Indian River

Lately I've been starting to consider moving over to IRT. I've got many years of tanker experience hauling petroleum but have never hauled food-grade commodities. What kind of training and certifications would I need before they'd let me go on my own? I'm definitely not scared of hazmat or pumping, btw.

 

What’s the training program like @Nashville??? Also, what’s the skills test like?

 

You'd be handed keys to a truck after orientation for anyone that has over a year. They do have you do a driving test. Unless you are looking to go pump division and need that training. With you having experience in both I'm sure they would just answer any questions they may have. Tanker endorsement is the only endorsement or certification. They prefer you have you twic, hazmat and passport, but not a requirement.

Feel free to verify with a recruiter as well. My experience may differ from others.

 

I went to orientation then flew to where my trainer was and ready to pick up our first load. I told him I wanted to do any and all of the work so I knew exactly what was going to be expected of me when I was out on my own. Drove every minute of our training until I hit my 60 hours with him.

I came from dry van with 0 experience with with a tanker at all. My trainer went over all the differences from how we are loaded, to seals, to tank washes, how to shift manually and tank surge, to how the dog tracking was completely different than running dry van. I never ran the mountains and grades ( I ran everything Midwest to east coast with the occasional Colorado) he really got me comfortable with the tank surge not only front to back but side to side through the mountains. Even backing became a new challenge as I wasn't used to that surge while concentrating on squaring up in a hole. For my training we went up through Montana, to Washington state. Deadheaded down to California loaded up there and dropped in Florida. I was past my needed 60 hour training at that point so waited a day did my 2nd driver test with safety.
Walking through your pretrip as you would do on your own . Not a test like your walking through to get your CDL. If your actually doing your pretrip every morning you have a "routine"
Hook up to a loaded tank. Pull around to a to a space that coned off. Setup for a 45° essentially back in withing a foot or so from the rear cone. Pull out of the terminal and head right. (A blind left so you'll have to pull out a bit) you'll do some highway speed routes to pull onto a road that is putting you in a 45° turn then into a parking lot maneuver essentially a U-turn and back to the terminal. Asked if I could oneshot it into the space and not hit the rear cone. I did, then he had me pull out and drop the tank across the lot and park the truck. Passed everything and waiting for my truck to run through service and cleaning and handed the keys. I hung out in the drivers lounge and spoke with other drivers to get their feel with the company.

 

Who was your trainer ? Nashville

 

Ian

 

Training pay for those coming out of school is indeed $150 a day per the recruiter I’ve been speaking to.

 

That back at the Memphis Turner Dairy..... something completely new for me

 

I just looked it up and man that turn looks super tight