How to get started with oversize/ specialized hauling?

Cash is king..

 

markvfl, Well I don't and won't trk. in Thailand.
My trk. won't even fit in the driveway at the house in Thailand.

 

This is how I did it:

Trained with a big training carrier pulling dry van. Got off the big raod and wanted something local, so I applied as an oiler/ counterweight hauler with a local crane company for like $9.00 an hr. They had little cranes and huge crawlers as well. After I proved I wasnt gonna kill anyone with my stupid driving, they let me pull overweight permit loads on a lowboy (heavy counterweights but not overdimensional) and finally I got to start pulling the "house" part of the big crawler cranes. Once I did that for about a year, I applied at a local heavy hauler and got the job pulling his brand new 3 axle lowboy with a pivot stinger(Mack Superliner as my assigned truck). I pulled it with a blanket permit for 12' and 146,000 pounds all over Florida for 25% of the load. That experience got me a job at Keen Transport, and just started to get to haul big stuff, when I went to help my dad with his company. I miss heavy haul and I will be back to it one day.

 

Be sure to read and follow you permits, if you don't

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10292/1096426-100.stm

 

Hi outerspacehillbilly, No you may not be. I just do not do in house finacing. haha
But I do know a money broker..

Old man , you are correct. One does need to read and follow the permits. I've goofed a few times. Been lucky and no fines or damage. Knock on wood

 

If you want to go tankers I recommend hauling gasoline. There's many reasons but the most important one is that market will not go away for many years to come. Once you get certified then you're in demand if the jobs are open. Of course you'll still have the competition from other drivers getting to the best jobs but those jobs are well worth the challenge.

You can find the jobs where the trucks go. Alot of times they have their terminals close or at the tank farm. You can find where the gasoline comes from just by searching you area for the white tanks. I doubt you'd be able to drive into the farm but you can get information at the gate or from a driver on some of the companies. They all have to load somewhere. Most of the time it will be away from town but not too far. If you have a river or waterport near by then that would be a good place to look.

Out west we have three types of companies. 1. the common carrier, 2. the dedicated carrier, and 3. the majors. The common carrier will haul any load for any company. They are the ones where most new drivers start so you can be sure they pay the least. The dedicated carrieris setup to haul for one company. You might have a dedicated truck within a common carrier but those jobs pay better. Then you have the majors. Those are the companies that refine their own product and have their own fleet of trucks to haul to their own stations. It's the big leagues if you get here. The pay is the best and if you invest in yourself with the company you can retire a millionaire after 20 or so years. I've seen it done many times.

You can identify who's who by looking at the trucks. Do not go by what the trailer say. A dedicated carrier will have Chevron on the tank but the truck is not owned by Chevron. You can find out what company is running that truck by looking at the cab door. Every company is required to list their name and other info on the cab door so that is where you'll look. It's a little tricky because the majors will list their headquarters so out west if you see a Chevron truck it will say Chevron on the tanks and up on the door it will say Chevron Corp. San Francisco CA. so you need to know where they load.

If you've got a clean record then you have what they need. Shop around like you would any other job and talk to the drivers. Try to find out where they stop for coffee and buy them a cup. They'll tell you where to go and where not to go. Just about all the trucks will be local or turn-arounds. Some may have sleepers it all depends on your area. Out of Las Vegas NV we had a few trucks that came from Utah to load
and they would turn-around deliver the load and then go home. The next day they would come for another load.

Gasoline is dangerous but you train so you know the hazards. You'll know what to do and what not to do. A few people think the trucks are bombs and they couldn't be more wrong. Sure they will burn and burn violently if you mix air with the product. So that's why you keep your tanks either vapor rich or product rich. I'm just telling you this so you'll have a better idea if you go for the work.

I haven't seen many drivers quit gasoline and go elsewhere. Most enjoy the work and it's nice to get paid for all your time on the job. There's really no heavy lifting if you roll your hoses right. I got my routine down to off load 12,450 gallons in 20 minutes at almost all our stations. Most trucks are gravity off-load but some do have pumps that they used to pumps the tanks in the ground or to pump the product to an above-ground tank. If you do get to tankers you'll learn that truck inside out. You do that because you are the only one that loads and unloads the truck until another shift comes on. There's some shifts that are gravy. We have one in CA that all the truck does is haul Jet-A to the airport. The drivers does around 10 loads a day in 12 hours then goes home.

There are drawbacks with gasoline just like any other job. That type of business runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We worked 4 10 hour days a week and the shifts ( 6am to 4pm or 6pm to 4am) ran around the clock. So you may get stuck working nights and weekends it just depends how it's set-up. We had night pay which was a dollar more per hour. I ended up working days Sun to Wed. I liked that because of the holidays. Good luck and the good jobs are there to get but you've got to go get them.

 

Construction companies almost always have low-boy RGN traffic and minimal experience requirements. ATS, Keen, Diamond, Guy Turner, and other bigger heavy haul companies expect experience or train you step by step. ATS has a number of divisions allowing for a step by step approach. Diamond specializes in monster loads and hires experienced drivers.

Mobile home movers are another area of oversize transport but without the weight issues. Since the mobile home movers usually have set-up crews that go with them, doing set-up work can be a back door.

Keep in mind that the standardized rules in all states DO NOT apply to oversize/ overweight traffic. Every state may have different regulations and it can be a pain if you're hauling on 7 axles or 19. Sign your permit with RED ink for Alabama, but blue for Georgia. Each axle is good for 25,000 in Georgia but 20,000 in Missouri and tennessee. Axle spacing varies, a quad trailer in Georgia gets 100,000 on the quad but only 60,000 in NC and 68,000 in Florida. Colorado may try to collect taxes on machines used in Colorado. Some states allow night travel, most do not. Escort requirements vary greatly, too. California requires an escort if you're over 100' long, Nevada 105', Utah 90', Wyoming 150' on 4 lane but 110' on secondary.

Good luck,.......