Why does pulling car trailers pay so much more than most trucking jobs?

We're paid NOT to damage the freight .............. really, we are. Imagine a van load of toilet paper, which I've hauled lots of ................. now imagine a van load of Aston Martin Vanquishs' ...... what costs more ?

Not every one can do car haul.

back in the day it was a course with only a 20% grad rate

 

Hauling cars is a lot more work than other types of freight. It is physically challenging and is dangerous. You are crawling up and down the trailer and a slip could result in a fall where you could be seriously injured or killed. You will need to secure each car with 4 chains or straps. A ten car unit will require 40 chains or straps. That is a lot of work. You will be out in all types of weather. Ramps can collect ice in winter and a wet ramp could result in slippage if the ramps are positioned at too acute of an angle. You have to use a lot of common sense hauling cars or any open deck freight, for that matter. It takes time for you to learn how to stage your load where you will be legal on your axles. And it is very easy to get a scratch while loading. That can be expensive. I don't know that hauling cars pays as much as it did at one time. I think rates are soft on most types of freight. It is rare to be able to get into car hauling with less than 2-3 years driving experience.

 

Hope you don't mind, but I fixed it for you.

 

Saw a hauler come in to a job site to pick up a few rental trucks that were being returned. It was Minnesota, January, early morning. Driver got in one of the rental pickups, set it up to back up the trailer ramps and ultimately end up on top of the tractor. He got a running start, zipped right up to the top, and then right off the front of the tractor with all four wheels locked. Ended up with the rear bumper of the pickup on the ground in front of his hood, and the front bumper hung up on the top. Pickup was now shaped like a V, and doubtless needed a new driver seat.

 

IF you're an O/O, hauling freight you might carry $100k in cargo insurance, for enclosed car haulers, we may carry $250, 500 or 1 million.

 

ditto on Kansas Transit fixing the op

 

I always wondered why the vehicle over the trucks cab is always turned backwards? For people who like a challenge that line of work sounds interesting. Scratches on the cars. I understand that real well. Car companies make their workers cover their belt buckles, rings, tape up metal studs on pants. And the smallest of scratches seem to get noticed first.
Ever notice how fast they load vehicles on train cars. Those guys don't waste any time...lol

 

I had a customer that used a car hauler who ran a car off the top of the truck. Apparently, the driver hit the ramp wide open and could not stop when he hit the tractor so off he went. He had to get a wrecker out to pick up the car and set it on his truck. He tried to convince the customer that it was that way when he picked it up.

 

The top vehicle is not always backed on. If it is a small car you may drive in on forward. It just depends on the load. It is more about weight distribution. Learning how and where to place vehicles for the best weight distribution is part of the learning process. It is a little more complicated than just driving the cars on the truck and chaining down. Unless you haul the same cars from a manufacturer all the time, you will usually have a mixture of vehicles, especially when you haul from auctions or POV's (personal vehicles). You could have more than one vehicle that is the same or similar, but could have a mixture of vans, SUV's, compacts or full sized cars. The more cars you haul, the more of a challenge it can be to properly load your truck. I usually owned 10 car rigs, but did pull an 11 car rig at one point. I preferred the 10 car. If you pull a wedge trailer it doesn't make much difference were you place your cars, since you can't haul that much weight. A wedge can only haul 3-4 cars. I have a friend who did manage to be over on his trailer and likely with his gross by having several larger vehicles on his trailer. One was a 1 ton truck. A 7 car is fairly easy to load and you can make decent money with them. Car haulers like I owned take a little longer to load. You never want to get in a big hurry loading cars. When you get in a hurry, you make mistakes and those lead to damage and claims.