Which is Harder: Car Haul or Flatbed?

Take this with a grain of salt as your situation may be different than mine. I owned and ran a flatbed in my early 20’s hauling dedicated round trip freight that required 8 chains so it really wasn’t hard. I wasn’t tarping any loads which made a huge difference.
Fast forward from 23-45 when I became a carhauler. It sucked at first and was much harder than my flatbed experience. 11 years later today Carhauling is much easier for me and I can’t think of any other kind of trucking I would rather do. I get home often, make really good money and load and deliver on my schedule. Very seldom do I wait to load or unload because it is generally a 24/7/365 operation if you want it to be. Within reason you set your hours. There is a small percentage of dealers you can’t drop 24/7 and you generally won’t get dispatched on them if you were needing to deliver something after hours.

 

Switching to car hauling is like changing to any other type trailer, there's tips, tricks and learning curve. I made the same move back in '83 and it took a few months to get in the swing of it but the ease of the job after learning was well worth it. Keep in mind it's a bit more physical than even flatbed, weather, dispatchers, equipment all plays a part in the job. Best driving job out there if it suits you

 

All divisions have their challenges.
With flatbed you sling chains depending on what you haul. You need to know how to secure your loads. You have to lift and fold tarps and know how to tarp your load. Although you can get a loader to set your tarps on top of loads.

Car hauling takes time to learn what will fit where. You have to pay attention to vehicle weights so you aren't overloaded. Most loads require wheel straps but some loads require hard tying; meaning, chaining or strapping to the frame tie downs, winching down to get your height down.

Drivers usually have to do a lot of walking to find their vehicles. One cool thing about car hauling is you can very often drop your load at dealers after hours. Lock cars up and drop keys in the night drop box and go. When loading at ports or rail yards you can load 24/7.

You have to be willing to work in all elements of weather too. Which is harder? I've done both. I'd have to say car hauling. Car hauling is very specialized. It takes time to get your routine down in order to load fast and proficient. Getting comfortable with driving and backing a vehicle onto a carrier will take quite a bit of practice and courage.

You also have to inspect all vehicles prior to moving them. In winter, you have to be able to see in order to load so this will require clearing windows of snow and using a butter knife to clear ice from window seal to roll window down.

If you load at an auction several days after the auction, finding your vehicles can be a real pain and may take some time if they have been moved. Sometimes inconsiderate drivers will use a car to find their car and park it somewhere and now you have to find it.

Used cars may require using a jump box to start a dead battery.

That's a taste of both.

Hope that helps

I drive a company daycab, stay in nice hotels every night and my gross is $ 1800 to $2100 per week. Leave out on Sunday morning and return Thursdays. Usually.