Industries we serve · Steel and metals
Steel and metals freight on open-deck trailers
Metals freight is unforgiving in a specific way: it is dense, it concentrates its weight in a small footprint, and most of it has an edge or a shape that decides how it gets tied down. That is open-deck work, run by our CDL-A division on flatbed and step-deck under our own authority rather than tendered on to whoever answers a load board. Below: what moves, how it is secured, when a drop deck beats a flat, and what we say no to.
Have a load that fits? Quotes are per lane, in writing, from a person.
Industries we serve / Steel and metals
What actually moves
The shape is what the desk is listening for. A coil and a bundle of rebar ride the same deck and come off it in completely different ways, so name the form as well as the material.
- Coils — hot and cold rolled, eye-to-sky or eye-to-side; say which, because it changes the cradling
- Plate and sheet, banded or on skids
- Rebar, bundled and tagged
- Structural steel — beams, channel, angle, tube
- Pipe and tubing, racked or nested
- Fabricated assemblies and weldments, where the piece is the shipment
How it is secured
Chains carry the loads where the freight can cut or crush a strap — plate, structural sections, anything with a machined or sheared edge. Straps suit banded bundles, coated product and crated assemblies, where the surface would mark. Edge protection goes between tiedown and freight either way: a chain biting into a corner is a chain no longer doing its job.
Coils ride in cradles, racks or on timbers, and that hardware is the shipper's to supply unless agreed otherwise in writing before dispatch. Some shippers have their own racks and expect a bare trailer; others assume the carrier brings everything. Both are normal — the assumption that wastes a trip is the one nobody said out loud.
All of it runs to the FMCSA cargo securement rules at 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I, which set working load limits and commodity-specific rules for coils and pipe. The rule is public, so you can read what your load is secured against.
Tarping steel
Steel tarps are heavier and built differently from lumber tarps, and covering a coil or a stack of plate is hand work done on the deck in whatever weather there is. That is why tarping is a named accessorial quoted per lane rather than a flat line. Say at tender whether the freight tarps and it is priced on the rate confirmation before dispatch — not discovered at the gate and argued about on the invoice.
When it is a step-deck instead of a flatbed
For most metals the answer is a standard flatbed, because dense freight rides low. The exception is height — the dimension shippers most often leave out of the first message. Legal height is commonly around 13′6″, set by state rather than by one federal number, and freight that would break it on a standard deck usually needs a lower deck rather than a permit. Send the height with the dimensions and the desk routes it correctly first time.
- Flatbed
- Coils, plate, rebar, structural sections and pipe riding at legal height on a standard deck. Common flatbed lengths run 48 and 53 ft.
- Step-deck
- The same freight when it would break legal height on a flat — tall fabrications, high-racked pipe, assemblies that stand up. The drop keeps it legal instead of oversize.
- Hotshot gooseneck
- A single fabricated piece or a partial load of steel that does not justify a full deck, on a 30–40 ft gooseneck.
How tendering works
Metals loads are quoted per lane on a written rate confirmation, tarping and every other accessorial named before dispatch. Every truck runs an ELD, claims run to 49 CFR Part 370 as published on this site, and the authority behind the quote is MC #1800150 — verifiable on SAFER, no login.
Send these seven and the desk can name the deck and price the lane without a round of questions:
- Commodity — what the freight actually is, in your own words
- Dimensions — length by width by height, per piece and for the whole load
- Total and per-piece weight — how it sits over the axles matters as much as the scale total
- Loading method — dock, forklift, crane or drive-on, and whose equipment does it at each end
- Tarping — whether the freight needs weather protection on the road
- Special handling — permits, appointment windows, residential or limited-access sites
- Origin and destination — the lane sets the routing, the state limits, and the quote
What we will say no to
A carrier that never says no is guessing somewhere. The line here is the legal envelope: a load over legal size or weight does not move on this authority until the permits are arranged and who orders what, who plans the routing and who pays for it are agreed in writing. Oversize metals freight is quotable — it needs lead time, not a nod at the gate. The other honest no is freight nobody can plan against: without the form, the dimensions and the loading method at both ends, the answer is a question rather than a truck.
Send the freight and the lane; the desk names the deck and quotes it in writing.
Steel and metals freight questions, answered
Can you haul steel coils on a flatbed?
Yes — coils are routine open-deck freight, and how they ride depends on orientation. Eye-to-sky and eye-to-side are secured differently under the federal commodity-specific rules, so name which you are shipping. The cradles, racks or timbers are the shipper's to supply unless agreed otherwise in advance and written on the rate confirmation.
Do you move plate or beams longer than the deck?
Freight that overhangs or runs past the legal envelope is permit territory, quoted per lane with lead time for the permits and the routing — a normal quote, not a refusal. Send the exact length and the lane, and who orders the permits, plans the routing and pays for what is agreed in writing before the load moves.
Do you tarp steel?
Yes. Steel tarps are part of the open-deck job, and tarping is a named accessorial quoted per lane because the work varies with the load. Say at tender whether the freight needs covering and it is priced on the rate confirmation — never added to the invoice afterwards.
Can you verify your securement training?
Ask the desk and you will get a straight answer about how our operators are trained and held to the FMCSA rules at 49 CFR Part 393, Subpart I. What we will not do is print a certification name we have not published elsewhere. Our safety record and inspection history are public on SAFER — that part you can check without asking anyone.