Physical reality of tanker driving?

As long as you're doing gravity drops into underground tanks (as opposed to pumping into above-ground tanks) the hoses won't be terribly heavy, but do keep your diesel hose as short as possible. Also, using your buckets to prop the hose up off the ground will help it drain more fully before you have to walk it out.

I strongly recommend you purchase a manhole cover hook so that you won't have to bend over to remove and replace the heavy metal lids on the fill buckets. Unfortunately I don't know of any way to avoid bending over to remove and replace the fill pipe caps, although they don't weigh anything so you won't have to apply any force to them.

 

All of those happened every time I delivered to Ishpeming MI.. Some woman who I had to practically jump on her hood to stop her from running over the delivery hoses was the highlight

 

“What’s the big deal? I run over my water hose everyday!”

 

I've been hauling fuel for 6 or 7 years now and it is one of the least physically demanding jobs as far as trucking goes. The hoses are usually of no concern, there are tricks to loading and unloading them off your hose tray that make it so simple you can do it with minimal effort. A hose that's full of product can get pretty heavy, and usually you will have to walk the hose out to make sure all the product is out, but there are even tricks to make that easier. I would say the biggest issue would be connecting at the loading racks. Some of the product arms that you use to load can be pretty stubborn to move, I don't know how difficult it would be with a bad back, but I know locally we have women drivers that are doing it so I don't think it's anything crazy.

I would say also, ask how many stops the drivers average per day. If you are running 6-7 local loads a shift it might cause more back issues compared to driving a couple long loads per shift.

Also in my area speedway is one of the better companies. Nice equipment and top pay, but they are very strict with safety.

 

Tankers with pups is something out West, not sure if it exists anywhere east of I-35. Also, out West they have 53 foot tankers and gross weight can be 109k if you have enough axles. East of I-35 tankers are usually 45-48 ft exclusively.

Fuel hoses are often 2 or 3 inch "corrugated" hoses which are lighter than the 2 or 3 inch chemical hoses. The "corrugated" fuel hoses are not heavy and you never have to lift more than a couple of feet at a time to put it into the carrying tray or take it out of the tray or hose carrier. I dealt exclusively with 2 & 3 inch chemical hoses which are pretty heavy but proper technique will save your back. My back was not in good shape when I started HazMat tanker and did it for 3 years.

Fuel delivery requires you to lift only SECTIONS of your hoses to push the fuel inside toward the pump or the customer tank. It's called walking your hoses. I guess it depends on how much back pain you have. Just driving a truck will wreck your back if you never injure it.

 

Have you considered cryogenic carriers like Linde and Praxair, since you already have tanker experience I heard it pays well and no physical labor on the body?

 

I felt hazmat tanker was one of the least physical demanding jobs I had in trucking other than a dedicated drop and hook job, which was only physically demanding if I dropped a trailer or had to connect to a trailer left by a clueless OTR driver that ALWAYS drops his trailer with the landing gear too high.