Yeah I'm thinking about going and getting my class a cdl around June this year.

I am looking at the company maverick for there flatbed division. They pay pretty fair. 43 cents mile first 6 months. Then once I get 6 months experience my pay goes to 48 cents a mile

I should be making close to 60k or so my first year. I am already accepted into there school they have and they train me to get my cdl. Then put me on the road with a trainer.

I should drive around 5 days a week and be home on the weekends running a regional route here in the south east U.S.

Do you all have any experience with over the road trucking. Would flatbed be a good division to start in?

Just looking for opinions. I have did alot of research online already

Wait for JDH to chime in.

However, 5 out 2 back running a flatbed and turning 130k in your first year? Good luck with all that. Your recruiter is pumping you full of shit.

ive done limited flat bed stuff never for a flat bed company. have fun wrestling stupid fucking tarps and having to chain or strap every load though. i would ask other flat bedders but im pretty sure a lot of them gets paid for tarping and chaining.

dispatchers dont give a shit about you or whether you get home or not so expect disappointment from them. pay sounds pretty good as long as you are getting at least 2.5k miles a week. dont let them run you north of virginia either from new jersey to boston is not very many miles and you wont make much up there on mileage.

their equipment looks good they seem to keep pretty new trailers and trucks are always 5 years old or less i would say.

the biggest thing about flatbed is knowing your chain ratings, thorough inspections of chains you dont want to get caught with bad chains, properly tying down your tarp, etc.

here is a link to brent hoover he runs the indiana commercial vehicle enforcement page and he has a done a ton of videos on load securement stuff that would be highly beneficial to you https://www.facebook.com/ISPCVED/ just scroll down through there and watch some of his videos you truly will learn a lot from him

This post was edited by JDH on Feb 9 2018 10:41pm

Alright thanks buddy. And yeah they do offer tarp pay.

I honestly want to do flatbed to stay in shape and actually get out of the truck and do some work.

And part of the maverick schooling is one week is on nothing but learning to tarp and securing loads with chains like you are talking about.

They say home every weekend I am kinda relying on that. I don't want to be gone 2-3 weeks at a time as I have a family here at home. Which they did say I may not be home maybe 6 weekends of the whole year which I can deal with.

I'll go check his page out thanks again

I never said 130k for my first year lol

130k Miles he's saying, not dollars.

130k works out to 2.5k a week i was turning 3k in 5 days.

i will add in though ANY recruiter no matter what the job they are recruiting for will tell you things you want to hear to make it sound better. some weeks may be that many miles or more and some may only be 2k unless its a dedicated route. but yeah 2.5k in 5 days is a cake walk its only 500 miles a day lol

This post was edited by JDH on Feb 10 2018 01:18pm

Yeah like I said I have been doing my research. Maverick seems to be a really good starter company.

I have recruiters calling me almost daily offering me jobs and training. But most the jobs are true over the road

Another reason why I would like to go to maverick is they pay for my school with a 6 month agreement to drive for them.

Most other companies is atleast a year minimum

Not saying it's impossible. Just not the norm for a rookie to come out swinging getting 2.5k week steady in their first year. Even more so on a flatbed unless they are hauling cans....

really just depends on what the have available. i would imagine maverick has a pretty good network to keep their trucks moving and making money but with a new driver managing their eld clock and shit yeah he might be lucky to make that many at first. ill stick with my bucket like i said i hate running a flatbed or our detach lowboy that chaining shit sucks

Trucking's a bad industry to get into now. I tried my hand and ended up selling my truck and trailer after a few months.


It simply will not be around in 15-20 years due to automation. Not something you can plan to retire on anymore.