[I_drive_flatbed]

My wife and I have enjoyed reading these boards for a few years now, never had the time or anything noteworthy to post, but situation has reached critical!

I am hoping some veteran flatbedders can offer some advice.

I have 4 yrs OTR flatbed experience and work for a company in the rust belt that hauls only steel. Is it me or are rates way down and freight is drying up?

The 'bad' weeks are eclipsing the 'good' weeks! After doing some math yesterday, my YTD gross weekly average is now down to $667. A few weeks ago, when freight was non-existant, my gross was $100. My gross for five loads this week will be around $550 - $575.

I have complained to managment, their response was to throw me a proverbially bone, a few good $1200 weeks then back to nothing again. Yesterday, safety told me there were 9 more drivers in line ahead of me to quit and to hang in there it will get better. This has been going on since late June/early July. There is no layover, detention, breakdown, or tarp pay and paid by percent.

This is a smallish (100) truck company that runs the regular haunts around PA, NY, NC,VA,IL, IN etc. I have begged for weekend loads, but they dont run weekends so that wont boost my income.

So my question is, where has all the freight gone? Is there greener grass somewhere else?

I hate to change jobs, I like who I work with but I have to pay the bills and situation is reaching critical. Tough if out or start looking?

I dont want to apply to TMC or Maverick. Roehl said they wouldnt take me because of my one (and only) fender bender last spring.

I would like to find a company that hauls more than just steel, dont want to do van. I dont have to be home weekend. Every 10 +/- days would be ideal.

How about Arrow, Boyd or Lonestar? Or stick it out where I am and learn to like Mac & Cheese :roll:

ps. sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give all the facts upfront

[toner]

i'm not sure but i have heard rumblings that freight industrywide is slowing down some, but i'm sure if that's true some regions/areas are hit harder than others.

as far as jobs go, it doesn't hurt anything to start looking. make some calls to companies that tickle your fancy and see what sounds good/bad/ugly to you. i work @ arrow (not a recruiter or a driver just a regular desk jockey), and we do haul more than just steel.

[RostyC]

Wouldn't happen to be L&H would it?

[Kintama]

Freight is slowing way down, it has been pretty slim the past few months. Some places are doing year end right now, some are doing plant maint., and some are doing well to keep their local steady guys happy. Rates have crashed also from what I've seen, but things will pick up again after the new year.

[I_drive_flatbed]

No, I dont work for L&H

You sure are right Kintama about rates down. Seems everything lately is crap.

I have 3 kids at home and getting discouraged, whats next? Deciding who gets diapers and who gets mac & cheese? We are lucky to live in an affordable area and compared to most have next to nothing for bills but even living frugally, this sucks. Normally I wouldnt panic as riding the highs and lows are a given in this business but somethings gotta give.

My average gross have been declining weekly since the end of June. The way things have been going I will gross around 35k this year. Somewhere there has to be a company paying more. At this point there probably newbies fresh out of school making more than that.

A few more weeks of taking home $22, well you can imagine the rest.

Anybody know about Strimbu over in OH?

[dollarshort]

First of all L & H doesn't pull flatbeds. Only a few for a dedicated pallet company. Other than that they don't even bother with flatbed freight. They are strictly dry van. And they don't pay crap either.
As far as flatbed freight is concerned. My feeling is that whenever the building trades slow down so will flatbed freight. Mainly because most of your freight has one thing or another to do with construction, whether its materials or some other aspect. Then at the same time you have companies like TMC going out and undercutting everyone else's rates to get their foot in the door.

[RostyC]

dollarshort........ ok I misunderstood their website when I looked at it a while back. I drove for them about six maybe seven years ago and their were no flats then, I recently looked at their website and it seemed like they started a flatbed division, guess not. At that time the pay wasn't to bad for a new guy starting out, it was other issues that caused me to leave.

Residential building right now on the east coast is very slow sales are down. I have a contract w/one of the major builders in the US and they have laid off 50 people in the Baltimore division over the last 2 or 3 months. Alot of the other builders are doing the same thing. (I'm in construction now) However, commercial work is plentiful right now in the MD, VA area anyway.

I drive flatbed..... if you have any construction skills you could look into a commercial construction outfit for some work to tide you over maybe. At 22 dollars a week my loyalty would run out real quick.

Good luck to you 8)

[Pappa Jake]

Folk, I'm a newb going to a flatbed company in 2 weeks. I know home building is down, but what about commercial construction? Has the bottom fall out so fast or has this been slow. Need some advise!

[hard2explain18]

If you're in Western Pennsylvania look into LJ Kennedy working out of Aliquippa. I've been there a year now and really enjoy it. We pull out of US Gypsum and our loads are pre-loaded/strapped and tarped. We come back empty most of the time but its not a problem because we are paid mileage. Right now its .43 per mile and it goes up to .44 next May. If we have to reload, we get paid to load and tarp and detention pay if applicable. We have slowed down a little but my weekly gross pay has only dropped from around $1200 down to $1050. I live near the turnpike so I'm home just about everyday but they pay you to layover if you are out. Our contract is under the Teamsters so if you don't like union work, this might not be for you.

www.kennedytrucking.com

[I_drive_flatbed]

thanks to everyone who responded, the advice is appreciated

I am going to investigate every option, bulk tanker, ltl, van you name it.