Tanker drivers: How did you get into pulling tankers?

What I can I say...I gained a lot of experience from that Chippendale's gig.

 

Hello.

Well after driving for almost 23 years now I finally decided that I'm done with dry vans and flatbeds and bulk tanks and drop decks etc.

I'll be 44 years old in a few weeks and I also have the patience and knowledge to accept the responsibility that go's along with hauling hazardous materials in a tanker.

Also, trucking has been very boring to me for many many years now and it's like I'm starting over again as a new driver, learning a whole new thing. It's very exciting. It put some life back into me, making the switch to tanks. I feel like having a hazmat endorsement and a TWIC card helps further my career and makes me a bit more marketable as a driver.

I'm starting my new job hauling liquid CO2 tomorrow!

Take care Everyone!

Edjahman

 

Ya im getting my hazmat endorsement this month. It's like getting your masters from bachelors degree, if you want more money is the way to go. I might get into tankers and do local. I hear those guys can make the money.

 

Personally I was money motivated. Once in trucks I got real tired of small checks and long hours so I started checking around.......tank was the way to go so I did 6 mos as a gas hauler ( nothing personal gashauler ) and bailed for a pvt chemical fleet of tanks. Never looked back.

Cleaner work, more respect, more pay and less BS AND I get to use my grey matter between my ears.

Good luck

 

was between jobs. Had pulled dry van for 20+ years
My son was looking for a driving job too and came across something and he said to me
man Dad I wish I all the endorsements you have I would be putting in an app with these guys
So i checked them out...seemed to good to be true so I was very skeptical,, turns out it was all they said it would be
I have just completed my first year pulling a hazmat tanker..PS I'll NEVER hook up to another box trailer again

 

Would you be willing to "share" who this company is? I am considering returning to "tanker yanker"... so I'm making a list for a good companies to consider... thanks.

God bless and be safe.

 

Worked on a tankwash at another company for 4 years. Terminal lost its biggest customer and was forced to downsize. Mechanics and I were laid off followed a year or so later by the drivers. Took a temp position welding, hated it, then took a job driving pipefitters around a construction site. Got laid off from that about 3 months later. I'd heard Superior had been hiring guys out of school, and a friend who works here was telling me it was a pretty good gig so after much deliberation I called the terminal, found out which school I needed to go to and went.

Oddly enough I made the decision when I was having a huge internal debate as the union had called me to tell me about another job at the construction site, so I was talking to my wife about what I should do, flipping through the channels and stopped on the movie "Road Trip" at the exact moment the van or w/e was being passed by a Superior truck. Figured it must be a sign from god. Or the devil. Still up in tge air on that one. lol

 

My dad started hauling ag (Tomatoes and Sugar Beets mainly) then graduated to gas tankers with Armour Oil Company out of Martinez CA.. in fact my dad's truck was the one that burned up in the Caldecott tunnel in the 80's. Thank the starts it was another driver who was in the wreck.. my dad has some short little legs! I ended up hauling propane loved doing that.. but the company sold out to a competitor that listed their drivers as "farm hands" and paid them like it!

 

I dropped my hazmat years ago because I didn't need it for the dollar store account I was on. I held onto the doubles and tanker endorsements for no particular reason. A few weeks ago I was looking through job adds for a flatbed job that would get me home weekly without losing too much income. I found an add for local work with doubles and tanker endorsements but no mention of hazmat. My first task at the new job will be hauling water to fill swimming pools. They also haul milk from farms to wherever it goes next. Tankers won't be all I pull but it'll be a big part of it. I'll finally get to use those endorsements that have been sitting idle for the past 9 years. I'm not sure what will be the bigger adjustment. Learning a new job or living at home full time after all these years on the road.

 

I went to work for a local oil distribution business as a package goods driver (box van), and gradually moved into the tanker side of the business. I already had the tanker endorsement from when I got my CDL, so it was an easy move. I have hauled cryo and oil products for the last 12 or 13 years, and I will stay on the tanker side until I retire. It is a perfect fit for me.