Flatbeds...skateboards...why?

Because of the extra work involved.

Anyone can bump a dock & let a forklift drive in & out of their trailer.

Flatbedders not only cordinate where the load is positioned on the trailer, but they also have to secure it to the trailer to a point it won't fall off & protectt it from weather conditions. You won't see a ordinary door slammer capable or even willing to do the work in 100 degree temps with 90% humidity, thunderous rain storms, or -40 degree winter days.

 

Flatbeders. Earn that extra money many times over.
It is allot of work. Allot of your weekly hours are used with load, unload, securment and tarping.
A normal door slammer (as I am again atm) does not use more than a few hours a week for load and inload. And they do not have to do much physical work.
Due to all the hours spent on these extra tasks the flat bedder has less time available to drive every week.
I believe that due to this a flatbed driver should actually be starting at allot more per mile than a van driver. At least 10 cpm, if not more.

 

Which flatbed companies are paying that much more?.

As a long time flatbedder I have found the pay # the end of the year really is no different if not even less. My current avg for this year is only $850 a week gross. Although I did make around $1500 last week but that is a rare occasion.

I flatbed because i like it. When I first started driving I pulled a box and would watch flatbeds and thought to myself Oh Hell No. But to make a long story short I got sweet talked into it and fell right in love.

I love the mental challenge of figuring out how to secure different loads. And the physical part is a added bonus. You really don't see big time overweight guys pulling a skateboard now do you.

Not to mention I love the spread axle load just a hair off center to the rear and never worry about the axle weights again. I can't remember the last time I used a cat scale.

But the main reason is the shipper and receiver attitude's. Most places are happy to see me when I roll in. I have ran into a few jerks but they are far and few between. You guys pulling boxes know what i'm talking about. The person behind the desk won't even acknowledge you and when they do it is with the " oh yay another driver attitude". I rarely ever run into that with a flatbed.

Anyway back on subject take a skateboard on a windy day and make 5 drops which all had to be tarped and still cover 5 to 600 miles. Then my friend you will know what a true days work in the flatbed industry really is.

 

I have only run flats for one company, and it was small.
We were paid 20% of what the truck earned, plus 70 to tarp, free blue cross etc.
Also received 12 bucks per night out, 15 a day for food. All tolls paid.
Worked hard for the pay. Was 5 14 hour days a week. home every weekend.

On an average week my gross was around 1300.
And with all the other extras it was a good job. Got laid off a year ago last june, but I may go back this spring. Once they buy me a truck.

 

Flatbedders get more chicks than the average drivers too.

 

Newb here (Still thinking of getting my CDL), but did drive flatbeds and lowboys while I was stationed in NJ. We would load and secure our equipment on Fort Dix, then take it to Lakehurst where the exercise area was, then down load it, then head back for another load. We didn't need to get a CDL to drive tractor/trailers while in the military, we just had to get trained on the vehicles and trailers and get endorsed on our Mil license. We used lowboys to transport the forklifts we used to download the flatbeds. Sure it was more work to strap/chain stuff down, but it's good exercise . And having experience strapping/chaining stuff down in an Aircraft helps when it come to figuring out what you need to secure a load to a flatbed.

I enjoyed driving trucks, and it's one of the reasons I am thinking of getting my CDL while on Terminal Leave in the coming months. Plus the open roads out this way are much wider then what we had to drive back there, I figure it shouldn't be that hard to keep it between the lines.

 

You can be lazy and be a successful van driver. Not saying all vans jobs are for the lazy - if you are lazy, unloading tires off of a van is going to be hell for you. But a lot of van drivers are. They might spend two minutes in the wind, rain, snow, etc to hook up their air lines. For a flatbedder, those durations are much longer. Most van drivers, if they're doing a live load or unload, get to sit in the truck while they're being loaded. Not so for flatbed drivers. Load securement for a van driver typically consists of... what? Putting up a couple load locks? What's your likelihood of being injured with a dry box? There's a whole lot of difference.

 

I think about that everytime I see the 350+ lbs driver waddling into the truck stop (but not very far since he's the guy parked in the fuel island for 20 min so he doesn't have to walk very far) in his flip flops and sweat pants with a 4 gallon coffee mug. I would love to see that fat !##$% tarp a load of lumber on a 90* day or chain coils in a hot steel mill wearing a hardhat, long sleeve shirt covered in Kevlar sleeves, jeans and boots. Of course we all know if he did he still wouldn't take a shower or even change his clothes.

I hate to offend (yea right) but if anyone reading this fits this description we're all laughing at you. We all think your nasty and we really hate to stand behind you to pay for fuel. Take a shower man and stop eating junk. It's not that hard to NOT look like a slob.

Doing flatbed work isn't the hardest job but it's not for everyone. I know I would get extremely bored just bumping docks and swinging doors. I heard the perfect example of why some people do the jobs they do on the radio. A construction worker said they were doing work outside a large office building on a very cold day. The women inside the building held up a sign saying "it's 70* in here" and laughed. The construction worker held up his own sign which said "it's $48.00 per hr out here!"

 

I used to be one of those van drivers. Used to say that I'd never pull any load but what you could put into the back of a box and I'd close the doors.

The worst part of my job is tarping those loads that MUST be covered due to the nature of the product (sheet rock, non-pressure treated lumber, etc.). Frankly, I don't like getting waaaaay up there. I don't like open heights and am afraid of falling off. So I take it nice and easy and watch where I step. Fortunately, I don't tarp much, but I do keep a close eye on the weather if rain threatens based on what I see in the forecast.

But like one driver has already said, almost all of my customers are happy to see me when I arrive. They jump on my load like a chicken on a June bug and get me unloaded. They generally don't waste time. I shudder to think how much time I wasted sitting in a sorry dock with my box waiting to be unloaded.

I don't touch anything as it all gets handled by a fork lift. This isn't a position for the faint of heart! I feel that I've become a better driver because I need to know how the load has been loaded, watching how I do in sharp curves, off ramps, and making sure that those straps don't even start to come loose. If you can be a flatbed driver and pull anything else, please: pull something else.

All this from a former van driver of almost 12 years.