Flatbed Trucking Questions, Answered

Freight5 is a flatbed trucking company based in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2016, we operate a fleet of 12 trucks pulling quad-axle flatbed trailers and haul full truckload (FTL), LTL and permitted oversize freight throughout Ontario and Quebec.

We are an asset-based carrier — we own and run the trucks ourselves, so the truck that quotes your load is the truck that hauls it.

Our yard and office are at 25A Hansen Rd S, Brampton, Ontario L6W 3H7. Brampton sits in the northwest corner of the Greater Toronto Area, which puts us within an hour of most GTA shippers and directly on the Highway 401 and 410 corridors.

Since 2016. We started with a single truck and have grown to 12 flatbed trucks, all running Ontario and Quebec lanes.

12 trucks, each pulling a quad-axle flatbed trailer. The fleet is GPS-tracked, so dispatch can tell you where your load is at any point between pickup and delivery.

Ontario and Quebec. In Ontario we run the GTA, Hamilton and the Golden Horseshoe, Cambridge, Kitchener–Waterloo, London, Windsor, Barrie, Kingston and Ottawa. In Quebec we serve Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, Vaudreuil, Trois-Rivières, Drummondville, Sherbrooke and Quebec City.

Our busiest lane is Toronto/GTA to Montreal — roughly 540 km, usually same-day or next-morning depending on pickup time.

No. Freight5 is a domestic Canadian carrier operating within Ontario and Quebec only. We do not run cross-border loads into the U.S. If your shipment needs to cross the border, we can still handle the Canadian leg to or from a transload or border terminal — call dispatch and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit.

We're a carrier. We own our trucks and employ our drivers. That matters because your freight isn't being re-brokered to whoever bids lowest — you're dealing directly with the company hauling the load.

A flatbed is an open trailer with no roof or walls, so freight can be loaded from the side, the rear or overhead by crane or forklift. You need a flatbed when your freight is:

• Too wide, tall or heavy for a dry van
• Loaded or unloaded by crane, overhead hoist or side-loading forklift
• An awkward shape — beams, coils, machinery, bundled material
• Going to a construction site with no dock

If your freight fits on pallets and moves through a loading dock, a dry van is usually cheaper. If it doesn't, flatbed is the answer.

A quad-axle flatbed has four axles under the trailer instead of the two or three found on a standard flatbed or tridem. Spreading the load over more axles distributes weight across a larger footprint, which lets the combination run a higher legal gross weight in Ontario and Quebec.

In practice that means a quad-axle flatbed can carry more of a dense commodity — structural steel, precast concrete, rebar, machinery — on one truck rather than splitting it across two. Exact legal payload depends on axle spacing, the configuration's SPIF classification and the province, so send dispatch your commodity and weight and we'll confirm what's legal on your lane before you book.

Common Freight5 loads include:

• Structural steel, beams, plate, rebar, coils, pipe and tubing
• Lumber packages, engineered wood, drywall, siding and roofing bundles
• Precast concrete, forms, scaffolding and general construction material
• Industrial machinery, generators, compressors and plant equipment
• Agricultural equipment — tractors, implements, farm machinery
• Utility material — poles, cable reels, transformers
• Crated and skidded manufactured goods

We do not haul dangerous goods requiring TDG placarding, refrigerated freight or livestock.

Yes. If your freight doesn't fill a 48-foot deck, we can run it as a partial and combine it with other freight on the same lane. You pay for the deck space and weight you actually use.

Partials work best when your load is flexible on delivery date by a day or so. If you need a hard appointment time, a dedicated full truckload is usually the safer choice.

Yes. Tarping is available on request and is standard practice for weather-sensitive freight — lumber, drywall, finished or painted steel, packaged building products, and anything with a surface that rain, road salt or snow would damage.

Tarping takes a driver real time and physical effort, so it's normally quoted as a line item. Tell dispatch up front that the load needs tarping and it will be included in the quote rather than billed after the fact.

Every Freight5 load is secured to National Safety Code Standard 10, the Canadian cargo securement standard that applies to all commercial carriers. Depending on the commodity that means straps, chains and binders, edge protectors and corner guards, dunnage, coil racks or cradles, and blocking and bracing.

Drivers inspect and re-tension securement within the first 80 km after loading and at every subsequent inspection point — that's a legal requirement, not a courtesy.

Yes, within Ontario and Quebec. We arrange the provincial permits, warning flags, signage, banners and — when the route requires them — escort or pilot vehicles.

Oversize moves need more lead time than standard freight because permits are issued per route and often carry travel-time restrictions. Give dispatch the exact dimensions and weight as early as you can.

A load generally needs an oversize permit once it exceeds the legal envelope:

• Width: over 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) — same in both provinces
• Height: over 4.15 m (13 ft 6 in) — same in both provinces
• Length: over roughly 23 m (75 ft) overall in Quebec; Ontario limits depend on whether the combination is SPIF-compliant

Overweight permits are a separate matter and depend on axle configuration and spacing. These are general thresholds — the permit office makes the final call for your specific route, and we handle that application on your behalf.

Our own equipment is quad-axle flatbed. If your load genuinely needs a step deck for extra height clearance or a rolling tarp system, tell dispatch what you're moving — we'll be straight with you about whether we can accommodate it or whether you'd be better served by a specialist carrier.

Yes. If you ship the same lane on a recurring basis — say Brampton to Montreal every Tuesday and Thursday — we can assign capacity to a standing schedule. You get consistent equipment, a driver who knows your yard and your receiver, and predictable pricing instead of spot-market exposure.

Contract lanes are worth discussing at roughly one load per week or more.

Yes — site delivery is a large part of what we do. Flatbeds are well suited to sites with no dock, since material comes off by crane, boom truck or forklift from the side or rear.

Tell dispatch about site access, unloading equipment and any delivery window when you book. Job sites where the truck waits for a crane are the single most common cause of detention charges, so the more we know in advance, the better we can schedule around it.

Three ways: call dispatch at (905) 291-6715, email dispatch@freight5.ca, or message us on WhatsApp at (647) 286-2585. Email is usually fastest for anything with dimensions and drawings attached.

To give you a firm number rather than a guess, send:

• Pickup city and postal code, and delivery city and postal code
• What the freight is (the commodity)
• Total weight
• Dimensions — length, width, height of each piece
• Number of pieces and whether they're skidded, bundled or loose
• How it loads and unloads (forklift, crane, overhead hoist)
• Whether it needs tarping
• Pickup date and any delivery appointment

If you're missing something, send what you have and we'll work with it.

Most quotes on standard Ontario–Quebec lanes come back the same business day, and often within a couple of hours during office hours. Oversize and permitted moves take longer because we have to price the permits and check the route first.

For a standard flatbed load on a lane we run regularly, 24 to 48 hours is comfortable. Oversize and permitted loads need more — permits are issued per route and can take several business days depending on the province and the dimensions.

That said, we run 12 trucks on a fairly tight geography, so if something comes up short-notice, call. Sometimes there's a truck empty nearby.

Sometimes — it depends entirely on where our trucks are at that moment. Call dispatch directly rather than emailing if it's urgent; we'll tell you within minutes whether we have a truck that can make it.

Yes. Every truck in the fleet is GPS-tracked. Call or message dispatch with your load reference and we'll tell you where the truck is and the realistic ETA — including when it's running behind, which we'd rather tell you than have you find out at the receiver.

The office runs Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern. Dispatch is reachable outside those hours for trucks already on the road and for urgent freight — that's what the 24/7 dispatch line is for.

Flatbed freight is priced per load, not from a fixed rate card. Rates move with fuel prices, seasonal demand and how balanced the lane is — a Toronto-to-Montreal run priced in February looks different from the same run in a busy construction August.

Anyone who quotes you a flatbed rate without knowing the commodity, weight and dimensions is guessing. Send us the load details at dispatch@freight5.ca and you'll get a real number.

The main drivers:

• Distance and lane balance — a lane where we can find a return load prices better than one that leaves the truck empty
• Weight — heavier loads consume more of the truck's legal capacity
• Dimensions — oversize means permits, restricted travel times and sometimes escorts
• Tarping — real time and labour for the driver
• Loading and unloading time — a site that takes four hours to unload is a different load than one that takes forty minutes
• Timing — tight appointments, weekend delivery and short notice all cost more
• Fuel — usually reflected as a fuel surcharge

Accessorials are add-ons beyond the line-haul rate. The common ones on flatbed freight are tarping, detention (waiting beyond the free time at pickup or delivery), extra stops, permits for oversize moves, escort vehicles, and layover if the truck has to sit overnight.

We'd rather flag likely accessorials when we quote than surprise you on the invoice. If your delivery site has a history of long waits, tell us and we'll price it honestly up front.

Our quotes cover the line haul plus whatever accessorials we know about at the time — tarping, permits, extra stops. Charges that depend on what actually happens on the day, like detention at a slow receiver, can only be billed after the fact. We'll tell you what the free time is before you book.

Yes. Freight5 carries $2,000,000 in commercial general liability coverage and $250,000 in cargo coverage.

A certificate of insurance naming your company as certificate holder is available on request — email dispatch@freight5.ca and dispatch will send it over, usually the same day. If your freight is worth more than the standard cargo limit, tell us before you book so we can arrange the right coverage rather than discovering the gap after a claim.

Freight5's CVOR number is 186-172-777.

A CVOR (Commercial Vehicle Operator's Registration) is the certificate the Ontario Ministry of Transportation issues to every commercial carrier operating trucks over 4,500 kg in the province. It carries a safety rating built from the carrier's collision, conviction and inspection history — it's how shippers and brokers verify a carrier is legitimate and safe.

We'll provide our current CVOR abstract on request as part of your carrier vetting.

Our Brampton terminal at 25A Hansen Rd S sits on a fenced and gated yard. Trailers staged between loads sit behind a locked gate rather than parked on a street or at a public truck stop.

That matters most for the freight we haul most — structural steel, machinery and packaged building products are exactly the sort of cargo that walks off an unsecured lot overnight.

All Freight5 drivers hold a valid Ontario AZ licence (the class required for tractor-trailers) and are hired with a clean driver's abstract. Flatbed work is a specific skill — load securement, weight distribution and tarping are not things a dry-van driver picks up automatically — so we hire for flatbed experience and train for it.

Note the damage on the bill of lading at delivery — that document is what a claim rests on — and call dispatch the same day. We'll ask for photographs and the delivery paperwork, then work the claim through our cargo insurer, which carries $250,000 in coverage. Being an asset-based carrier helps here: there's no broker in between and no argument about who was responsible for the load.

Everything a shipper or broker normally asks for:

• CVOR: 186-172-777 — look up the safety rating with the Ontario MTO
• Insurance: $2,000,000 liability and $250,000 cargo; certificate naming you as certificate holder on request
• Address: 25A Hansen Rd S, Brampton, Ontario L6W 3H7 — a real fenced yard, not a mailbox
• Operating since: 2016

Email dispatch@freight5.ca and we'll send the carrier package the same day.

Year-round. Ontario and Quebec winters are a normal operating condition, not an exception — our drivers run them every year. Winter does affect flatbed work in two ways worth planning around: securement needs more frequent checks in freezing conditions, and tarping matters more when snow and road salt are in play. Severe storm closures are the one thing nobody can schedule around; if the OPP or Sûreté du Québec closes a highway, we'll call you with a revised ETA rather than leave you guessing.

Yes — we hire experienced AZ-licensed company drivers and owner operators on an ongoing basis for Ontario and Quebec flatbed lanes.

A valid Ontario AZ licence and a clean driver's abstract are the baseline. Flatbed experience is a strong asset — securement and tarping are the core of the job. Beyond that, we're looking for people who show up on time and take pride in a properly secured load.

Yes. We work with owner operators running Ontario and Quebec flatbed lanes. Call dispatch to talk through rates, equipment requirements and how the lanes run before you commit.

We run Ontario and Quebec only — no U.S. border, no multi-week runs. That means predictable lanes and more nights at home than long-haul work allows. We offer competitive pay and consistent miles, and dispatch answers the phone.

Email your resume and driver's abstract to dispatch@freight5.ca with "Driver Application" in the subject line, or call (905) 291-6715 and ask for dispatch.