Tanker endorsement

I had to renew my license yesterday so I decided to add a tank endorsement. I did not read or study anything other than taking one free practice test online. Literally spent less than fifteen minutes preparing. The test was 20 questions and you had to get 16 right. I got 19 right. It was so easy it is kind of a joke and borderline scary. Yay me I have a tank endorsement now but I haven’t a clue what I would really need to know to pull one.

The only reason I added it other than why not was I may need to haul some water around to wet down the ground at construction sites.

 

Drag one around and youll get how to shift with the surge. As long as the tank is baffled its not that bad just gotta be careful with speed and curves

 

Get the tanker endorsement, then tanker companies take it from there with training.
The endorsement test is meant to get you in the door for further training.

 

The problem with that is I don’t drive for anyone. I own my own truck and mainly just haul my own things around.

 

No one on their right mind would pull something they're not trained for without getting the appropriate training first. Your call to make.

 

My tanker training consisted of a 15 minute drive to downtown Grand Rapids to put me through my paces through the famous S-Curve.

Than a quick short exit ramp and up a 12 percent grade to catch a stoplight at the middle apex of the hill.


Than a left turn onto Chicago drive to climb up that hill while dealing with heavy traffic.

Meanwhile my company instructor is telling me a hilarious story from his old Florida Living days.

Baptism by Fire.

Not only was it my first tank it was my first loaded trailer ever being I was fresh out of school

Instructor brought me back to the office and told the boss my shifts suck but I have the general idea and to set me up on local deliveries for the next week

 

Any tanker company that does not throughly train their drivers for the different types of tanks they will be driving is setting themselves up for one helluva law suit.

 

I didn’t receive any type of training to drive my truck in the first place. Read the manual in one night and took all the written tests the next morning. Rented a truck to take the driving test in. I had never even sat in one prior to the day I took the test. Passed it all first go round and bought a truck the week after I got my license. That was five years ago and no issues so far.

 

I didn't receive any tanker training either. I used YouTube to figure out how to make sure top hatch and rear port were open or secure.

To be fair we are a no touch operation, but I have had some customers say that they are not allowed to climb on the tank so I had to open/close the top.

 

I just added mine like a month ago. Started at Indian River this week and my training consisted of a 15 min drive around town. Got my first load today. I'll just say it's been interesting.