Passed My Written Today And Have My Permit. Should I Drive REEFER, DRY VAN Or FLATBED?

I passed my written today and have my permit. Passed my DOT physical and will be going to RDTC with Roehl to start my driving career for at least 6 months to a year and from then we will see.

My question to you is "Should I drive REEFER , Dry Van, Curtainside or Flatbed to start? I am looking for your opinions and advice. I am 80% sure which one I will be going with but respect your advice on this site much more than some other sites.

My question to you is "Should I drive REEFER , Dry Van , Curtainside or Flatbed to start?

Well we've gotcha covered. We have a series of articles that cover how to choose the right truck driving job, including an 8-part series I wrote. You'll see it as you scroll down that list of articles. The series I wrote covers the differences between dry van, flatbed, refrigerated, tanker, small companies, and large companies. Every type of freight and the different size companies all have different job duties and cultures. There is no wrong answer to what type of job you should go for. It just comes down to what you feel would suit you best.

I'll give you a quick rundown of some of the differences:

Dry van tends to have shorter runs but a lot of drop and hook. The amount of freight is up and down quite a bit - you're screamin busy through the busy times and it dies out hard during the lull after Christmas. But if you're looking to get home as often as possible, dry van or flatbed are the places to look because their freight tends to be more regionalized.

Refrigerated carriers tend to have much longer runs and fewer drop-n-hooks. Their freight is less regionalized so you usually won't get home more than a few days each month. They tend to have more consistent freight available overall because the food they haul doesn't peak and trough the way dry goods do because of the holidays. You have very long loading and unloading times because of the way the grocery warehouses are run, and that tends to annoy the heck out of people.

Of course the major thing with flatbed is having to tarp and strap loads. It's a lot of heavy work in all types of weather. But the people who love flatbed really, really love it. You won't find that type of enthusiasm for the other types of trucking. Flatbedding is more of a challenge and more physical than the other types of trucking.

And unless there's something I'm unaware of, curtainside isn't entirely different than regular flatbeds. Starcar has been involved in flatbed for years and can tell you more about the differences between curtainside and flatbed.

So every type of freight has it's own unique properties and it really comes down to what sounds good to you. Make sure you read through all of those articles I linked to above about how to choose a truck driving job. They'll give you a lot of insights into the various differences.