I can say all the years of running into scrap yards i dont think i have ever gotten a flat tire from any of the local ones. and running in there with my boom truck i have been atleast 20,000Lbs over weight on two axles more than once
Wow, the last two years I was in the trucking business my trucks hauled scrap from yard to yard, and from yard to steel mill. I would say each of my trucks averaged 2 flats a week. One thing is for sure, the driver made a massive difference. I have fired guys for getting too many flats, in scrap hauling and back when they hauled demo debris. Some guys would get 2 flats a day, I figured they were driving with their heads up their behinds and couldn't see what was on the ground in front of them.
When I was young I was a foreman for a big trucking company. One of the contracts we had was to haul iron ore from the ship to the stockpiles inside the steel mill with tractors and dump trailers. We drove down a concrete road beside the scrap piles they unloaded from railcars. We had a man who walked the road all the time kicking scrap away. The magnet crane operators were supposed to sweep the road, but it was like pulling teeth to get them to do it. We had at least 10-15 flats in a 12 hr shift, and many nights it was over 20. My shift once changed 43 in 13 hrs.
When that 5 yr contract ended, the mill manager's relative won the contract. My assistant went to work for them as foreman and he said the cranes swept the road religiously, and he only had 2 flats the first week!