I recently started flatbed after hauling wood chips for years which was basically sitting in a truck with very little manual labor. In my opinion unless you are wanting more work and challenge in your occupation you probably don’t want to do it.
I enjoy it, but I am 34 and in quite good physical shape. Also I always wanted to do flatbed work. I can guarantee you though that tarping is not for the faint of heart. I can lug a tarp with 8 foot drops to the top of my load on a ladder, but not many do that. I have been tarping in dumping rain in the cold and took my shirt off once I got back in to dry it with my defrost heater. Also wind makes it a real pain.
I try to take pride with my tarping and make it look crisp, but honestly sometimes if the load is odd shaped enough and I’ve spent too long already I kind of figure as long as it isn’t flapping too much it will have to work.
It’s enjoyable for the most part, but if you start out with a bad attitude about tarping you might as well never start because it will give you little reason to change your attitude.
As far as pay goes, I don’t think it’s much better than any other kind of trucking but maybe others would disagree.
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