Tankers the Schneider way

Can you share with us what the main reasons for the wash outs? I am interested in tankers and it may be helpful to know the pitfalls. Thanks! and good luck with the rest of training!

 

THIS is actually a really good question!

 

well first two were the physical, nothing too hard, lift some crates show how hard you can pull and push walk on a balance beam, the first guy to go was over 60 congestive hard failure, sleep apnea, well over weight, we all saw that one coming, good guy but just not in good health. second was a young chick also much over weight and couldnt lift a 50 pound milk crate past her waist. after that we lost 2 because they took their cdl test in automatics and couldnt drive a stick. another one couldnt past the written tests which is just wow. common sense and they tell you the answers in class. lost another one because he didnt like being on top of the tanks. two more drummed out for not being good enough drivers.

you get here on tuesday, your first day is wednesday, so wed and thursday your in class doing paperwork and the physical listening to talks and speeches, friday you get assigned a trailer and you pull a tanker loaded about 70 percent with glycol. boy is that a steep learning curve if your just out of school, lots of BIG hills around the school but the instructors are top notch, you show improvement every day and you have a good go get it attitude and they will walk you thru the trial by fire. we started with almost 20 applicants were down to 10 i think

if your interested in tanker with schneider, learn to skip shift, learn bump and run, learn about surge, be sure you can stand on a narrow catwalk almost 13 feet off the ground and be able to get down and work the fittings on top, it is tough hard work and you sweat your ### off. and if youve never driven with liquid surge well....it takes a different breed of "trucker" you always feel it. we had a guy driving our biggest single compartment smooth bore Big George el gorge grande( forgive my spelling lol ) he stopped too hard going downhill in the yard and the surge literally pushed the truck forward about a foot or two lol

 

just made it thru the last day of driving tests all went good, going into loading/unloading training tomorrow and looks like ill be hitting the road with a trainer on monday
woot woot

 

Simplest answer is that a washout cleans the inside of the tank so that you don't contaminate the next product hauled with the previous one hauled. Each product leaves, at the minimum, some kind of residue on the inside walls of the tank.

 

Thanks. I should have used a different word. My newbie mistake.... I was asking newkytrucker about the people that 'washed out' of his training class. LOL. He said the herd thins out fast and I was just curious of the reasons for the people leaving training.

 

The reasons for leaving are many. Some fail the physical, some can't drive, some have bad attitudes and some leave on their own accord. There are other reasons but those are the main ones.

 

Amazing how the two words are the same but have two different meanings, especially since we're talking about tankers...too funny!

 

and what about those placarded loads?

 

Man I can't wait to be there myself.

I just finished cdl school. Got my tanker and doubles/triples and twic. Sent in my hazmat fingerprints last Thursday. Had my phone interview but that's all they'll do for now until my hazmat comes back..Sitting here bored, reading up here in Houston..