Flatbed Dispatch Services

Flatbed rewards operators who know what they are doing. Securement is your responsibility and your liability, loads are heavier and less uniform, and weather is a genuine operational factor rather than an inconvenience.

The upside is a smaller pool of qualified carriers. Not everyone can tarp a load properly in the rain at five in the morning, and the rates reflect that. Flatbed also ties closely to industrial and construction activity, which means the strong markets are geographically concentrated — Texas and Louisiana on the petrochemical corridor, the Ohio Valley for steel, the Southeast for building materials.

Load types vary enormously. Steel coils demand specific securement and weight distribution. Lumber and drywall need tarping. Machinery may need chains and specific attachment points. Pipe rolls if it is not blocked correctly. Each has its own failure mode, and each failure mode is expensive.

The carriers who do best on flatbed treat securement knowledge as the asset it is, and work with dispatchers who understand that a tarped load at a construction site is a different proposition from a drop-and-hook at a distribution centre.