Start school next week, want to go flatbed

EVERYBODY entering trucking assume there will be LOTS more free-time than actually exists in trucking. Your life will almost only be driving and sleeping. Imagine your boss saying "just go ahead and work for the next 14-16 hours and take the rest of the day off." You hardly are ever told you will be sitting for the next X hours. It is more common to be told "we'll get to you soon" and then wait and wait and wait with no idea if that is waiting for another 30 minutes or 4 hours. The good news is flatbed has a LOT less waiting than the cursed reefer part of the industry.

 

Doesn't reefer have ridiculous wait times for loading and unloading? Might be the perfect job for a gamer.

 

I thought about reefer originally but so many people said you have to wait a long time to get loaded/unloaded, how is the pay of a reefer driver compared to flatbed?

 

It can be about the same...or even better.

It depends...I suggested reefer...mainly because...we're going into an economic recession.

If the upcoming recession is really bad....and flatbed really slows down....reefer will be the place to be.

People of course will still eat.....in a recession. Thus....reefer/temp controlled could be a worthy alternative in the near future.

Yes, wait times to load/unload can indeed be ridiculous (been there, done that ). But you will in many cases be paid for at least part of the wait time ("detention" pay).

Detention pay varies from carrier to carrier.

For beginning drivers, here's a real good carrier worthy of your consideration:

Driver Training & Orientation | Drive For Dot | Dot Transportation, Inc. (drivefordti.com)

--Lual

 

You get detention pay for wait times when pulling reefers.
Milage pay to get to the destination + stop pay for arriving + detention pay for wait times.
Sometimes detention pay starts immediately or may start in one or two hours after arriving. The stop pay makes up for that though. I did OTR reefers for 18 years and liked it, otherwise wouldn't have done it for so long.

 

Lots of refrigerated choices for Ohio new cdl school grads.
Which town are you in or near?

 

Which town/city are you in or near?

 

Valley Transportation - Home
1510 TOWNSHIP ROAD 1153
ASHLAND, OH 44805

 

This one is dry van.
About 3 — Ploger Transportation
300 Cleveland Rd.
Norwalk, OH 44857
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Detention Bonus, or Layover and Breakdown Bonus.
CPM rates:
Less than a year experience 0.55 CPM

• 70 mph trucks with a performance bonus to 73 mph
  
  
• All trucks have refrigerators, power inverters, satellite radio, Tempur-Pedic mattresses

 

Dutch Maid Logistics | Now Hiring Drivers
3377 US Highway 224 W
Willard, OH 44890
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Refrigerated trucking. Hires new cdl school grads.