A flatbed driver operates flatbed trucks to handle the dissemination and supplies of products and services from the storehouse to different allocated points. As a flatbed driver, you are to help in the loading and unloading of goods, keep a receipt transaction copy, and handle payment processing. Also, you are expected to reply to client's questions and worries as well as wash and refuel your vehicles.
You must always keep a log of operations in adherence to accidents regulations. It is also your job to get the product to customers promptly, and while doing that, you must keep a nice attitude with clients. More so, you must examine the soundness and functioning of the truck's engine earlier and afterwards operations. You must also carry out essential rectification to avoid delays while supplying and prevent possible road accidents.
As a flatbed driver, you must exhibit excellent visual ability and dexterity. Also, your body's condition must be stable, and you must have good interaction and organization skills. In addition, you need a high school diploma to qualify for this role. You will earn an average of $56,650 annually or $27.24 per hour.
How to Become a Flatbed Driver
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a flatbed driver. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.26 an hour? That's $58,787 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 99,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Flatbed Driver Do
There are certain skills that many flatbed drivers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed hand-eye coordination, physical health and visual ability.
How To Become a Flatbed Driver
If you're interested in becoming a flatbed driver, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 10.5% of flatbed drivers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.8% of flatbed drivers have master's degrees. Even though some flatbed drivers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a flatbed driver. When we researched the most common majors for a flatbed driver, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on flatbed driver resumes include diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a flatbed driver. In fact, many flatbed driver jobs require experience in a role such as driver. Meanwhile, many flatbed drivers also have previous career experience in roles such as truck driver or over the road driver.
Flatbed Driver Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a flatbed driver can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as tank driver, progress to a title such as lead driver and then eventually end up with the title operator and truck driver.
Average Salary for a Flatbed Driver
What Am I Worth?
Top Skills For a Flatbed Driver
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 36.5% of flatbed drivers listed cdl on their resume, but soft skills such as hand-eye coordination and physical health are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Flatbed Driver Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Flatbed Driver templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Flatbed Driver resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Flatbed Driver Demographics
Flatbed Driver Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among flatbed drivers, 5.0% of them are women, while 95.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among flatbed drivers is White, which makes up 66.0% of all flatbed drivers.
- The most common foreign language among flatbed drivers is Spanish at 69.6%.
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Best States For a Flatbed Driver
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a flatbed driver. The best states for people in this position are North Dakota, Wyoming, New York, and Connecticut. Flatbed drivers make the most in North Dakota with an average salary of $79,003. Whereas in Wyoming and New York, they would average $77,797 and $77,416, respectively. While flatbed drivers would only make an average of $72,052 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. North Dakota
$79,003
Avg. Salary
2. Mississippi
$67,476
Avg. Salary
3. Wyoming
$77,797
Avg. Salary
How Do Flatbed Driver Rate Their Jobs?
Top Flatbed Driver Employers
Most Common Employers For Flatbed Driver
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Western Express | $77,810 | $37.41 | 136 |
| 2 | Knight Transportation | $76,530 | $36.79 | 39 |
| 3 | Lowe's Companies | $72,989 | $35.09 | 32 |
| 4 | PGT Trucking | $71,954 | $34.59 | 39 |
| 5 | Maverick Transportation | $65,382 | $31.43 | 38 |
| 6 | TMC Transportation | $65,198 | $31.35 | 125 |
| 7 | Koch Trucking | $65,161 | $31.33 | 19 |
| 8 | Paul Transportation | $64,829 | $31.17 | 55 |
| 9 | Melton Truck Lines | $64,398 | $30.96 | 167 |
| 10 | E.W. Wylie | $64,306 | $30.92 | 79 |
Flatbed Driver Videos
