Hello, flatbed!

[tracer]

Well, I finally did it. Last week I quit the dry van division of our company and started training for the Flatbed Division. I've been strapping, chaining and tarping for a week with a trainer and coming this Monday (July 9th), I'll be pulling company-owned tandem flatbed trailers. The pay is 70% of the gross, and I'm really looking forward to flatbedding!

[devildice]

Congrats......so who are you pulling for?

[samael9]

Well, I finally did it. Last week I quit the dry van division of our company and started training for the Flatbed Division. I've been strapping, chaining and tarping for a week with a trainer and coming this Monday (July 9th), I'll be pulling company-owned tandem flatbed trailers. The pay is 70% of the gross, and I'm really looking forward to flatbedding!

Congratulations! You gotta keep us posted with your flatbed adventures! I too pull a flat and love it.

And yes, I agree with DevilDice. Who ya yankin' fer?

[tracer]

Congrats......so who are you pulling for?

MacKinnon Transport, Guelph, ON Canada. They pay 70% of the gross when you pull company's flatbeds; and 82% if you have your own... I've been with them 2 months in the dry van division... Seems like a good outfit.

[samael9]

So are you out there running solo yet??????? :shock:

[tracer]

Just finished my first week pulling a flatbed trailer. In case someone is thinking of trying flatbeds, here's a short account of my first three days.

Day 1

I pick up an empty tandem axle flatbed trailer in our yard (Guelph, ON, Canada) and head south to the Caledonia area south of Hamilton. Pulling a 48" flatbed seems easier than pulling a 53" dry van. Not only because it's shorter, but also because the flatbed has a larger gap between the rear axles (10 ft!). When I turn around a corner or back up with such a flatbed, I don't have to go in a big arc like I am used to doing with a van. In fact, the first day I am constantly "overshooting" on corners!

Thanks to my Garmin GPS I locate the shipper with no problems. As per instructions received from the security guard I park on the side of the road near the entrace. "Someone will come out to get you," are his last words. 2 hours later I'm finally waved inside the plant . My load of drywall weighs 45,000 lbs and is going to Syracuse, NY.

After the forklift guys load the drywall panels on the trailer, I am directed to a separate area of the plant where a team of young muscular guys grab my tarps and with the help of something that looks like a crane lower the tarps on the load (I'm not kidding!). Then they proceed to secure the tarp and the load. All I have to do is to provide them with bungee cords, undo the straps, and then tighten them after the load is secured.

My first 'flatbedding' day ends at a Fort Erie truck stop near Exit 5 off QEW close to Buffalo border crossing. My delivery time is between 7 am and 11 am on the next day, and I am only 150 miles away from my destination. I shut down and have a nice long meal at the truck stop restaurant while watching a heavyweight boxing match on the wall TV.

Day 2.

I get up at 5:30 am, fill my travel cup with free boiled water at the truck stop, drop my own tea bag inside, and after a quick walkaround and tugging at straps on the trailer I jump on QEW towards Buffalo, NY.

Border crossing goes without a hitch thanks to my FAST card and the customs transponder on the truck's windshield. I am in Syracuse, NY at 9:30 am.

The consignee is a small shop next to a residential area - pretty tight parking - and I have to drive in with the front of the truck almost touching the wall of one of their buildings (otherwise the rear of the trailer blocks city traffic on the road I come in from).

I take a deep breath and start untarping and unstrapping the load. With the air temperature hovering around 100 F, I am drenched with sweat by the time I:

-undo the strap on the spare tarps in the front of the trailer
- release 20 or so strap winches holding the 45,000 lb load (straps are on top of tarps)
- walk around the trailer and unhook the strap hooks on the other side
-pull straps down and roll them up onto winches
- climb on the very top and remove the wood edge protectors
- untie bungee cords and ropes on the 2 tarps still covering the load
- pull down Tarp #1 (small, but still weighing around 60 lbs)
-pull down Tarp #2 (large, around 100 lbs)
- drag the tarps away from the truck so that the forklift can have the room
- undo and take down the black plastic covering the drywall
-put away the wood edge protectors
- gather, tie in bunches, and put away 30 or so bungee cords
-tighten all straps in the winches using the heavy winch bar
-fold big and heavy Tarp #1
-fold much bigger and heavier Tarp #2
-ask the forklift operator to lift the tarps on the trailer's deck
-climb on the deck
-fight the tarps to place them in a row so that I could secure them with a strap
-jump down and grab the winch bar
-tighten the strap over the tarps with a bar
-hide the winch bar
-pick up the signed bills of lading from the consignee
-climb inside the truck and take off the drenched t-shirt and pants!

Thankfully, there is no immediate work, so I drive to the nearest truck stop (Pilot on I-81) and run inside the air-conditioned building By the way, backing up the truck with this 48' trailer (10 ft spread) is a breeze.

A couple of hours later the dispatcher presents me with a choice: 1) drive empty around 200 miles to Aberfoyle, Ontario to pick up a very nice load (light but pays a bundle) going to Pennsylvania; or 2) pick up a load in Buffalo (2 hrs away) that delivers 60 miles away to a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario. I couldn't do Load #1 because the pickup is at 2 am and I'd be illegal in terms of hours of service; so I have to say 'yes' to Load #2 which - you'll never guess - requires ... tarping.

Day 3

The morning starts as usual with a free tea, and I drive empty 150 miles at 57 mph to Buffalo, NY. I do a quick stop after 120 miles at a rest area off Toll-90 west to pick up a small coffee at Tim Horton's (I've started to cut down on coffee because the work requires so much physical activity). I arrive at the consignee at 10 am, wait about half an hour and then they load me with 40,500 lbs of some industrial stuff (the bill of lading says, "graphite electrodes"). Strapping is no big deal, because the load is quite low, but then there's tarping... Even the forklift guy says, "It's so stupid - you're only going 50 or 60 miles. Even the paperwork says nothing about the tarping...."

But hey - who am I to argue with my Dispatch ... and I need the exercise.. so off I go to drag the tarps on the load and spread them around. The first stumbling block occurs when I try to tie down the rear tarp - it has no rings! Well, at least I cannot see them - they are all on the other side of the tarp! Turns out I folded the tarp in a wrong way at that gypsum place the day before... now I have to pay.

It starts to rain and I cool down a little bit .. and it feels funny to be tarping something in rain (like, what's the point - it's already wet!) My t-shirt, my pants, my safety boots are all wet and the images in my brain are about scenes from the Platoon movie - when they're deep in the Saigon jungle

I drag the screwed-up tarp to the front of the deck, and flip it over thinking I'll leave it here. I get the bigger tarp to cover the rest of the load and ... it's too big: all the rings that I can use for tie-downs are near the ground (the load is too low). I go back to check if I have smaller tarps but they all seem monstrous. Ah, well ... I start thinking and it occurs to me I can undo the straps and put them on top of the tarps. Then I could hide somehow the rest of them...

It takes me awhile to undo the straps and slide them from under the 2 tarps but finally I have them on the top. The problems begin when I try to tie down the front and the back of this huge second tarp. Because the first tarp is in the front, the second one has its front totally unprotected from the wind. I tie it down to the best of my abilities using 10,000,000 bungee cords, and switch to dealing with the rear. It's as tough as the front. One or another piece of the tarp just doesn't want to stay secured.

Exhausted I get out a wood block and throw it on top of the tarp's end, then secure it with a strap.

A guy from a nearby truck hooked to a dry van 53 footer is jumping up and down on a skipping rope and I ask him where he has been before. "If you need exercise, you could've helped me with the tarps..." I say. "You have to tarp it every time?" asks the guy taking in the dirt on my hands, pants, and t-shirt. "Yep, almost..." I reply and head over to the shipping office to finally fetch the paperwork...

My day ends on the Canadian side at the 50 Truck Stop (off QEW in Hamilton, ON). I have a good dinner and a couple of beers (okay, three) and at 7 pm I feel rather sleepy. It's been awhile since I worked this hard... The only energy I have left is for calling a couple of trailer dealers to ask them how much it'd cost to have my own flatbed trailer with QuickDraw tarping system on the sides "Er, around $15,000," says one salesperson, "But you can rent it or lease. All we need is 10% down..." There you go... that's some good food for thought.

[Red Clay Rambler]

Nice report, keep 'em coming whenever possible.

Sounds like the 15,000 quote was for the tarp system only, not including trailer, just a guess. Maybe you knew that.

[rank]

When I turn around a corner or back up with such a flatbed, I don't have to go in a big arc like I am used to doing with a van.

Tight corners are murder on the tires Tracer. Are you wired with a dump valve?

[tracer]

Tight corners are murder on the tires Tracer. Are you wired with a dump valve?

Yeah, I know When I look in the mirror at the front axle on the trailer it's basically going sideways. I don't have a valve in my truck. Will have to install one definitely once I get my own trailer. For now I try to turn in as wide an arc as possible. Even though it's a company trailer I don't want to do damage to the tires if I can help it.

[tracer]

Sounds like the 15,000 quote was for the tarp system only, not including trailer, just a guess.

Yes, that's the price for the tarping system only. But I was thinking of having one installed on a new trailer when I'll be getting one, so that I can make only one monthly payment. The company I'm working for - MacKinnon - is using combo flatbeds (aluminum plus steel) made by Load King (Canada). They seem okay, but I really like how steel/wood dropdecks by EZ-2-LOAD look like.

Someone on this board once wrote that plain steel trailers with wood floors last longer than combo or aluminum. Is that true?

[Red Clay Rambler]

Gman says he likes steel/wood because the floor is less slippery, making it less likely that your cargo or you will fall off. Also consider that an all steel trailer could be welded by almost any shop if you needed a repair on the road. Aluminum welding is a more specialized task that not everyone can do.. I have looked at some used aluminum frame flats lately that had stress cracks near the wheels. They had been welded up, but still did not look good to me. That said, I see more combo or all- aluminum trailers in use around here than all steel. Of course, rust is not an issue with all aluminum, but it's a big issue with steel, lots of rusty used steel flats around. Bottom line, I would buy the type that I got the best buy on, provided it was in good shape. Just from looking, it appears to me that an aluminum trailer should have a good arch from front to back. Steel trailers seem to have less arch, just my observation.