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Originally Posted by redog33049
What type of trailer/cargo do you generally haul as a newbie for this company? Do they route through/near nyc?
I am from NYC and wanna make sure I can get my home time ok.
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I can't relate any personal insight about NYC- but I would count on at least 2 or 3 weeks out from there.
As a newbie you haul whatever everyone else hauls. Down here, it was mainly pipe, some coils, pipe, sheet metal, pipe, HVAC units, and more pipe. Pipe is not fun. You really have to take our time and do your due diligence on securement. It'll kill you if you are lazy. Coils are probably the most dangerous- after all, they are round and can and will roll away. The least fun of all is the "Spaghetti pipe" loads- pre-fab pipe of all shapes and sizes and bends. It is seemingly dropped on the trailer at random and you really have to take your time to get it secured right. On top of that, a lot of it is pre-finished, so you have to put burlap sacks under every strap. Don't even ask how often you have to adjust your straps after travelling the cratered wasteland that is 1-10 from Lake Charles to Houston....
Most of the new trailers are 48' aluminum Utility spread axles. You generally get a trailer and drag it around for a few loads before you end up having to swap it at a drop-and-hook. I pulled steel and aluminum, flat and step-deck, double-drop, tridem axle, whatever. Some oversize as well.
Tarping was the exception down here- most steel commodities simply don't require it, although just about everything out of Lardeo was tarped- Actually tarped twice. It comes across the border with Mexican tarps and those are taken off by crazy fast little Mexicans. You then re-tarp with yours.
Arrow's orientation is very thorough and the load securement training is excellent. I've called Dave Turner a few times since to let him know he had an unsafe load on the road.
Look, flatbedding is hard work, and can be dangerous. You'll sweat more than you thought possible tarping and strapping and chaining down loads. I would get into the truck after securing some loads completely drained. I vomited under a trailer from heat stress in Baton Rouge.
I saw a driver use up 8 of his nine lives at the port of Houston when some 30" pipe rolled off while he was strapping- he ducked under the trailer and missed being crushed to death by inches. I've seen a driver go kite-flying off the truck with his tarp across the yard in windy Laredo. I saw drivers fishhook themselves with bungee cords, do amateur dental work with cheater bars, pinch off the end of fingers in ratchets, crush their feet under steel beams while waking on a trailer being loaded, and crush hands placing dunnage under loads. You MUST be safety-minded at all times.
You will make some decent money by newbie trucker standards- maybe $1000 a week take home depending on your deductions if you run HARD. But you will earn every penny.
-p.
Does anyone know anything about ARROW
