Indian River

First of all like we stated, tanker business is much different than anything else when it comes to deadheading like that… When he dead headed, I’m pretty certain that the customer was in badly need of tanks and probably pay them to deadhead that far… You just might wanna stop acting like a know it all… Like I mentioned in my post, I had deadheaded 2400 miles from Oregon back to Texas because they had no freight up there. That would cover the cost of an expensive chemical tank wash out so my company it was cheaper to deadhead back to Texas and get the tank clean down there… Until you’ve pulled a tanker, I would stop acting like you know it all…

 

All I can say is I don't work logistics, and it may not seem beneficial for that length of deadhead, but I'm surely thankful they are willing to do so instead of me sitting.

 

I guess you (or the company) got lucky. I was there 2 weeks ago and had to show my scan code to get in.

 

I have heard (you know how driver rumor is) that IRT rates account for a deadhead return.

I do know that they don't hesitate to bring me back to my home terminal to be available for another load.

 

Most of our loads are from dedicated customers. I seriously doubt that they are getting anything from load boards. We do run some broker loads, but only for specific products and only from specific locations.

Basically, it's a lot more specialized than dry van or reefer freight where "if it fits, it ships". Some customers are very particular about the type of tank, the type of wash used to clean it and the products that were previously loaded on the tank. Some places want to know the previous three products and if they don't like any of those three, they reject the tank and refuse to load it. That could be as much as a grand down the drain when you add up the fuel, driver pay and cost of the tank wash to bring that tank to the customer.

In short, you don't just load whatever you can find thinking you are going to avoid the cost of deadheading.

 

Shipper probably paid the deadhead. I use to haul Christmas trees out of Oregon. The shipper would pay up to a 1800 mile deadhead to pick them up in Oregon

 

So today's fun includes loading at a indoor facility, so it's already gonna be a hot couple hours since we can't run the trucks right? No big deal. Here at the 4 hour mark I noticed my suspension load gauge going down..... Popped out of the truck to see if everything is okay. Nope, once i was fully loaded someone accidentally dropped a filter screen into the tank (didn't think there was a way for it to fall into the tank). Of course it sunk to the bottom and now we are unloading to get it out and gonna reload.

Hope everyone running out there today is having a better day than us.