getting started in heavy hauling

Welcome to the TTR Forum. First I'll tell you what most others will say too. If you have a good paying job, stay with it. Many will argue but I think a realistic expectation for first year wages is about $36,000 - $38,000. Second year about $38,000 - $42,000.

I have no personal experience in heavy hauling but I imagine it would take 2 - 5 years of flatbed experience to get the good jobs.

You can probably get your CDL on your own and maybe find some work. This is not the fast-track to a career.

Here's my standard advice, take it for what it's worth to you.

You need to research and find out what the important questions are. You can make an above average living but you will make sacrifices that other jobs don't require. Read the "good companies" and "bad companies" section on this forum and get an idea of what company you want to work for and what kind of trailer you want to pull. Don't just go to school and then try to figure out where to go.

I don't know your financial situation. Don't take training from a company if you can afford it or get it with financial aid. You will be their slave for up to year. If you leave they will trash you DAC and credit record. Check out your local community colleges and employment office.

Just know that most training and trucking company recruiters will do nothing but lie to you. They will let you talk about what you want and then tell you what you want to hear. Trucking is about moving freight to make money for the company. Your home time, family, paycheck and everything else comes second.

It is not like any other job. Local is usually backbreaking delivery work 10+ hours a day, 6 days a week. Often you unload dozens of times a day or you are a salesman. In my area most dump truck jobs pay less than a good factory job. Regional is lots of loading and unloading time, fewer miles than OTR and not as hard as local but will wear on you and push your HOS limits. OTR is out 3 - 5 weeks with 3 - 4 days home, less manual labor and more miles.

You'll probably have to pay your dues before you get the gravy job. Weekends off, if you are lucky enough to get something like that starting out, may be home Thursday afternoon and leave Saturday night or home Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon. Loads deliver on Monday early and you leave in time to get them there. Often your home time will be in the middle of the week.

Regardless of your driving choice, after school you will go through company training. For OTR this can be six weeks to three months with little or no home time. The first phase is usually $400 a week and the second phase is $500-550 a week. Some pay less. One company pays 12 CPM for training.

One last thing, you don't want to wait around too long after training or you'll have trouble finding a job. If you get out before you have a year in, when you try to come back a few months later you will find they want you to start over.

 

I've done heavy VANS, but not the flatbed side of the house. Driving heavy rigs takes a different style of driving. You have to keep your eyes a bit further down the road to anticipate upcoming problems.

As I said, my experience was heavy vans (4axle truck + 4axle trailer, total 105,500lbs) in WA, ID, and OR. There is also tankers, oversize or heavy flatbed, grain/chip haulers. Each has its own special concerns or skills, such as surge, weight balancing or load securement. All share the problems of slower running due to climbing hills and increased braking and acceleration distances.

I went to Swift HH division here in the PAC NW to give me the skills to build on. My plan was to take a local job either chip or tanker hauling, but I ended up driving for the military (as a civvy) instead. My advice would be to try and get heavy experience in a dry environment such as chip or feed hauling to get your skills up (smooth shifting, hill management, braking etc) and then move to the flatbed or tanker if that is your desire. Everything you do in trucking will be setting the foundation for your future jobs.

I will say that climbing or decending a hill at 100k lbs is a bit of a thrill for me. Guess I'm still a little boy at heart!

 

If you want to get into heavy haul prepare for it to take a few years to reach your goal. Most of us who have done this type of hauling start with flats. This is the first step in learning how to properly secure a load on an open deck trailer. The next step is usually to a step deck. We tend to haul a more diverse type of freight with a step deck. Some of us do a fair amount of over sized loads with a step deck. You load a step deck a little differently than a flat bed. It takes a bit of time to get a feel for the difference.

Once you get a good feel for a step deck the next move would usually be to a double drop or RGN. These types of trailers are different and you will be hauling more equipment than with a step deck. Loading one of these trailers is a bit different than a step deck. Once you become accustomed to the RGN or double drop we start adding axles. This is where you begin to really get into the heavy haul freight. Some of the multi axle trailers need an escort and over size permits even when empty. I know where there is a trailer that I could buy right now that has 13 axles and weighs over 73,000 pounds empty. After you hook up the tractor you are already over 80,000 pounds.

You can't just take someone off the street and put them into hauling this type of freight. It takes years to gain enough experience to where the driver can be competent with this type of freight. You must be very detail oriented. Mistakes are unacceptable. The money can be good as can the satisfaction of doing a job that most cannot do.

 

Gman is right in that you do not just jump in a HH position. Many years of smaller/lighter trucks build your experience. There is more to HH than driving. Pilot cars,routing,securing your load. You may have to operate the equipment yourself sometimes. Lay-overs because of night fall or routing only certain hours on certain roads. Most truck stops,rest areas,ect are not HH friendly. Your pilot car drivers are your eyes and ears good ones are worth every penny. 100tons of rambling iron is a handful of truck at any speed.

 

It takes a lot of patience to do heavy haul and over sized loads.

 

Nobody, including your friend with the railroad contract will even look at you, much less hire you on to pull heavy haul loads. I've done both and it takes at least 2 years of pulling a flatbed, hauling over-sized and wide loads to gain the experience.
If and when you decide to get into trucking, get with a reputable flatbed outfit that will give you top notch training. After a year, do your research and find an outfit that hauls a lot of over-sized/wide loads. If you can do this with no accidents or claims, the door will be open to you for heavy haul.
Just remember, over-sized, wide and heavy haul is a whole different ball game. No hammering down and getting 2500-3000 plus miles per week. These loads require the driver to drive about 10 mph under the posted speed limit with most at 45 mph but the pay more than compensates for the lack of miles.
Good luck.

 

I know one carrier who primarily does heavy haul and they govern their trucks at 55 mph. Some states restrict your top speed to 55 mph with over sized freight.

 

I guess I hadn't thought about it until now, but what would be considered heavy haul? Anything over 80k? Being a chip hauler now with up to 11 axles, and 160k permitted, is that heavy haul? Not trying to be an idiot, it comes natural, just wondering.