Why would anyone want to pull flatbed trailers?

I don't know. Flatbedders get hot and sweat in the sun, dirty and grimy from tarps, cold and wet, frostbite in winter. Its dangerous climbing on loads, dealing with binders that could take your face off, tarp straps that can snap any time...

Flatbedders have to drive into muddy lots, get themselves and their trucks dirty. Haul 48,000 lb coils, that can roll right through the truck, or beams that can take your head off when some box hauler cuts them off.

Flatbedders have to constantly monitor their freight, and legally required to stop every couple hrs to check their securement. No sitting back and just enjoying the ride, constant vigilance.

And the best part, box haulers are making more money than flatbeds right now. Yeah, those flatbedders must be pretty dumb.

 

Troll thread is trollolol

 

Sometimes it just depends on what job fits you best not so much about the freight. Iv done all 3 and really it just depends on what's being offered . If I saw a dry van gig that paid 80k a year and had good reviews or a flatbed company that paid 60k that also had good reviews. I'd go with the dry van gig .

 

Yeah
I see you point but you probably won’t see that scenario

I’m an O/O so no idea on company pay but a friend of mine is home most all weekends a d usually a day during the week a time or two per month and is just under $100k with flatbed plus benefits

 

I think I would prefer pulling a skate board but I have seen the pics of steel pipes, lumber, and even heavy equipment come smashing through the cab when the driver had to do a serious brake check.

 

Don't let that stop you. There's a way to prevent all that from happening, and the main cause of it is laziness. Next main cause is probably poor training.

 

Eh, a hard braking situation, he somewhat has a point. If its a van stocked to the gills with say soda vs a flat with I beams. Theres no way the soda comes through the cab, but an i beam *might* even if its been chained properly, youve just got so much mass in projectile form, it just needs to break inertia the tiniest fraction to become a missle.

That said, allow more follow distance, dont get in a hard braking situation. Which everyone ought to do refardless of their load. Youve just got to be MORE mindful of it in flatbed

 

The place's I have seem and loaded in or unloaded at with a Skateboard, I would have never been to with a van. Just seeing some of the things I have had to figure out how to secure, and either disguise or tarp is well worth the extra sweat, at least to me. But I don't know if the average drivers now could qualify for the clearance needed for the work I'm doing now. Probably won't go bad to pulling boxes, but never say never...
To me well worth it. As far as van yankers making more, I seriously doubt that, that sounds like a Knight driver trying to make himself feel good. In my 30 plus years I have not found that to be true.

 

My brother is running van and the gross on his loads have been in line with mine or a bit higher on an all miles basis in the past few weeks, though some flat rates of ours have also been creeping up a bit so itll even out. If i were in the buisness of predicting the future, i would say van will stay high for a while longer yet, maybe through the year but flat will overtake it again as well.

Not like we just dumped 8 trillion dollars in the economy, thats sure to jot affect anything in the slightest (basically what im saying is inflation is happening despite all the economists lying to you about it not happening)