Swift - switching from van to flatbed?

How long have you been with Swift?

 

Whats a trap

 

Switching from van to flatbed entails a 5 day paid ($200 I think?) securement class in phoenix. Ray Pederson will get you signed up for the class and work with your DM to get you routed there if it's an issue. Tom loves getting phone calls so call him at 800-800-FLAT and ask to speak with Ray. The flatbed DMs can tell you about your service record and risk analysis to see if you qualify for flatbed.

As far as the physical work it's not that bad. For perspective, I worked at a tire shop changing tires and oil during college, that was harder work.

The great things about flatbed are the miles, customers, hours, and DMs. My weekly average is 3100 as a solo driver, but I never go home really. We mainly pull for the same customers, the vast majority of which are great to work with. It's also nice always knowing where you're picking up and delivering to, which could be a bad thing if you get bored quickly and always want to be going some place new. The hours are primarily daytime, I have never had a load that required me to drive through the night. The DMs/planners are super competent and a pleasure to deal with. I'm a happy swift flatbedder and would recommend it to anyone.

edit: Forgot to mention loading times since you asked about it. You will almost always be limited by how fast you can tie down your load. The freight goes on and comes off extremely quickly, it's contingent on you whether you spend a half hour at a steel plant chaining and tarping a coil, or 3 hours (my first time)...

 

I'm always planned for my next load before delivering my current one, or I'm told to DH somewhere after delivering, usually happens in the northeast. We are planned for Monday on the previous Friday... Chris in phx has done a great job with loading us up with pps. The only delays really are at Laredo, we have to wait for transmex to put their equipment on the load before we deliver to the broker, BUT chris is working on getting rid of that system.

 

I start my 2 week training in Millinton, TN on the 26th and told my recruiter that I wanted to go FLATBED and he said I'm all set and it's in my file.

Hope things go as planned.