Milk Hauling

Hi HS, the downside is milk doesn't pay as much as a HazMat deal, from what I remember, the up side is it doesn't go KABLOOEY. Milk tankers are smooth bore, no baffles, so they are a little trickier than a baffled tank. Farm pick-up is a challenge, but a transfer station or to a plant is a pretty gravy job. Wash outs can be a hassle, unless it's done where you deliver. Pretty steady work, people love their milk. (not me, however) Oh, one more thing, once you do a tanker, you'll probably never want to do anything else.

 

I live in Milwaukee, but am moving to N.Wis. this year. Tanker is just a sweet job. There's none of the BS with other types of trucking. You don't see a lot of tanker jobs open up, as the drivers don't quit very often. Ever wonder why tanker trucks are so shiny? You connect the hose, open the top (DON'T FORGET TO OPEN THE TOP) open the valve, get the polish out and start waxing.

 

Yeah, done it all, but oddly enough, never actually hauled milk but had friends that did, and someone in my family had a milk hauling business for many years. I hauled one load of gas in my life, didn't care for that, hauled liquid crap for a while, stinky job, but drove a new Pete. I'm the paranoid type, so anything hazardous freaks me out, so if I did it again, I'd go with milk. Most of my trucking was van, reefer and dump work. Tanker was ,by far, the best.

 

Well, depends what you mean by "end dump". I've found different parts of the country call things different. But I did tandem, tri-axle, and trailer dumps (the kind that go up in the air) No, my driving days are over. 35 years and 2.5 million miles is enough. I still miss it, but with all the new regulations, I'm pretty much out of the loop.

 

Milk hauler here. Do you like walking around in cow feces at dairies ? Climbing on ladders and doing stick readings ?? You will drive 15% of the day and basically be a farm laborer the rest of the time. I hate hauling milk and can't wait to find something better. Go get a hazmat and do yourself a favor. This job is disgusting

 

The smooth bore tank will have a lot of liquid surge. If you are doing dairy pickup, they liquid surge will kick your arse until you get a full tank. Cream loads are nice. They take forever to load and unload. But yeah , this job is extremely dirty and you might be safer handling chemicals rather than this raw milk full of bacteria.