New Flatbed Course Under Consideration

Hey folks. New York State has a special endorsement you need to haul coils on a flatbed. They have a manual for it and I'm thinking about turning this manual into a new section for the High Road. You can find the manual here:

Metal Coil Endorsement

To any flatbedders out there, I'd like you to take a quick glance at the manual and see how helpful you feel the information would be as a securement course.

Thanks!

Brett, I've seen this manual before, and it has a lot of good information in it. It also pretty much covers the basic math stuff that a flat-bedder needs to understand how to calculate the securement requirements on a load to make sure it is safe. As you are working on this you might also want to search for the Alabama Coil Certification. Most flat-bedders have to pass that certification so that they can haul steel coils in and through Alabama. New York does not require license holders of other states to have their endorsement, but Alabama requires them to pass the test for their certification. It doesn't appear on your actual license, but if an Alabama State Trooper runs your license through their system it will come up and show him if you have this certification or not. Many of the places that I used to pick coils up at would require us to show them the paper work indicating our Alabama Certification or they wouldn't load us. It seemed to be the standard that many of the coil manufacturers would use as their standard of driver competence when it came to hauling their product.

I am sure that wreck involving the bridge here in Texas will probably change a few laws for flatbeds also down the line.

Brett, this is very similar to some of the materials covered in securement training at Prime, specifically on hauling coils. It is very useful for WLL and the directional forces that need to be considered on any load. (You would all be very scared to follow or pass flatbeds if you realized what some lazy flatbedders think is "good enough.")

I think it would be nice to include additional material on how to secure other kinds of loads (e.g., lumber, pipe, machinery, etc.) in the HRT, but I don't know of any non-copyrighted materials that are as brief and clear as this material on coils that you could use -- plus, that's more work for you to code. This is a great start, and the additional material would be on my wishlist for the future.

Thanks for all that you do!

As you are working on this you might also want to search for the Alabama Coil Certification. Most flat-bedders have to pass that certification so that they can haul steel coils in and through Alabama

Awesome Old School! I hadn't heard about that so I'm gonna look that up right now. I still have the materials you sent me a while back and I'm gonna go through those too.

I think it would be nice to include additional material on how to secure other kinds of loads (e.g., lumber, pipe, machinery, etc.) in the HRT, but I don't know of any non-copyrighted materials that are as brief and clear as this material on coils that you could use -- plus, that's more work for you to code. This is a great start, and the additional material would be on my wishlist for the future.

Indeed I would love to find more information on securing other types of loads. I'm considering contacting some of the flatbed companies to see if I can get my hands on some of their materials.

I found a Federal manual online:

FMCSA cargo securement rules

That would be an extremely difficult manual to study from, which would make it a great candidate for adding to the High Road. The best I can tell that manual is from like 2004. That's the most recent date referenced anywhere in it. So I'm not sure if this manual would be useful or if there's something better.

Old School - it seems that Alabama Coil Law has been struck down by the Feds.

FMCSA says federal law trumps Alabama’s coil securement rules

Old School - it seems that Alabama Coil Law has been struck down by the Feds.

Okay, well that was about two years ago when I took that test. I guess I'm behind the times. That's the problem when you're "Old School" like me, you can't seem to keep up with the times.

That information I sent you a while back has terrible pictures, but some good information. If you have trouble deciphering some of the math notes hand written in the front, I may be able to help you. That manual was from an employee who quit, but it looked like his notes were good. I still have my original copy buried somewhere in my truck.