GasHauler, I don't take any great joy in stating what has happened to the majors. I personally knew a great big bunch of those fellas and they were (by and large) as fine a group of people as you would ever want to meet and were seriously dedicated to excellence on the job and making this occupation as safe as possible.

I don't know if you remember the days of top loading when it seemed like everyone was coming down with cancer from exposure to benzene ( one nasty lttle carcinogen )from the gas ... couldn't walk into a terminal anywhere without seeing glass gallon jugs with drivers names on them asking for donations because they couldn't work due to their illness ... and no, there weren't alot of drivers names from the majors on those jugs ... but it was only because they had better insurance and benefits than we had. Most of those drivers are long gone now and we never got to see them again unless you made a trip down to the hospital ... their families would drop by and put "thank you" notes on the bulletin boards for all the heart felt cards, letters and donations placed in the jugs after their loved ones passed on. Thank God for bottom loading and vapor recovery at the terminals and at the stations ... we don't have to walk down from that catwalk so dizzy from the vapors that we can't find the ladder anymore.

No ... I thought it was a sad day when the majors started rollin' out, but they left behind a spirit of excellence and dedication that will be hard to match by anyone

Yeah Dieseldan ... you will work days if assigned to days and nights if assigned to nights. Only time I havn't seen a full shift was in the aftermath of a disaster like a hurricane ... and that's usually because a pipeline is down somewhere and not much of nothing will move until it's fixed.

Ain't no swing shifts at Eagle unless the driver specifically requests it.

mikeymike ... now you know there ain't no such thang as a perfect job but you can at least get home everyday and make a fairly decent paycheck without killin' yourself. Just be careful, take it kinda slow at first, double check yourself constantly, develop a routine and follow it no matter what, if you come across something you don't understand ... find out before you do anything, if anything appears to be remotely unsafe ... talk it over with dispatch first , it truly is ALL about CYA

Welcome to Eagle ... make us proud!!

Originally Posted by John Miles

GasHauler, I don't take any great joy in stating what has happened to the majors. I personally knew a great big bunch of those fellas and they were (by and large) as fine a group of people as you would ever want to meet and were seriously dedicated to excellence on the job and making this occupation as safe as possible.

I don't know if you remember the days of top loading when it seemed like everyone was coming down with cancer from exposure to benzene ( one nasty lttle carcinogen )from the gas ... couldn't walk into a terminal anywhere without seeing glass gallon jugs with drivers names on them asking for donations because they couldn't work due to their illness ... and no, there weren't alot of drivers names from the majors on those jugs ... but it was only because they had better insurance and benefits than we had. Most of those drivers are long gone now and we never got to see them again unless you made a trip down to the hospital ... their families would drop by and put "thank you" notes on the bulletin boards for all the heart felt cards, letters and donations placed in the jugs after their loved ones passed on. Thank God for bottom loading and vapor recovery at the terminals and at the stations ... we don't have to walk down from that catwalk so dizzy from the vapors that we can't find the ladder anymore.

No ... I thought it was a sad day when the majors started rollin' out, but they left behind a spirit of excellence and dedication that will be hard to match by anyone

Must of took longer for your region to go to bottom loading. I've been around gasoline terminals since I was 4 years old. My Father started with Richfield in Los Angeles in 1954 and I would ride in the trucks while he and other drivers made drops. I guess I was in my teens when they went to bottom loading. However, a very good friend of mine that retired a couple of years ago was hired by my Father as a loader and when they went to bottom loading they taught him how to drive. He worked for one company all his life until he retired. I learned a bunch from him especially how to handle customers. You're right benzine was a problem and the company spent alot of money to monitor the area and in the cab. I can't remember any jars but I do remember my Father talking about the change and how much safer it was. Where I was it was a company tank farm right at Washington and Alameda streets in L.A. right behind the L.A. truck stop (if you can call it that). So I don't know how common carriers operated back then. I wasn't exposed to common carriers until 1991.