Why become a flatbedder?

I had the hood open, I was standing / sitting on the motor washing my windshield. I guess there aren't to many around with that kind of energy,

 

Ain't seen too many who could get up there!

 

clindo squeegee windex paper towels

simple exercise

 

That Clindo is good stuff!

 

Yeah the real advantage is you won't have to wait around for hours at warehouses and bargaining with the lumpers for good unloading rates the disadvantage is you got to muck around tarping up but hey once you get used to it you'll really enjoy it.

 

I like the flatbed myself and have been doing it for over 14 years.
Every load is different, every load is a puzzle that you have to solve.
It is harder work. But it is rewarding when you're all done and ready to hit the road.
Tarping is sometimes a pain, but necessary to protect your customers load.
You also get a fair amount of exercise, lifting, climbing, chaining, throwing straps and tarps.
There are some big guys doing flatbed, but compared to the number of fat, overweight, lazy drivers you see doing box and reefer, the percentage is very small.
One other huge advantage to flatbed is time.
From the time you pull into load, secure, and tarp if need be on the average is 3-4 hours start to finish.
With box and reefer you might be there 5-6 hours just to bump the dock, another 3-4 hours to load.
So while your waiting to load, I've already got a couple hundred miles in.

 

I prefer flatbed but had to give it up when my equilibrium went bad.
If you are careful you can load / unload a car carrier in dry weather. The real challenge is when there is snow and ice on the trailer.

 

I get some funny looks when I do it instead of relying on that flimsy six foot pole to clean nothing.

 

All true.

It's pretty rare for me to wait to load or unload. Usually it happens at shingle or lumber plants, but that's simply waiting your turn. Waiting to get a call on the CB from the rig master during an oil rig move is fun. Just watching the orchestration of dozens of trucks, many pulling multi axle trailers, is amazing. There isn't a weak driver in the bunch.

I was reminded by my brother of an experiment done on two monkeys. Both monkeys received simultaneous electric shocks. One monkey was taught to press a button to stop the shock. The other monkey didn't have a button and had no control.

The monkey with the ability to stop the shock did fine. The monkey with no control developed stress related issues. I don't recall if it was ulcers or what, but the point is having control of a process like loading or unloading sure makes for FUN instead of stress.

A couple nights ago I was at T's Truck Stop in Paris, TX. Lots of mega carriers fretting at the CAT scale after loading at the next door Campbell's Soup plant. I felt for them. You could tell they were having difficulty getting the weights right and their e-logs were ticking after waiting to get loaded and they didn't have a button and they KNEW dispatch was going to shock them.

I like having a button. I slept really well.