Hello...

I will be entering the industry in the fall or winter of this year. I know they generally require 1-3 years experience to get a job hauling fuel, but this may be a long term option for myself as I don't like the idea of messing with docks and sitting around waiting to get loaded/unloaded for hours upon hours...



I will likely be starting with a training company (hopefully Roehl), or maybe even CFI or Trans Am as I believe they hire students and have reimbursement programs.

However, looking down the road, what are the pros and cons of hauling fuel, and what advice would ya'll give a driver looking to get a fuel job in the future...

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You will most likely have to shave your beard...........

I know a kid that started driving a home heating oil delivery truck and he couldn't have had more than 6 months driving time since he got his CDL. It could have been even less. I know at first he worked for some sleazy household moving company, but that didn't last long.

If you are hauling GAS to a gas station, alot of times they bump the order from saying 4000 gallons to 6000 gallons and the gas station you are going to doesn't sell that much gas you are going to be stuck with 2000 gallons roughly.

So then you have to sit and wait for the 2000 gallons to fit.
YES the dispatchers make mistakes too.

Mistakes can occur when unloading fuel where Mathematics is the KEY to no spills.

STICK the TANK, measure the TANK, check your charts, to make sure it all fits.

This JOB hauling fuel may sound easy but, requires alot of patience and hard work.

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you will be working any day, anytime, all holidays, weekends, etc,etc, especially when are new to the company and work your way up.

the fuel hose is heavy.

you will be going into gas stations right off the highway.

you will be going into neighborhoods.

you will be working in ALL types of weather

you will be going up against idiots that will come up to you smoking trying to ask you dumb questions.

you will go gray sooner than the average person, maybe even bald, really..........this ain't no lie..........

Great choice, I'll be doing the same thing this summer. I have been training for a little while now. I love it, although you can wait a while at the pump stations to get filled, station owners always overestimate how much gas they will need, which means, for us anyways, our dispatcher has to call around and see if any of our regulars need 1500 or 2000 gallons. People cut you off, tailgate, smoke near you, lots of cramped quarters to squeeze into, back into, etc. But, as far as I'm concerned, there nothing more manly than hauling a fuel tanker . Pay is great too!

Gee the pros and cons of hauling fuel, where do I start? I think it's a good goal to set but you've got to know what you're setting your goals for. There's different types of fuel hauling some good even great and some bad. The Common Carriers that haul gasoline for anyone are the ones that pay the less and have the worse equipment. Dedicated carriers are a little better but the big show is with the major oil companies.

It's true that when you start out you'll get the least wanted shift and that is mostly weekends and nights. Some drivers like nights and most all the companies pay shift differential. The majority of the trucks are clean and it's easy to unload and load once you're trained. The hoses nowadays are not heavy, unless your in a pump truck, and when you empty the hose you roll it so you're lifting maybe 20 lbs if that. The only waiting you might do is at the loading facility and that won't be long. I used to pull 5 and 6 loads a day and I was loading jumbo tankers which took 20 minutes to load.

Just about all the companies want experienced drivers and the majors will not touch you if you have tickets and no tanker experience. Most want 3 years tanker experience.

Now I can tell you how it was for me at ARCO. I got paid by the hour ($23.50) we worked 4 10 hour days. Home every night, we did all local hauling. You could get all the over time you wanted so you could worked 60 hour weeks and have 20 hours at time and a half. So that would work out to be $1645 a week and you'd still have two days off. We got paid 11 holidays and after the first year you got 2 weeks vacation then at 5 years it went to 3 weeks and so on. You got up to six weeks sick pay after 5 years. But the company paid a good safety bonus at the end of the year and if you had sick days they deducted some pay. The company had a CAP and Savings plan on top of retirement. So you could put so much % of your pay and the company would put in up to 6%. You can take money out of your Savings plan but not the Cap plan. You had a choice where your money was to be invested. Most of us took company stocks. I've seen drivers retire after 30 years and have over a million in these plans.

The company always took your word for safety but you were monitored all the time. The company used the Smith System and now I read they have cameras in the truck that watch the driver and the traffic in front. Not all the time just when the senors feel a sudden stop. I guess the drivers like it now but of course they didn't like it in the beginning. I loved that job not just for the money but it feels good when you know the company will stand behind you. Chevron has the same kind of set up and they might be paid a little better. I can tell you that these drivers were all professionals and no hotdoggers. They were relaxed drivers that took their safety very seriously.

I can go on an on but I will tell you that this was the best job I ever had driving a truck. I retired early with what they call the golden handshake. If you'd like to know more you can take it to private messages.

Now why is that, I can wear a beard in an office job but not at some trucking jobs... just don't make any sense to me.

Gotta have my goatee I have grown awful attached to it over the years...



Edit: As a funny side note, I took a hair drug test last week for a job loading trucks at the Frito Lay distribution center here locally. I don't wear any hair on my head as God has decided I will be follically-challenged in that regard.

Well, nurse looks at my inch long goatee with wide eyes and says That would be perfect!

Um no...you ain't touching my goat lady!

So she took a bunch of my leg hair and flew it to Las Vegas for testing...

I've never been to Vegas but my leg hair has...go figure!

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Ken0001, GasHauler...thanx for the inside info.

Seems like some good money in fuel transport sector of the industry. Maybe it's a control thing, but I like the idea of not depending on dock workers or lumpers to get you loaded/unloaded. You are sitting there not getting paid while it could take hours or even days to get moving again. I know with an hourly job such as fuel transport, even if things didn't go exactly as planned, I would be compensated for my time.

It must be because I have always working for an hourly wage, that I am looking for the same once I have 1-3 years experience in the industry.

Although, I must admit it would be a bit disconcerting with smoking folks coming up to you asking questions while I am with the truck...

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The reason I mentioned the beard is because alot of companies that haul hazmat tankers dont allow them, you need to put on your PPE and with a beard you cant get a tight fit, a goatee might be another thing though. Just a fuel tanker job a beard might be ok, sounds like there is a couple on here that would know