I AGREE

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"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

Well, look at this way. If you wreck you won't live long enough to be embarrassed about it.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Yes, I suppose there is that little comfort. LOL!! But, as only the good die young, I'd live through it. I'm so bad I'm going to live forever. HAHAHA (evil laugh)!!!!

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketsup.


Somewhere there is an energy leak.

It's a dog eat dog food world.

Well that's not true. I've worked for ARCO for many years now and my father started there in 1954 when it was Richfield. In all that time there are only 2 drivers for the company that I know of that lost their lives. I would know since my father worked himself up from driver to safety engineer and he would tell me of all the accidents. Sure there's been plenty of rollovers and other accidents with some major injuries but only two fatalities and both of them were not the drivers fault.

One major reason is the design of the trucks. Next time you see a gasoline tanker take a look and see how the're oval and not round. The main reason for this is when the tank rolls on it's side they have a harder time of rupturing. Just like when you drop an egg on it's end. Also the driver wants to always keep the tanks as safe as possible. You either have the tanks vapor rich or product rich. That means you don't let any air into the tank to make an explosive atmosphere. There are compartments on the tank that are sealed from each other so there's hardly any surge on the truck. Unloading is where the most hazards are, because of the public and I could go on with many stories about stupid moves people make, and there again you have to take extra precautions.

You have to always remember what's behind you and drive a little different. My company has had good driver trainers for years and since 1993 or so they brought in the Smith System. We use this system everyday and talk about it once a month at our safety meetings. One thing that has helped is the company pays us very well for safe driving and it could be as much $4000 extra a year. Another is we are paid by the hour so there's no sense in getting into a hurry.

I'm no expert on gasoline hauling but I have been trained by whom I consider pros. Some of the drivers have 30 years of safe driving and their reputations are on the line just like mine was. Like someone else here has said, the name of the company is all over the truck and it's like a moving advertisement. People like to call the company and complain that one of our trucks was on the surface streets and going way too fast. I've had three calls myself and my clockchart proved every time I was driving below the speed limit. It's just when the public sees 85' of truck and trailer and it's bouncing making noise (because it's empty) they think it's going too fast.

I hoped this helped. However, there are bad companies and bad drivers no matter where you go. The key is to pull togther and correct the problems so YOUR job is easier. If we saw a driver that was unsafe we would confront him togther and if it was a driver from another company pulling our product we would get him locked out from out loading racks.

I'm retired now and this has been the best driving job I could ever wish for. But that was due to a company that trusted their drivers and treated us as assests. When it came to safety the driver had the last word if the truck was safe to drive. I never saw a driver get into trouble if he took a truck to the shop and had to give a load or two away.

I guess you drive an electirc car then. What do you think in in the tank under your butt

I drive a car that uses gas. I'm talking about pulling a tank fully loaded (less the outage) of gas or other flammables/explosives. I do realize that my car can blow up quite easily if hit right. Pulling a tank loaded with flammables has a bit higher of a risk of MASSIVE BOOM and serious devastation than a car with a 20 gallon tank under it though.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketsup.


Somewhere there is an energy leak.

It's a dog eat dog food world.

YOU got that right!
My hubby hauls alot of HazMat and you can't help but do some thinking in that area!

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The Truckers Report Merchandise

I'm sorry but you're going to have to show me where one gasoline tanker has gone "Boom". I can show you where many have caught fire but a MASSIVE BOOM is something the news people report.

Oh never mind. It's figuratively speaking. Having never been a person who was bent on destruction, I have never "experimented" with gasoline. I never "got into" playing with fire to know anything about gasoline explosions. And having never hauled gas, flammables, or pulled a tank period, I know nothing about what can truly happen. I've seen the campfire when gas has been thrown on it, or piles of deadwood needing burned, and tossing gas on those before lighting, but I've thank God never seen a tanker in an accident other than on the news. And said tanker on news usually had flames billowing out of it, the whole thing buried in fire, people not able to get close at all. So I don't know if they really go BOOM or not. But knowing how a campfire or burnoff pile can give off a little mini whoom when lit, I would assume that if a tanker full of gas caught fire, it would be a much larger percussion. Sorry.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketsup.


Somewhere there is an energy leak.

It's a dog eat dog food world.

They don't go Boom but they do burn violently. The trick is to keep air away from the product. I just hoped by my explanation you'd have a better understanding of what happens in a fire. But that doesn't mean you should stand around and watch, in fact that blur you see is me running away!