First day on my own and I cross dropped.

Discussion in 'Tanker, Bulk and Dump Trucking Forum' started by mud23609, Jan 26, 2018.

  1. istumped

    istumped Medium Load Member

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    How long ago was this?
     
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  3. Drake.r

    Drake.r Light Load Member

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    Never a question of if you’ll mess up just a question of when and how much it’ll cost to fix
    We’re all human I’ve been at it over 23 years and I’ve seen a lot of mistakes and I’ve made my own
     
    Woodys Thanks this.
  4. Woodys

    Woodys Heavy Load Member

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    Well at least you know what happens when you goof up, and that the world is not going to fall apart! You definitely have to watch out though. The majority of terminations at our company are due to cross drops. We had a veteran driver get canned the other week for doing the same thing you did, except it was red dyed diesel into a ULSD tank. He was suppose to load ULSD and instead accidentally loaded dyed diesel, he didn't check his bills when he left and did not notice until he had the customer sign and he had already delivered. He also had a previous cross drop about 6 months prior which was ULSD into a gas tank. Company felt he was getting too complacent so they canned him. I'm sure he had another job driving someone else's fuel truck within days, but he lost his years of experience pay from getting too complacent.

    Mistakes happen, we are all human. However mistakes involving gasoline can be a real pain and can get you in a lot of trouble real fast. We've had drivers shut down entire blocks of a city due to making a major spill, usually because of something stupid like forgetting to attach one side of the hose because they were in a rush. Just keep your head on and try not to get complacent when loading/unloading.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2018
  5. jamin22

    jamin22 Light Load Member

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    I’m coming up on 8 years hauling gas. Approximately 700 loads per year. Never had a product minute yet. Knock on wood.
     
    roadranger550 Thanks this.
  6. lilillill

    lilillill Sarcasm... it's not just for breakfast

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    Probably a month ago.
     
  7. roadranger550

    roadranger550 Light Load Member

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    Glad I dont haul fuel anymore. Back then we had three grades of gasoline,all with MTBE and then Ethanol. Diesel fuel became clear for on road use; red for off-road use and BLUE for high or "regular" sulfur diesel for locomotive and fixed engine diesels, usually water pump engines!
     
  8. mud23609

    mud23609 Medium Load Member

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    One of the guys who trained me was working with another new guy yesterday and did the same thing. Dropped a 2500 gallons of number 1 dyed on top of 4000 gallons of number one clear. The only other guy that has seen how the pump off process works besides me was out sick so I got the call to go clean that one up when they discovered it this morning.

    He made some of the same mistakes I made. Loaded the wrong product, didn't double check the bills before pulling the handle and in addition to that failed to notice the red dye when the product was dropping. He also didn't catch it when he was still on site like I did. He's still got a job as well but management is obviously not happy. Add in that one of our drivers got tagged for doing 67 in a 60 on Tuesday and its been a pretty bad 7 days for our terminal. I suspect some changes to the way we do things will be coming after all of the dust settles which if done right might be a good thing. Our shop is pretty small but could be a great place to work if a few things get ironed out without stifling us with micro management. With only one real experienced guy on driving and a whole brand new office crew in the last six months there is some real room for improvement.

    I had my sit down with the bosses yesterday. Went better than I expected. I made no excuses. It was all on me and I said as much. I was able lay out each step that I made a mistake on and each time I should have caught the mistake. They seemed to be reasonably impressed that I had put as much thought into it as I did, but then again why wouldn't I? I made a pretty big mistake and if nothing else I wanted to learn from it.

    Tomorrow its back to the station I did my cross drop at with 6500 of 87 E10 and 1500 of 91 recreational gas and you had better believe I will be on my A game when I load this load and drop it.
     
    Slim51 and Woodys Thank this.
  9. Cali kid

    Cali kid Road Train Member

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    Come on rookie on the first day! I'll tell you this SLOW DOWN, guys always want to go faster. Speed will come in time right now you are just getting your feet wet. The killer when I hauled fuel was cross dumps and dome outs, guys moving too fast or talking too much on the rack. Then they would get to the station and make a snake pit of hoses trying to get the product off, bam wrong hose to the wrong compartment. You have to get your routine down pat, I was very fortunate to have an awesome 30+yr trainer who worked for the majors when I came in, best of the best. Best of luck to you driver.
     
    Drivin' Ryan Thanks this.
  10. mud23609

    mud23609 Medium Load Member

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    Wont have to worry about cross dropping anymore. I took a pay cut and increased my hours worked to go to the fuel hauling job for the main reason that I was promised a day shift only job. They told me last Wednesday that I would be going to nights.

    They were right in a way. What they forgot to take into account was I was willing to take a pay cut to work days, but not to work nights. One phone call was all it took to get my old line haul job back. If I am going to work nights I'm sure not going to take a pay cut and work more hours to do it.
     
    Western flyer Thanks this.
  11. istumped

    istumped Medium Load Member

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    What company was this?
     
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