Flatbed pays for work a van driver never does, and a desk that books it like van freight gives that work away. We dispatch open-deck fleets of four trucks and up — tarp pay negotiated before the load is accepted, securement understood before it is priced, and mill and yard queue time counted as the hours it really costs.
Quick answer: Flatbed dispatch is load sourcing and rate work for a trucking company running open-deck trailers. Badass Logistics dispatches flatbed fleets of four or more power units. Our desk negotiates tarp pay up front, prices securement and mill queue time into the rate, and keeps the paperwork so detention on a yard is billed rather than absorbed.
Steel and coil, lumber and building materials, pipe, structural fabrication, machinery and palletized industrial goods make up most open-deck freight. It is the equipment type where the load itself demands labour: strapping, chaining, edge protection, blocking and — on a large share of it — tarping.
That labour is where flatbed margin is won or lost. Tarping a steel load properly is an hour of hard physical work in whatever weather is happening, and a rate that does not pay for it is a rate that quietly transfers the cost to your driver. Our field guides on tarping a flatbed load and blocking, bracing and dunnage cover what that work actually involves.
Out of mills and service centres — heavy, dense, and almost always a tarp load.
Bundled lumber, drywall, roofing and brick into yards and job sites.
Pipe, beam and fabricated structural steel, chained and blocked rather than strapped.
Crated and skidded equipment, including freight coming out of our own rigging projects.
How many tarps, and who pays for them, is settled on the rate confirmation — not discovered at the mill gate. A load that needs a steel tarp and a lumber tarp is a different job from a load that rides bare, and it gets priced as one.
Strap and chain count, edge protection, dunnage and whether the shipper loads or the driver does all change how long a pickup takes. A dispatcher who cannot picture how the load sits on the deck cannot price the time it takes to secure it.
Steel mills, lumber yards and fabrication shops run on their own clock and routinely hold a truck for hours. We record in and out times and pursue detention on open-deck freight the same way we do on a grocery dock.
A tarped load in a crosswind and a tarped load in January are two different problems, and both belong in the plan before the truck rolls. We route and schedule around them rather than calling a driver mid-run to improvise.
Every load is negotiated against the lane and the work the freight actually takes. These are the factors the desk argues from — no rate sheet, and no number quoted before we know your fleet:
You keep your operating authority, your insurance and your drivers. You approve every load before it is booked — no forced dispatch. Hiring, maintenance, and your safety and compliance program stay in-house; the desk plugs into your company rather than replacing it.
Badass Logistics is an industrial rigging company first, which is where the freight advantage comes from: our own projects generate loads that need covering, and project freight between sites moves through our licensed broker and carrier partners. Badass holds no operating authority and owns no trucks — your fleet hauls the freight, our desk finds and papers it.
See the full fleet dispatch service, browse dispatch by equipment type, or see how the desk works for 4–10 trucks, 10–25 trucks, 25+ trucks, after-hours coverage.
Drop-deck fleets — freight that needs the lower deck to stay legal height, booked as ordinary freight.
Step Deck Dispatch →Rolling-tarp fleets — freight that has to stay dry and cannot go in a van, without an hour of tarping at each end.
Conestoga Dispatch →Temperature-controlled fleets — set points on the rate con, download-backed claims defence, and seasonal lane planning.
Reefer Dispatch →Yes — flatbed dispatch for trucking companies running four or more power units under their own authority. We do not dispatch single-truck owner-operators. Apply for fleet dispatch →
On every load that needs a tarp. Tarp count and who supplies them go on the rate confirmation before the load is accepted, because tarping is an hour of real work and a rate that ignores it is a rate that charges your driver for it.
No. Badass Logistics is an industrial rigging company and holds no operating authority — we own no trucks. Our desk dispatches your fleet, and freight on our own rigging projects moves through our licensed broker and carrier partners.
No. Our desk books legal-weight, legal-dimension open-deck freight. Permitted oversize work, escorts and superloads are outside what we arrange — that service line was retired in 2026.
Direct shippers, vetted brokers and the boards, plus freight generated by our own rigging and project freight work — crated machinery and industrial equipment that has to move between plants.
Tell us your fleet, your equipment and the lanes you want to run. We'll set up an onboarding call and get your trucks covered.