Questions about what it's like to drive a tank

Hard to go back to bumping a dock once you pull a tank.

 

12. The stupid Chem suit....forgot about that one, lol.

 

The red chem suits aren't bad. The green pvc ones blow ###.
I agree about the safety videos. I picked up a double sulphuric load in Pocatello and half of the stupid video was interpreting the plant emergency siren blasts and their different meanings. By the 5th blast, I stuck my head back into the security office and told them that I wasn't watching anymore of it and that if I heard that thing go off once, I was just going to run like he'll.

Some of those stupid things are 45 minutes long and cover crap that we have nothing to do with. I don't need to hear a sales pitch on how big and bad the company is. I really don't care that the plant was on line in 1978. I don't care that the plant has been passed down from family member to family member. I don't care how the company is proud to be a leading player in the chemical market. And I can promise you that I'm not just going to drive around your facility, find one of your employees, knock him off his forklift, steal it, and go tearing around the joint.
Where the he'll is my tank or loading arm and can I please get loaded, unloaded.

I need to know where my tank is and is it the right tank? , my valves, level sensor?can the product fit, where the safety shower is(if hazmat) and any special instructions and where the he'll is the bathroom?

If I'm loading, what bay do I need? Are you putting the right product in? Do we both agree on the amount? Where the he'll is the bathroom?

Mines are the biggest PITA imo. The last place I went to i, nevada, you needed to know 4 different codes(that nobody knew, but the driver I was covering for, who wouldn't answer his phone) to even get a scale weight.

 

I seen a bunch of females working the oil fields of North Dakota pulling tankers. Nice thing about pulling a tanker is you can unload and load yourself without any supervision under most circumstances

 

Hmmm,

With a real truck your always heavy on the drives, tank washs suck . And I really hate Dow in Freeport TX.

 

I've been pulling tanks and end dumps the entire time I've been driving. Well, 3 weeks of flatbed, but other than that been nothing but tanks and end dumps. Anyway where I was going with this, i had close to zero experience when I started pulling them, and I don't have a hazmat or a TWIC....

 

Dow chemical, offloading no problems
Getting loaded there have been 4-5 hrs. Waits.
Safety videos I try telling them I've been here before
And that worked once.
Great thing about the tanker biz. Plenty of help if ever needed from other drivers.
Actually had a Scheinder driver show me the ropes at a safety clean/clean harbors, a place where QC sent me when I first started tankers.