Pneumatics?

I've done that. The company I worked for had liquid and dry bulk pneumatic trailers.
The liquid trailers were 48 states & Canada.
The pneumatics were more regional, but lots of miles. I'm not sure about other companies such as Bulkmatic or the others.
I was out of Nashville and delivered lots of flour loads to some mill in Kansas City.
Most trailers we used are dedicated to a specified product, which means we didn't have to deal with trailer washes out on the road.
Dry pneumatic trucking is very easy and the customers, whether picking up or delivering are easy to work with.

 

1st company I worked for in Wisconsin had dump trailers and pneumatic tankers. While I did the dump stuff, the tank drivers were my fellow cohorts. Most, if not all that stuff is regional. We hauled foundry sand, maybe 150 miles at most, but just about any dry substance that can go through a hose, will be hauled. Flour, sugar, sand, plastic pellets, and not much goes very far. They are a bit tippy, even though most product is heavy and won't fill the trailer, although many do. They are hard to pull, and, they make an awful racket. Those "blowers" always freaked me out, but relatively harmless. It's a good job in that, when it comes to making anything, you are usually the 1st person in that chain, and dust protection is a must. I hauled a lot of silica sand with no protection whatsoever, until I found out it can kill you. Also, a grim note, many years ago, a company in Wis. called George Clark had a fellow not familiar with the process, decided to see "how much was left" and opened a cover while unloading, and took his head off,,,

 

Dry bulk trailers are designed to focus the expansion pressure downwards as the barrel grows when pressurized.

Like most of the entries above, they are usually regional as much of the products are shipped by rail to various locations making shorter linehauls.

Naturally there are companies that have a network and will wash and re-load units coming from other areas similar to OTR with liquids.

Product production difficulties do create the potential for true 'long haul'; I've seen product only available on the east coast causing a couple cross country shipments at 'need it now' rates.

I saw this happen at Matlack. The rate was enough that the one operator deadheaded back while the other guy called the regional offices and set up multiple loads coming home and really made bank.

Those trips are the exception that I saw only 2 or 3 times but I'm close to 20 years since I was involved in dry bulk.

The Quantix company after absorbing A&R could have an extensive network by now.

 

I had a boss describe how he reached up with his hammer to tap shut a partially open ear on a 6" cap on the rear loading pipe on a bulker under pressure. It just missed his head and was found 1/2 mile away.

At Matlack we taught drivers that 1 pound of pressure = 100 pounds of force on a released cap/lid.

I've witnessed the aftermath delivering a mechanic to return the rig after washing the blood off the sides as I went on to pick up the driver at the hospital.

Never mess with a pressurized vessel of hose!

 

Pneumatics are mostly local/regional.

It's mostly commodities that get hauled from a production plant or a rail-supplied remote terminal to the end user. Flour goes to bakeries, cement goes to ready-mix plants, lime goes to construction sites, plastic goes to injection molding plants, frac sand goes to well sites in the oilfield, etc.

 

Barite, Hematite, and Bentonite (Oilfield) is what I hauled in pneumatics in the 1990's....Eating chicken one week & feather's the next week. Loads were usually less than 250 miles one way.