Here Is An Innovative Way To Make Flatbed Tarping Much Faster And Much Safer And More Productive For Business.

You're comparing the heights that a flatbedder deals with to that of an ironworker?

I will not accept any work that involves a serious fall risk.

Todd, I've been told by two different trucking company safety directors, both of them working for different companies, that their number one "lost time injury" for drivers, is from falling out of the cab while entering and exiting.

I'm pretty sure you might want to hang up your dreams of driving a big rig. I just measured the height from the pavement to the floor of my tractor. It exceeds four feet!

I think you might want to consider taking a driving position with Uber or Lyft. There's just way too much risk of a serious fall in trucking. It's not going to matter if it's a flatbed, Lowboy, or even a Reefer. All these trucking jobs share the same exact fall risk. It's that darn cab being so high up in the air, and when winter comes and those steps are iced over it just exacerbates the issue.

It's just too bad. This career just isn't going to work out for ya.

My Schneider instructor told me of a story of a driver that pulled into a truck stop, went to exit his truck facing forward instead of turning around and using 3 points of contact. Well somehow his jeans got caught up in the steps and fell face first and broke his neck.

Old school is right. It's a war zone out there. Don't do it. Stick with Uber or maybe Buffalo wild wings. I don't think they deal with too many heights

I'm not...

I have the RIGHT...

I will not...

I would either choose...

Oh so now it's all about you, and what you would do. You could have made those statements in the beginning. It's your preference, your opinion, and that's fine. But instead you tried to impose your inexperienced opinions on the masses with statements such as:

A safe tarping system or station like this should be made an OSHA standard by federal law.

Flatbedders should always have use of a safe indoor tarping station as industry standard.

Followed by this:

If you are considering working flatbed for a firm, you might state on your application: "I will not under any circumstances climb to a height in excess of four feet from ground level for the purpose of load securement and/or tarping UNLESS fall-protection provisions are made available to me".

So yeah you clearly don't have a clue what you're talking about. And it's pretty obvious this industry may not be the right place for you. But good luck.

With all the things you are afraid of, trucking probably isn’t for you.

And those demands? The minute you start making demands I can hear the laughter as they toss you out on your ear.

No wonder the Marines make so much fun of the Army. Holy crap, I’ve never seen someone so scared of everything.

I'm not...

I have the RIGHT...

I will not...

I would either choose...

Oh so now it's all about you, and what you would do. You could have made those statements in the beginning. It's your preference, your opinion, and that's fine. But instead you tried to impose your inexperienced opinions on the masses with statements such as:

A safe tarping system or station like this should be made an OSHA standard by federal law.

Flatbedders should always have use of a safe indoor tarping station as industry standard.

Followed by this:

If you are considering working flatbed for a firm, you might state on your application: "I will not under any circumstances climb to a height in excess of four feet from ground level for the purpose of load securement and/or tarping UNLESS fall-protection provisions are made available to me".

So yeah you clearly don't have a clue what you're talking about. And it's pretty obvious this industry may not be the right place for you. But good luck.

I have seven years of driving up-to-5-ton military vehicles, up to Class 6 in civilian speak, including one 5-ton tractor hauling a dry-van semi-trailer, I believe 40 feet, on the German autobahn while stationed overseas. It seems to me as those military five-ton trucks have cab heights as high as any Class 7 or 8 OTR truck. I have never once fallen from any large military vehicle either driving them or working on them as a truck mechanic, come snow, ice, field maneuvers, hell or high water. I have also had a clean accident-free driving record. I have driven them at night under blackout conditions and with night-vision devices and that gets hairy and scary.

Climbing up and down the cab steps of any tall army truck cab, my safety rule was to hold on tight to the steering wheel and grab handle if one is available.

The cab steps on those military trucks made for excellent footing. They had a diamond-hole pattern with sharp serrated edges so no slippery ice could form. The soles of combat boots would stick to these steps almost like velcro in any weather.

I am no stranger to fairly-heavy and potentially dangerous equipment.

Yes, the only frontier for truck experience for me that remains is Class 7 and above. If I would have been a heavy-wheel vehicle mechanic instead of a light wheel in the service I may have had hands on withose heavier trucks. The military has trucks that would fall into those heavier weight classes. The heavy-wheel guys in the army used to tease the light-wheel guys as being "wimps", but a 5-ton diesel truck is potentially plenty deadly.

I have no flatbed driving military experience, perse, though I was in one combat engineering unit with lowboy trailers and heavy junk. Just dry vans and military cargo bodys with troop seats, they hurt a soldier's behind to ride on those benches, and often canvas cargo tops with supporting bows as well as a medium-duty wrecker with a crane and winches.

OMG i needed this today.

I usually refrain from Flatbed discussions because i know nothing about it other than what OS and Turtle post.

With that said....after reading the comment "i have experience driving 5 ton vehicles including semis" about four times....i have to laugh. sorry dude....none of us are impressed.

My tractor is 10 tons. what the hell is a 5 ton semi? farm equipment with a trailer? a mini van with a "tiny house" trailer attached?

Old School stated most falls are from the cab. This is true and safety points this out to us regularly. i know a woman whose ring got caught in the grab bar as she was getting out. it ripped her skin down to the bone.

its.funny all this talk is about tarping though. What about turn radius in heavy equipment???? i once saw a really really long trailer trying to turn off the interstate and even with 2 cop cars blocking traffic, he still.had to almost hit the stop sign to make the turn. it takes mad skills to even manuever those babies, so please....get real trucking experience first. please.

Todd? According to OSHA at what height do most falls occur and why are those falls the most dangerous? That should be the first question you ask before you even delve into the idea of worrying about the heights flatbedders work at. As flatbedders, oddly enough, we don't fall under OSHA regulations regarding heights and required fall protection systems but they have been looking into it. For my final input, how many drivers actually know how to inspect a harness, what to look for and when to use what the customer has provided? Most customers don't know either. The company I work for actually has a class to teach just those very things and we're one of the rare few who do. Like others have mentioned though, you really need to consider a different profession because this one doesn't suit you. Oh and btw, I was a dirt boy in the Air Force and hauled heavy equipment all over Europe and the heavy guys in the Army were right when they took a poke at you in the 5 ton trucks.

I pull a dry van and I can tell you how bad it hurt when I fell out of my truck at the Love's in Carlisle PA almost a year and a half ago... And I didn't fall from the cab floor either.

I was stepping down out of the truck using 3 points of contact. I was stepping off the BOTTOM step onto the ground. For those who have had the honor of going/staying there, you know how wavy and rutted that old asphalt parking lot is. Anywho I stepped into a deep rut/wave, rolled my ankle and went cartwheeling backwards, into some nasty driver's urine no less. I'd needed a shower when I got there and I was determined come hell or high water I was getting one no matter what. I climbed back in, gathered a shower bag and limped and hopped on my good foot with tears streaming down my face. I hate handicap showers but I'd have given my soul for one that day. The nice ladies helped fix me up an ice pack and I bought a couple ace wraps. This was Friday evening and luckily my next load didn't pick up til Monday morning. I layed in the sleeper all weekend with my (very black and swollen) foot iced and elevated. I was on my own.. no trainee to help drive. Good thing I float gears but even loading up on mass quantities of ibuprofen, when I was forced to stop and press in that clutch it hurt something awful. Having worked in healthcare for many years I knew it wasn't broken and an x-ray later confirmed that. I wore a splint with metal supports on each side for almost 5 months with that 3rd degree sprain.

My bottom step is about 2 ft off the ground. No truck or even a low boy trailer is safe enough for you. Just say no to trucking.

OMG i needed this today.

I usually refrain from Flatbed discussions because i know nothing about it other than what OS and Turtle post.

With that said....after reading the comment "i have experience driving 5 ton vehicles including semis" about four times....i have to laugh. sorry dude....none of us are impressed.

My tractor is 10 tons. what the hell is a 5 ton semi? farm equipment with a trailer? a mini van with a "tiny house" trailer attached?

Old School stated most falls are from the cab. This is true and safety points this out to us regularly. i know a woman whose ring got caught in the grab bar as she was getting out. it ripped her skin down to the bone.

its.funny all this talk is about tarping though. What about turn radius in heavy equipment???? i once saw a really really long trailer trying to turn off the interstate and even with 2 cop cars blocking traffic, he still.had to almost hit the stop sign to make the turn. it takes mad skills to even manuever those babies, so please....get real trucking experience first. please.

A military 5-ton truck is comparable with the civilian sector's Class 6, up to under 26,000 pounds gross, I believe. Somebody who has seven years of Class 6 experience. Still, for a newbie to Class 7+ vehicles, considering my past experience, I would have it over somebody who never drove anything bigger and heavier than an SUV if I were to take up commercial driving. The 40-foot semi-trailers the military has are comparable in dimensions to 40-foot trailers commonly used in the civilian sector which are hitched to a Class 7 or 8 tractor. If my memory serves me correctly, the GVWR of the army's 40-foot trailers was 60,000 pounds, but I could be wrong. The army's M939 series 5-ton also had air brakes, an 855 Cummins, non-turbo, and an Allison 5-speed automatic transmission. There are both tractor and straight truck versions. I also have more experience with military M809 5-tons with 5-speed manual transmissions: both 809 and 939 series are 6x6 with a transfer.

How much trickier a 53-foot trailer is to maneuver, I don't honestly know. I have no load tarping experience in the army except with canvas covers and supporting bows for the cargo areas of trailers and trucks. Old School told me about that conestoga style tarping system and that seems to be a slick system. The military's canvas with bows is something like that of a covered wagon.