained rookie. So this guy runs into the heavyhaul section trying to spec the biggest baddest truck to pull MegaHaul loads. Even if you just want to pull 200k and buy a truck to pull 200k, that truck will cost between $275-300k. And no one is going to allow a rookie to pull superloads. The companies that pull 400k are NOT going to hire you...they only hire company drivers to pull that much weight. Why is that? Someone gave you the answer in the other thread, but because you know everything, you missed it.

So, while you're paying for a $300k truck note, you're starving to death as you work your way up. It takes YEARS! You could have bought a lighter spec truck (AND PAID FOR IT) and been world's more profitable, and gained experience much faster because your truck isn't too heavy for the loads that you can pull. But instead, you starve to death. Like so many others, you were just in the business long enough to keep freight rates low.

"Why didn't you say this in the other thread, Six?"

What for? Stupid people come in already knowing everything. Or they troll.

 

He's in Utah. I was thinking of the west coast players. ATS is out there too, but if you go there as a company driver, it will take decades and decades of general freight loads to get to heavyhaul. They would try to sucker him into a lease.

 

"I wanna be a heavy hauler" is a broad statement. You need to figure out what you wanna haul and take steps to that goal. If equipment is what you want go to an equipment rental yard or a crane company. If industrial machinery or large crates go to a rigging company. If houses are you deal go to a house mover. Start as a support truck and watch the seasoned hands and follow their lead.