FMCSA/DOT: It's hard to stop a moving train? What's next on the agenda?

One of the main reasons is also that the refiners no longer own the gas stations. Almost all oil companies/refiners have sold off their corporate owned gas stations. If they don't own them, they don't need trucks.

 

What people don't know is how the gasoline is branded. Just about all gasoline is the same until the company's additive is injected in the product. That's done while the truck is being loaded. It's a common occurrence for one company to buy bulk gasoline from another company. Then when the truck pulls on the loading rack separate piping carries the company's registered additive into the main piping of gasoline then into the truck. It's an extreme violation to sell another company's product under a different brand name. There has been huge fines dished out for companies cutting corners to save money selling a product that wasn't what was advertised. It's even worse than selling a lower octane grade. And believe me it's checked all the time, you just don't know who's doing it.

 

Correct ... if the station is branded BP they will have someone from BP come out to check the gas and make sure that it is actually PB gas ... there has to be that trace element and additives which uniquely identifies that gas as being BP. If it's not there the station can be shut down and a distributorship placed in dire jeapordy.

A company I know of came within a hairs breath of losing their Texaco distributorship for hauling non-branded gas and putting it in a branded station ... the fine was in excess of $10,000 dollars and they simply told them that there would not be a second chance.

 

I was a small local jobber, that hauled mostly residential heating fuels. I also had a gas station. I had a private, locally owned, jobber/distributor deliver all my product. I usually bought Phillips unbranded. Same gas as Phillips branded, but around 2-4 CPG less cost. I had my gas branded to a name I chose, so I could sell anything. People only cared what the price was, and if their cars ran well on it. I had a portable pump, and would suck the bottoms of my tanks out at least once or twice a year, checked for water daily, and always changed filters regularly. I never failed to let as many people know that they were using Phillips gas also, just at a much cheaper price.

As far as who's hauling what now. Around here the larger jobber/distributors have gone into the convenience stores and either bought the existing tanks and equipment, or installed new. The jobber hauls the product, sets the price, collects from the store, then cuts a check for the stores cut for selling the product. There aro two companies that have most of the gasoline tied up in a fairly large area here, and the price shows this. I can drive farther away from the farm, yet the price for gas is around 7-10 cents cheaper.

These tanker drivers are paid per load and per stop. No hourly pay, and no O/T. Years ago when I drove for a small jobber I was paid a certain rate per hour plus a certain rate per gallon based upon distance hauled. I did get time and a half for hourly though. This was back when the tanks had manifolds on them. I could hook up to a one drop fuel load, open all valves, and have a good rest until it sucked air.

 

That's how it is in your area. Out west it's different. I was paid hourly and anything over 10 hours was OT. Plus I was not union. There were other majors that paid hourly and all paid OT. Some still get hourly wages but some have cut out OT.

What you call a jobber is different than what we call a jobber. To us a jobber loads his truck and goes from job to job. Like construction sites that fuel their equipment. A common carrier is one that will haul anyone's product. A dedicated carrier is a company that is leased to a specific major oil company and will haul only their product. You can see these trucks by looking at the trailer and see the major's name like Chevron and then up on the door it's Daves Product Hauling. Then of course you have the majors. A major is one that drills the crude and refines it, then sales it.

The days of getting the payment from the stores are over in most places. When we carded up at the rack there would also be a money tranfer for that load. If all the product didn't get delivered and some was brought back as retain we had to go into the computer and change the invoice before we could load again.

Cities like Las Vegas that can not meet the Clean Air Act will not allow gasoline to be loaded without some type of additive. There's a generic additive that is used now that doesn't brand the gasoline. When a company makes it's gasoline by branding that additive is registered with the government. You can not use Techron additive for a BP station and the people that check are not the company employees but the state and federal government. The mixture ratio and the additive itself are patented as a Chevron product (for example) and all the companies do this.

We also had some small companies that bought product from the pipeline, used the generic additive and took it to their stores. They are almost like the majors except they don't pay as well and have no wwhere near the benefits. They only set the price of what it cost them to deliever the product. Gasoline prices are set in NY at the stock exchange. They make a couple of cents per gallon is all. Especially out west where BP is ARCO and they have had low prices for years. The money is made in the store where soda pop has a 200% mark up.

 

What I call a jobber is something we might call a jack of all trades. They would be an independent oil company, maybe AAA Oil Co. They may own convenience stores that may or may not be branded with a national brand. They also may own only the tanks at many stores. They own their own trucks and trailers. Many own straight trucks that do home delievery of fuel oil and kerosene. They also haul for the few people left that own their own store and tanks.

These companies purchase their gas off the racks, deliever to the stores where they own the tanks, and go on to the next load, which may be for their own fuel oil distribution tanks, or the lone independent that owns their tanks, or another place where that company owns the tanks.

I owned my own tanks, and straight trucks, or as some may call bobtail trucks, for home and smaller commercial delivery. I could have easily bought a transport tanker, but did not want the hassle for .25 per gallon price difference.

 

we all need to stand up and say it not just a few more changes is on the way and in some chases it's alraedy here. we need more than the oodai and ibt to stand we all need to stand together but as long as big companys care more for there bottom line and hire student that don't know better so now we will have a hard time making it work. the goverment knows this as well so thay well keep it up unteil we all stand up as one not just an organiztion of 2

 

Stranger, I worked for a jobber for 15 years basically hauling gas from the terminals to his convenience stores. About once a week I would carry a load of empty drums up the Philly to drop them off at the drum depository and then jump across the Walt Whitman bridge and pick up a load of whatever he needed at the Mobil refinery in Paulsboro NJ. He also had a bulk plant that he used to store gas and fuel which he sold for home heating oil and various other purposes. He also had accounts with large industries to supply them with fuel, gas, cutting oils, gamma, omnicrom, oil dry etc, etc, etc. He would also sell gas to the telephone company and drop it in their tanks for use by their company vehicles. He also helped new entrepreneurs who wanted to get into the business set up their stations and would supply and set up their tanks for them ... he had 5 transport rigs and 8 short trucks for local deliveries as well as backhoes for digging out and installing tanks and several fully stocked utility vehicles which would help wherever they were needed ... that is what I refer to as an oil jobber ... I guess we have a slightly different defination of that constitutes an oil jobber than they do out west.

Gas Hauler ... all the meters at the terminals out here have USDA seals on them, but I think that is simply for calibration purposes ... is it the same out west. Also, I was always under the assumption that USDA did octane checking at the stations ... but it was an employee of one of the majors that did the checking for branded gas at the stations ... am I wrong in that assumption??

 

Gashauling is a very regional gig. There are no majors in my area running trucks, we dont even pull under those exchanges except for mobile, and when a customer ask me what kind of gas I'm droppin and add branded or unbranded in with my answer they would be clueless as to what I meant.
We are all hourly paid with overtime and if you make under 52 thats your own fault. Trainees are with someone a minimum of 6 weeks.
The companies that are big in stations in this area like cicle k,kroger,7-11,speedway, why would they sign a contract for branded just to have to pay a higher price.
Pilot is the lowest paid here,pct is owned by kag and theirs nothing wrong with new drivers as long as they had a good trainer.
We have drivers dedicated to the TA,petro.cickle k,krogers, then we have general haulers. These are people that do anything and everything cause they proven that they wont mess it up.
We dont just haul gas here,I'll haul any thing that can be put in a tanker,thats the nice thing about working for a common carrier,i can learn different things and if need be take that experience somewhere else.