hey snowman do you prefer the wagon over flatbedding? I forget are you with Maverick? If you are any insight?

For me it was a means to an end. I wanted one of those high paying LTL jobs pulling doubles. Which I now have. I make more now and I dont touch any freight.

But to get driving experience I worked for a covered wagon outfit here in Ohio called Valley Transportation. My cousin is at Maverick. I chose flatbed/covered wagon because it pays more than vans for a new driver and you get home weekends. I had no desire to live in a truck 2-4 weeks at a time for $600 a week. Whether you go flatbed or wagon you should be able to make 800-1200 a week gross with either TMC or Maverick and get weekends off.

Securing is hard dirty work especially in 100 degree heat, 0 degree cold, 50 mph winds, rain etc. Some people like it, others hate it. Easy loads take a half hour to secure, hard loads can take 2 hours. I prefer steelcoils in a covered wagon. Fairly easy work compared to flatbed. If you went to Maverick's steel division you might even get an occasional shower, dinner, sleep in your own house during the week. Chicago is perfect for steel. Depends on what your looking for. Its a pretty good gig for a new driver if you want money and home time.

I did it because it paid more when I was new and the weekend thing. Once you get experience you can find that same money pulling vans and the pay begins to even out. Or like my job, where I work 40-50 hours a week with great pay, bennies ,pension etc and sleep in my own bed. For some people driving is a lifestyle, for me its a job, I already have a lifestyle! :D

But everyone's got the own opinion on what makes them happy.

Thanks snowman. you just answered a question I posed in another thread about the time it takes to tarp/secure.

I keep hearing about tarping in the rain. Isn't the load already wet?

No, we never said it under our breath. It was just a little jab the flatbedders threw at the covered wagon guys because they didn't have to sling tarps. Just good fun.

Your training is impressive, however, I'll warn you. To steal a quote from "In Living Color", I know Taekwondo, Tai Chi and Tyrone, he's the one who taught me all that sh*t...

I can't say that I ever actually tarped in the rain. If I did, the tarp was rolled out and pinned down then I might button it up in the rain.

However, you'd be surprised at how often you might untarp in the rain. Many shippers or carriers will require you to tarp something that the customer didn't require to be tarped. You get there and they pull it off and stack it right out in the middle of a muddy field. Then you get into partial tarp loads, etc. and sometimes it doesn't make much sense. Maverick's stance was always, if on the Qualcomm it has a Y beside the word Tarp? you just tarp it. You don't call your FM and whine about it, just do it. They are paying you for it. That was the approach I always took. Some guys would sit around and cry about it for a half hour and by that time the job could've been done.

Ive tarped in the rain outside and the load was already wet. The reason for doing it was to keep all the road grime off of the wood. The load was going from conneticut to memphis. it was a load of fancy light poles that had electric lanterns that hung off of them for the zoos expansion.

It was a fun load to tarp, they were L shaped and banded together to form a square hollow in the middle. only 13' high.(Im also scared of heights) Once I got the tarp spread out up there It was a breeze to get tarped but a pain to get rolled out. That load took a couple hours to secure and tarp.

Coils and fairly smooth low loads maybe 30 mins to an hour to tarp depending on conditions. high loads and jagged load that require a lot of padding may take me 2-3 hours to tarp or more depending on conditions.