Reefer, Flatbed, Or Tanker

If you are doing food grade tanker you have to deal with... I don't know? Animal smells? Perhaps unpaved roadways in/around farm areas? I never did food grade, so no idea. But there are many types of food grade, so you could be hauling orange juice, milk, liquid sweeteners, liquid chocolate, or even alcohol. So it's not all sunny farmland in food grade, you may going to/from industrial food processing plants.

I've seen a lot of food grade tankers hauling milk which means smooth bore (hope you like to bounce) and hauling chicken blood. I can't imagine that smells very good.

THeron, I'll be starting w/ reefer more than likely, seeing that I'm leaning towards Shaffer now. Crete is right up there too, which is dry van. Ultimately, a lot of that will depend on which one will give me more flexibility in regard to hometime options. Shaffer recently posted a unique opportunity in PA where you can be home every couple of days. I live close to Crete / Shaffer's (they're one in the same company) one terminal in PA, so there are more unique opportunities for me.

I say all that because other things can play into the equation when deciding a company, type of freight etc... Typically dry van gives you more hometime options. Reefer is more long distance. These are generalizations, but don't always hold true.

I know eventually I'll pull tanker, I already have my endorsement, and it's something I want to do. But for me, I want to focus more on the basics w/ either a dry van or reefer to start.

Schneider is one of the only companies I know of that will train and start a student in tanker. There are a few others. Prime has a tanker division, but I get conflicting info on when you can start.

Speaking of only the type of freight I have hauled the miles for dry freight and refer equal out the same at the end of the week....I.e. paycheck and actual miles.

Dry van has more drop and hook and typically short miles per load but with more loads per week.

Refer generally has loads that travel longer distances but you get less loads and most loads are live load/unload and longer wait times.

But like I said the total miles for each are just about the same.

Speaking of only the type of freight I have hauled the miles for dry freight and refer equal out the same at the end of the week....I.e. paycheck and actual miles.

Dry van has more drop and hook and typically short miles per load but with more loads per week.

Refer generally has loads that travel longer distances but you get less loads and most loads are live load/unload and longer wait times.

But like I said the total miles for each are just about the same.

Thanks!