Tanker driver make big bobo

Arrrrrrr, it either goes in the ground or across the top....

 

Unfortunately I worked with a guy who has done this. The tank has to be pumped out and then they dump diesel back in the tank. The guy who did this got fired because he failed the drug test.

 

At the last safety meeting we had I remember hearing about a guy who worked for us that had a spill.

Don't ever do this....

Anyway, what happened was he didn't hook up the hose right to the ground fitting. When he pulled the lever the hose came off and he had a spill. So, he cleans up the spill and calls dispatch saying he had a little spill but got it cleaned up. He made it out to be like he spilled a gallon or two and cleaned it up.

The next day or so our customer called Corporate wondering why no one came to clean up a spill. Confused they called our terminal manager who was under the impression the spill was small and managed by the driver.

He went out to the store and found stains on the concrete where about 50-70 gallons were spilt. What did the driver do to clean it up? Took a water hose from the gas station and sprayed the fuel into a retention pond......


That cost him his job and our company a lot of money.

So never clean up fuel spills by spraying them into anything. I was surprised anyone would do that.

 

Wouldn't a spill of that amount show up as a shortage somewhere? I would think that alone would come back and bite him. We used to hose down small gasoline spills when I was on the FD, but if it was a diesel spill, of even a few gallons, it was a different story. And that was back in the '80's.

 

As soon as gasoline or diesel are mixed together the mix becomes "Transmix". It will need to be shipped back to the refinery. Transmix is any contamination that is either water or petroleum product. The station will have to have all that tank pumped dry and all the hoses and fittings the mix normally passes through. It's not a total loss because they can get some money back for the mix but not much. My company ( ARCO/BP) normally allowed or expected a driver to mix or cross dump once every 5 years. I was on the job only 2 months and dropped 3540 gallons of regular lead into a super tank. I was talked to and my probation period was kicked out another 6 months. That was my one and only. Some cross dumps the station or company needs to do nothing. Say like the driver cross dumps premium into a lesser octane gasoline. It happens all the time all over the country. The most critical part a driver must do is stop the sales of the gasoline he or she just mixed and the octane is lower than required. It's all a question about octane with gasoline . But with diesel it's a matter of destroying vehicles and can get very costly.

Here's a problems that too many people did not know about. There was this company that was pulling for us and he just came on his shift and did not check his truck very close. The back trailer was being used to store ethanol and he loaded diesel on top of it. That type of mix is not transmix according to the L.A. refineries. Since ethanol is not a petroleum product they can not separate the two. What that mix became was hazard waste. It's very expensive to dispose of that so what that company did was let the diesel separate from the ethanol and bled off what they could and sold the diesel mix to an asphalt plant.

This is perfect why the experienced gas haulers say get into your routine and don't change. Read the labels at least twice. But it happens to all of us and the ones that say they've never done it are the ones that didn't get caught. To the one poster that asked if they would miss 50 or 75 gallons. The answer is most of the time if they keep on top of there books. Years ago they did not have the computer reading devices and now I believe they must report a loss of 50 gallons or more. I know that I had some drops that the product did not all get off the truck, but I would adjust the volume when I got back at the terminal. Again years ago we didn't bother and then one station owner started raising cane about being shorted and really he was. We couldn't help the drop was on an incline. All a driver can do is tell the station to stop selling the lower octane gasoline. I would have then sign a receipt just to make sure they understand. Then report the mix as soon as you can to your boss.

 

Big don- it would show up but a shortage of 50 or so gallons won't be caught unless the person who processes the paperwork is paying very close attention. Also the computer that reads the height of the tanks can be off. I dropped 5800 gallons of gas into a store and took the paperwork in. The lady was arguing with me because the system only counted 5753 gallons. I tool her out and showed her my empty trailer, and told her there was no way I'm putting gas in my fuel tank for my diesel truck. Found out she was new and the manager told her not to worry about it unless it's a 100+ gallon difference.


Gas hauler- It was nailed in my head in training to get on a routine and don't break it. My trainer who's been hauling fuel 20+ years was awesome and I followed his exact routine. I've only had a few mishaps but nothing major.

 

Also now that I recall that night, 3 people got gas while I was unloading so that could have counted toward the shortage the lady was worried about

 

There was a many times I was bumping in the load as the people bought the product. You're right you have to have a sharp inventory accountant to catch 50 gallons.

 

Very true.

a trucking company I deliver to all the time has their own pump. It's a very small and slow pump, takes about an hour from start to finish for 7500 gallons of diesel. They shut their fuel island down while I unload to show the exact amount I deliver.

 

We all know that when diesel hits the surface it spreads. There's no way to get 50/70 gallons of fuel on the unless the driver just was in shock and didn't shut the valve off immediately. I think that it looked worst than it was because he used water to clean it up. The water just mixed in with the diesel and spread. This happened to me but I was pumping gasoline in the ground and I thought it wasn't flowing. So my dumb self pulled on the fitting that goes into to ground. Basically that stuff started shooting out! I turned off the valve and got my rags and cleaned it up. It was summer time so the gas evaporated quickly but that was the last time that I've made a stupid mistake like that.