The pros & cons of fuel hauling?

Waiting in line at the rack sucks if you're getting paid by the load instead of by the hour.

If you think 4-wheelers are stupid on the road, they're 10X worse in the gas station parking lot.

Some of the terminal operators at the rack are cool, but there are a few who are major AHs.

And as @Cat sdp said, the rates suck.

 

If you as a driver are new to fuel hauling and/or new to the fuel fleet in question -- it's very likely that you will start out hauling fuel on nights, weekends...& holidays.

This work schedule will likely be yours until someone with more seniority quits...or dies.

Said work schedule will likely get pretty stale, eventually -- especially if you have family, &/or want any sort of normal life away from work.

Be sure in the interview process: ask your superiors if they are OK with you staying home -- if the weather forecast for your next work shift is particularly bad (remember: you will be hauling fuel -- AT NITE).

Then get their response(s) in writing -- for later use.

-- L

 

Fuel companies all started out using a captive owned fleet that was customized to give them the maximum payload possible.

Light 'utility line' daycabs with only one fuel tank [and in the air-starter days; ONE battery] and trailers without landing gear and anything else not expressly needed to move the product.

Then along came Deregulation and those pesky slip seat Union drivers were getting too pricey so the 80's saw a ton of incoming carriers who had to deliver a price less than the other guy while trying to make a profit providing a service that was already sliced down to the bone.

No more hourly drivers; the [at that time] newly reconstructed vapor recovering bottom loading racks increased efficiency over top-loading.

New Jersey started vapor recovery Jan 1, 1977 and the racks were already setting up vapor/bottom loading by then.

Now the growth of suburbia and gas N go convenience stores the amount of fueling facilities has skyrocketed making the 70's wonder of bottom loading 1500 gal a minute seem antiquated because the racks didn't grow along with the rest of the infrastructure supporting today's world.

Now add the shift/weekend work and all the aforementioned 'quirks' of delivery and you might just feel like the overseer is riding in the buddy seat whipping away.......

 

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Con: sometimes landscaping sprinklers will come on the exact moment you pull your levers

 

I can empathize with that. Cryo work is way easier/cleaner/more fun but are few and far between compared to fuel jobs which are everywhere.

I'll even admit that I would love to go back to fuel hauling if I could get a certain job. I'm actually working on it, just not sure they will want to hire a 70 year old that lives where I do.

 

If I lived down where you do, I’d be at All States in a heartbeat

 

Exactly this